New seat cover fabrication

[Guest]

So my seat needs some serious recovering as illustrated... here



So I thought I'd let you guys in on my plan for how to do it. I know the standard route is to purchase a new cover online for around $80 but the fabric store near my house is closing down and they are having awesome sales.
So I go to my local FabricLand and what do I see? I'll tell you what i see... Its this.



Faux snakeskin! Regular price on the thing is 45 smackers for a meter!!! I got a meter for 15. So my plan is to take it to a furniture reupholsterer and see if i can get them in on my little project. I only intend to recover the top of the seat and leave it 2-tone snakeskin and black.

What do you guys think?

[Steve]

What do you guys think?

I think that on the right bike, that would look rather sharp.

Note, however, that "right bike" would not be mine.
(I do not own, nor do I plan to own, any bike on which a red seat cover would look good. )

We will, of course, be requiring pictures when it's done.

.

[Adler]

To do the job right I reeeaally should be fabricating a fibreglass seat pan to go with it... but I dont think im ready for fibreglass yet... also I have no idea how i would get the welded bolts from the current (rusted through) seat pan over to the fibreglass.

[Skateguy50]

Probably not that hard considering my "welded" bolts have long since been attached with some make shift flat metal brackets bolted to a stronger part of the pan. Basically where it connects just rusted apart leaving a hole.

I would imagine with fiberglass you just bolt a bigger piece of metal to the tab then layer that into the fiberglass.

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Why not? Especially if you have other accents on the bike to match and coordinate the red seatcover. Let's see some pictures.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[spyug]

Yikes that's kinda out there isn't it. Well to each his own.

Now if you take it to an upholsterer its going to cost more than the $80 you would have spent on a cover so keep that in mind. The best bet for a proper job would be an auto upholsterer but they too will be pricey.

If you had access to a sewing machine you might be able to DYI but you would need something fairly heavy duty I'm thinking.

If there is a community college nearby they might have a fashion or design course that might have a student that could help out for some quick cash or perhaps there would be some little outfit in Chinatown that could do cheaper than some big guys.

In the long run, it might be easier just to get a cover once you figure the cost of running around to find someone to do it.

Good luck with it and keep us informed.

Cheers,
Spyug

[Adler]

Ooooo a college fashion design student!!! Now THEREs an idea! Thanks spyug

So far the rest of the bike clashes alot with this idea, but I intend to repaint the tank to some form of red along with the sidecovers, (I was thinking the calipers too, but that might be too flashy).

One thing's for sure, this will be MY bike!

[Macguyver]

Ooooo a college fashion design student!!! Now THEREs an idea!

You would need, or have access to a walking shoe serging sewing machine to do it well. A fashion design student should have access to one, and if she's cute, maybe pick up some extra material and she could make a faux snakeskin catsuit for herself! GrrrRrrow!

(pics of that would be mandatory of course!)

[Adler]

So I have taken it to 3 upholsterers and I got 3 quotes (obviously).

One said $100... maybe...
Another said $50 and they wont do the stitching on the top
last one said $250

Obviously these people make up prices on the spot.

I am going to look into ways to make the seat pan more viable, then I'll take it to the $50 guy (who seemed like a REALLY nice guy, anyways). Maybe later I'll post pics of the seat pan for ideas.

EDIT: Ok heres some images of the seat pan as it is...




Pretty bad, I know. Half the clips for the cover are cracked off... I need ideas for how to make the cover adhere to the pan. One Idea (provided by my upholstery guy) is to screw a line of wood into the inside wall, then staple the seat cover to that. Any flaws there?

[salty_monk]

The plastic pan covers are stapled on... no problems with your idea at all. I would probably varnish the wood to seal the elements out though.

Dan

[spyug]

Wood works but is prone to splitting and or rotting. I'd be thinking ABS plastic sheet maybe 5 to 7mm.

I get stuff from Plastic and Allied in Hamilton who are a distributor of plastics and associated products. There must be similar outfits in the Hog Town. You likely can get some off cuts for cheap if you ask nicely.

Thinking about it, upholsterers used to use some kind of metal strips with punched out spear point things that you hooked into the material to pull them taught and "nail" them to the chair frames. Maybe something like that may still be available and could be screwed to the pan.

I think the pan could use some TLC too and maybe a trip to a bodyman or someone with a welder might be in order first. Failing that I think a trip to Crappy Tire for some Fiberglass might be in order. Doesn't look too bad mind you, I've seen much worse.

Looks like you have an interesting project ahead of you and I'm sure it will turn out well.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it comes out.

Good luck with it.

cheers,
Spyug