The Renaissance Man
__CERTIFIED DIVER__ (Open Water & Open Dumpster)
Staff member
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I recovered the seat with leather. It's from the same leather coat that I used on the Decoluxe.
First I stripped it down to the pan then glued some dense grey foam in the center and sanded the edges down to get a smooth transition to the metal. Next I used the original cover for a pattern and cut a piece of fabric covered foam called Flex Foam that I found at Wal-to-Wal-Mart. Lastly I glued the leather over the foam and put the bottom pan back in place.
I didn't paint the bottom of the pan because it's a NOS seat and I liked the original paper stickers with the manufacturing date. There's some surface rust but it can't be seen unless you look under the seat anyway.
There was some discussion last month started by @nateyboy about the difficulty of finding suitable replacement grommets, so I removed the original ones trying not to damage them as best as possible. It was not an easy task and the results where disappointing at best. But I was able to keep them in tact enough to reuse.
After I finished covering the seat, I drilled the leather, carefully pushed the grommets back through the holes and flared the back side as much as possible. To flare them, I tightened a 1/4-20 flat head machine screw from the back side and then followed with a round head machine screw to finish flattening it.
It's not pretty on the back, but it worked.
First I stripped it down to the pan then glued some dense grey foam in the center and sanded the edges down to get a smooth transition to the metal. Next I used the original cover for a pattern and cut a piece of fabric covered foam called Flex Foam that I found at Wal-to-Wal-Mart. Lastly I glued the leather over the foam and put the bottom pan back in place.
I didn't paint the bottom of the pan because it's a NOS seat and I liked the original paper stickers with the manufacturing date. There's some surface rust but it can't be seen unless you look under the seat anyway.
There was some discussion last month started by @nateyboy about the difficulty of finding suitable replacement grommets, so I removed the original ones trying not to damage them as best as possible. It was not an easy task and the results where disappointing at best. But I was able to keep them in tact enough to reuse.
After I finished covering the seat, I drilled the leather, carefully pushed the grommets back through the holes and flared the back side as much as possible. To flare them, I tightened a 1/4-20 flat head machine screw from the back side and then followed with a round head machine screw to finish flattening it.
It's not pretty on the back, but it worked.
Murphy's Law caused it to happen in the most visible location also, the top right bar. Now I have to touch it up before the bike is even put together.
