building a $50 cafe seat for your xj

get aluminum sheet not to heavy not to light - think bendable but not flimsy - $10-20
pop rivets - $2
3/4 inch foam - $5
upholstery vinyl - $14
poly glue - $4

1 - original seat base- cut off rear 1/4
2 - make sure to use cardboard for the templates on the rear section (don't want to screw up expensive aluminum)
3 - mark template shapes on aluminum for cutting, don't forget to leave extra to fold over for pop riveting
4 - pop rivet together
5 - cut down original seat foam to fit
6 - cover the whole thing in 3/4" foam
7 - make seat cover using vinyl best way is to layup paper over each section of the seat for templates again leaving 1/2" extra for sewing the pieces together
8 - steam the cover by throwing it in the dryer with a wet towel, it will stretch easier over the base
9 - start gluing the cover on starting from the rear and working forward. (i found bulldog clips best for hold fabric in place while drying)

now you have a seat that bolts right up to your frame for under $50









mine has a few ripples because i skipped the heating of the vinyl before mounting it...

maybe next time

 

On the ripples, if you can get some steam under the cover it will take that out. A steamer like you see on tv to remove wrinkles would work, if you could attach a peace of tubing to it so you can get up to the wrinkle. Years ago when I worked in a seat factory we used steam to tighten the cover once installed.

 

wow, awesome job. looks great

 

think stop sign or speed limit sign

 

Good job. I used an old sign for the aluminum seat pan and they work perfect. My side covers and speedometer mount are also made out of sign material. Just a thought.

 

Hmmm so that's what happens to all those missing road signs...
hehehe

 

Very Professional!

 

thanks for the encouragement guys
yeah stop sign would be perfect thickness, i just used alu to avoid rust issues.

 

You guys are giving me some ideas, I need to find a spare seat pan ... thinking of a seat with a built in topbox/backrest

 

I just picked up a seat pan for mine yesterday for 5 dollars, but I think I am going to leave the stock tail piece, just do the driver seat lower then the passenger seat the same height as the tail piece so it looks like part of the tail section

 

I don't know about stop signs in your part of the country but here you're not going to bend one.
The got to 1/4" steel, just cutting one would be a chore.

 

not here in canada

1/4" omg thats some serious stop signs

 

Let me clear things up a bit. No I don't advise removing any road signs!!
I work for a construction company that has a pile of extra signs from road projects, that are bent and no longer used. Those are what I use for my projects.
Signs in Minnesota are all 1/8" aluminum, which is perfect to work with. They bend (not easy however) and hold a shape very well. They are easy to cut with an electric punch or scroll saw. You can also polish it with various compounds to get shiny as chrome if you want.
Plastic would work better if you could find a way to mold it into a seat pan. Some use fiberglass to mold the pan with, which seems to me to be the best alternative. Infact, I've made one out of wood in the past and it worked out great, but it's tedious work cutting and filing.

 

I feel like an ass.
I'm measuring something today and realized that I had said 1/4" in this thread when I meant 1/8".
I was like damn no wonder I got that response from mrkil.


Painter D with the disclaimer, covering his asss :lol:

 

i was just picturing how thick the post would have to be to hold up 1/4" steel plate like that :O

yeah umm stealing signs is a bad idea, especially stop signs that could cause a serious accident

 

Back to the topic at hand. Not that I plan on doing this, but are the templates referenced to in the instructions available? I'd wager they'd come in handy for someone wanting to try this.

 

no
it would be best to mock up something in cardboard so you can get the look you want.

some like bigger tails some don't. so i figured i'll leave that up to the builder