who's made a custom fiberglass seat????

Hi every1!!!!! I'm planning on changing my rear fender and making a custom fiberglass seat pan. I've seen only one youtube vid on this process, very helpfull. Anybody got suggestions on making this pan, especially mounting, maybe the foam and wrapping it. A pic of ur seat would be awsome!! I'm not going cafe or bobber, just clean cruiser.

 

hmm

 

A couple of members have done this on cafe builds, maybe one of them will chime in soon. If not, look thru the modification threads for seats or cafe builds. Good luck with your mod and be sure to post the pics. 8)

 

I haven't actually built it to try a theory, but my idea was as follows: make the fiberglass base pan and secure it to the frame rails with threaded rivit inserts like these http://cfnewsads.thomasnet.com/images/l ... 831765.jpg that way you have a solid mounting point for the pan. I'm also toying with trying to reuse the factory seat hooks for extra rigality but that may not happen. To secure your seat foam to the pan, attach the metal push pins that are on clothing such as these http://images-en.busytrade.com/14332080 ... ly-Cap.jpg to the seat foam and your fiberglass base. That way the foam is secure but is easily removable so you can remove your seat pan for service. This way also should keep all mounting hardware hidden for a nice clean look. Once I get materials rounded up, I'll be doing a build thread to give you a better idea what I meant. Hope this helps in the meantime though.

 

If it can help looks here: made a seat
(origin: http://www.hondacx.com/viewtopic.php?t=6229&start=0)

 

right on!! thanks for the replies. Appleyard you're givvin me ideas. Daniel.....nice work.

 

Gonna check em out.

 

I have done it on a couple of bike builds. I can walk you through it with emails if you want. But your best bet would be to get a trashed seat for a donor seat pan and carve the foam then go have it covered.

Do you have a seat for your bike? If so how does the pan look.

 

iv made that seat mount, and made a youtube vid about it. i wonder if its mine. hahah.... but i took the tool box and mounted it to the bottom of a seat to fit snug with the bars.... its perfect and removable. the tricky part was finding the seat.

 

using the stock pan isnt going to work...i'm cutting the original fender out and modifying the rear rails. I'm mounting a harley bobbed fender so i have to mold a custom fiberglass seat.

 

:? i guess its the tab that clips under the tank that has me worried. maybe i'll rivet it onto the pan. it's alot of work to make a custom seat just dont wanna fudge it up is all.

 

I have seen them Velcro-ed on. Run one strip along the top of the frame, and its mate on the seat pan where it touches the top of the frame. Its pretty secure.

 

thanks razz...think im gonna try that one. I'm afraid that riveting the tab might break lose or crack the fiberglass

 

The vid i saw was from Armegeddon ...which one was yours??

 

Not done one myself, but seen a lot of examples on a custom bike forum I'm one. Most build a base out of either foam or cardbaord, cover that with masking tape, then cover with the resin & glass. One nice recent example used expanded aluminum (like for old-style plastering) as the base, which looked really cool and probably made it easier to create rounded shapes than either of the others. Plus, I'd bet it even adds structural strength. Foam is good for rounded shapes, but if you cut / sand to far, you can't go back; lathe you can bend any way you like. OTOH, foam is probably best for items with a solid core, where you don't have to dig it out, since it adds internal bracing. I'd only do cardboard if I wanted a structure composed of flat surfaces, which TBH I'd probably just fab from sheet metal anyhow.

 

I am looking at making my own seat for a Cafe racer project. I haven't done it either but I have a plan for it. I am going to start by making the shape with a heavier gauge sheet metal. I was thinking aluminum, but will probably go with steel so I can weld it easier. After I have the metal done, shaped the way I want, I am going to fiberglass it.

 

Neronova, if your shaping the metal, just use the metal!
Otherwise it just sounds like a waste of work.

If I could make my cafe seat in metal I would.
But shaping metal is nothing I'm good at nor actually ever tried it.
Shaping a High density foam is cheaper and easier (well, unless you are reeeeaaally good at bashing metal and really crap on using a saw and a rasp).

I'm still fine-tuning the shapes of my seat, but here's a couple of steps shown :

 

And, to add I did try the flower-arrangement-foam, the green/brown stuff that dime city cycles uses in there how to youtube video.

It was really really easy to shape BUT it was at the same time really porous and swallowed a huge amount of glue and broke really easily.

I got some high density foam from a buddy of mine that build boats in carbon fiber, they use it to make plugs for molds, so I thought that it would work for my job to. Plus side on the high density foam is that it won't collapse if you want to put under vacuum later when laminating.

 

High density foam would work, a hot knife or hot wire cuts that stuff really nice too. Home Depot sells inch thick sheets of it for like $10, cut a bunch of squares out of it and glue them together into a block and start going nuts.

I admit foam is really easy to work with, but I am a firm believer in certain laws, including murphy's law and such, so I know as soon as I have it perfect I will put a dent in it or something. Metal is more forgiving if you drop a wrench on it! Haha! For me, it doesn't really matter the material, I should have been a brain surgeon, I have amazing fine motor skills and it does whether a material is soft or hard, I can work with it, but I still have my butterfinger moments.

Sheet metal is strong, but it will bend and flex, so I would fiberglass it then add a few small reinforced pieces on the back. The only time I wouldn't do that is if I had a press and a mold for adding ribs and what not it for added strength. Sheet metal is actually REALLY easy to work with if it is flat. As soon as you add some ribs its gets harder to bend. That is why truck beds are not one smooth sheet of metal, the shapes added to them adds strength. Stuff like that I don't do, so I use a bit of fiberglass and some steel rod in the fiberglass, or metal corners to add strength.

If you haven't tried sheet metal, I highly suggest going and buying a $10 sheet of metal. What helps for something that isn't just structural and will be seen is to start with paper. For this, start with a semi circle, and around the curved portion, fold another piece of paper around it, etc until you get a paper model of the shape that looks good. Dismantle the paper model and use it to cut out the metal shapes. Leave extra around the edges of the metal for tabs for welding or rivetting.

When working with metal, it isn't about bashing like most people think. For blacksmiths, yes, body work and sheet metal, noooooo. You start bashing and you will be needing a ton of body filler! Haha! I really would say try it out, working with sheet metal is a good skill, whether fabricating something or doing nody work, its fun and its pretty easy to pick up.

Your foam seat looks really good so far, get 'er fiberglassed now!

 

But thats the thing, Flex is good so if you are making the shape in sheet metal I don't see the point to add fiberglass over it.
I do understand it if you are making a wire frame and then adding fiberglass.

And, if you make a dent in the HD foam, you can add some bondo to it. No worries.