A few months back I posted a thread about how the OEM seat that Suzuki still sells is not at all the color of the original. The went from that light whitey-grey to almost a battleship grey.
As well, they changed the texture of the seat from a suede-like material to a smooth vinyl.
Bummer if you were looking for an original look. to make things worse the OEM grab strap they sell IS indeed the original color.
You can see this here:
I took the new seat and strap to my seat expert here in Winnipeg and asked him if he could give the new strap with the original color a dye-job to match the new seat.
You tell me how he did:
I then had a brainstorm and asked him if he could clean up and re-dye the old seat & strap back to the original light grey.
It was quite a tall order when you see how dingy and ugly my seat was:
Well, I think he did a pretty good job:
If I'd known how nice a job it would turn out to be I probably would not have shelled out almost $550 for a new seat and strap.
My guy said it was a lot of work as he has to smooth out the rough material with a variety of sanding blocks and then using over 10 coats of dye. He said the dye he used will not run of be affected by water and there is little likelihood of any "wear-thru". He also said the masking off of the strap hardware the dark front section of the old seat added to the job.
His name is Lyle and he has a small cone man shop called Instant Vinyl Repair. He has done some great work for me in repairing cracks and splits in vinyl seats and his dye skills are awesome too s these pics will attest.
Wayne
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