Seat Cover

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Scab

I got nothin' here...
Joined
Jan 30, 2006
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Being that poverty has adopted me as the poster child for the 2 X-wives + 5 kids =$00.00 campain, it looks like new seats are not in my near future. And having never rode sitting upon a custom seat, one of the attractions is the looks. (I hate to be so superficial, but I am.) For me, the stock seat's appearance leaves a lot to be desired. The seats just do not have any "tude", as my wife would say. So I was bored this weekend and decided to make a set of covers and see if I could at least enhance the look of my stock seats. I broke out the wife's sewing machine, broke it, fixed it, and played.

Here's what happened, you be the judge.

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This is the essence of truly personalizing your ride.

Using your head instead of your wallet. Very nice

job. :)

 
Scab, you da man! My wife and I are taking our second semester upholstery class and am in the process of finishing my recliner for the house. Kings throne and all. But during this time I have been testing different foams on the FJR and when the recliner is finished I am going to finish the FJR seat. I have said we can farkle our own seats if one just puts some effort into it. Bill Mayer once said making a seat is 90% form and 10% foam. One can sculp the foam (open cell) with a simple carving knife from WalMart for $10 bucks and a disc sander to finish form. The stock foam on Yamaha seats are of poor quality and decent foam can be had for under $50 bucks to do a project. I haven't found the leather I plan to use yet but hopfully when I'm done I plan to have under a $100 in material for the FJR seat and if you use naga you will have way less than that. Have you had experience with seat covers or using the sewing machine before? And did you use leather or naga? I'm impressed.... PM. <>< :good:

 
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Er, welcome to the Design-On-A-Dime club. Where do you get your nails done? Do you prefer pumps or heels? Let's compare notes, okay Shirley? Now all we need is The Maid, Ari, to complete the Trinity.

Nice work, though. Maybe you could start a sweat shop, too. I'm sure you could con at least a hunnert bucks each for a set of those from this crowd. ;)

 
Like the looks of the seats, however I would be concerned if I rode in the rain for a couple of hours. Every hole in the seats is going to let in water and it will take forever to dry out, if it ever does.

Looks great tho, maybe you can seal the holes.

mac

 
No wonder the XX forum thinks we are sitting around with our knitting needles!

Thanks for putting that delusion to bed :p

Did someone mention Ari?

See you Sat?

 
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Scab, you da man! My wife and I are taking our second semester upholstery class and am in the process of finishing my recliner for the house. Kings throne and all. But during this time I have been testing different foams on the FJR and when the recliner is finished I am going to finish the FJR seat. I have said we can farkle our own seats if one just puts some effort into it. Bill Mayer once said making a seat is 90% form and 10% foam. One can sculp the foam (open cell) with a simple carving knife from WalMart for $10 bucks and a disc sander to finish form. The stock foam on Yamaha seats are of poor quality and decent foam can be had for under $50 bucks to do a project. I haven't found the leather I plan to use yet but hopfully when I'm done I plan to have under a $100 in material for the FJR seat and if you use naga you will have way less than that. Have you had experience with seat covers or using the sewing machine before? And did you use leather or naga? I'm impressed.... PM. <>< :good:
Have you found a source for the foam? As for the leather, try Tandy Leather. For this, I used vinyl. I glued car headliner material to the back so that when I sewed the pattern, it would be raised some. As for experience, I don't have any. Just trial and error. Mostly error. This is about my sixth attempt. Three of those have made it to bikes. This is by far my best effort.

Er, welcome to the Design-On-A-Dime club. Where do you get your nails done? Do you prefer pumps or heels? Let's compare notes, okay Shirley? Now all we need is The Maid, Ari, to complete the Trinity.
Nice work, though. Maybe you could start a sweat shop, too. I'm sure you could con at least a hunnert bucks each for a set of those from this crowd. ;)
Thanks, mang. I do my own nails. Heels. Notes are in crayon, is that okay?

Like the looks of the seats, however I would be concerned if I rode in the rain for a couple of hours. Every hole in the seats is going to let in water and it will take forever to dry out, if it ever does.
Looks great tho, maybe you can seal the holes.

mac
Sealing the holes would be easy enough. And this is an actuall cover. The factory seat is still intact underneath.

No wonder the XX forum thinks we are sitting around with our knitting needles!
Thanks for putting that delusion to bed :p

Did someone mention Ari?

See you Sat?
Knitting needles my ***. SEWING needles! ******* XX forum peeps. Sheesh.

Ready to ride.

 
Like the looks of the seats, however I would be concerned if I rode in the rain for a couple of hours. Every hole in the seats is going to let in water and it will take forever to dry out, if it ever does.
Looks great tho, maybe you can seal the holes.

mac
All the customs have similar stitching on the top of the seat. No seat is waterproof. The seat manufactures sell rain covers.

 
Have you found a source for the foam? As for the leather, try Tandy Leather. For this, I used vinyl. I glued car headliner material to the back so that when I sewed the pattern, it would be raised some. As for experience, I don't have any. Just trial and error. Mostly error. This is about my sixth attempt. Three of those have made it to bikes. This is by far my best effort.
I came across an incredible source for tempurpedic foam. In Sacramento, the "Room Source" furniture store chain has a central warehouse. Attached to this is a "Clearance Center". Many people go and buy beds and using the 90 day "return for any reason" thing that the Room Source has, they return their beds (maybe they couldn't afford a $2,300 bed???).

Anyway, they sell these 11" thick foam mattresses for $400!!! They sell the pillow top foam beds for a bit more. We are talking about a BUNCH of of this foam for a relatively low amount of money. How many motorcycle seats could you make with a Queen sized 11" thick hunk of foam?

Thought I'd share my observation in case it could help.

 
That is amazing, very, very well done...

However, I never would have thought you or anyone else on this forum played with sewing machines. By the look of the seat there, you've had prior practice :D

 
Well 2 are Ex-wives, as in "no-more". And I have a current one. Had I kept them all at the same time, my UT visa would have been processed extra-speedy! No where near "UT Man of the Year" or anything, but definitely worth UT honorable mention.

Hey scab....you given lessons, that's a really nice job :good: ....

I have to get my syllabus ready before lessons.

I do have one unrelated course already prepared. Lessons are on baiting fish hooks on charter fishing boats. After the two-week training period, you will be a Master-Baiter.

 
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