Cut down Seat W/Gripper cover

[dhighlan]

Well I started this project because I needed to change the seat cover to a gripper style on my son’s kx65 and I thought I would lower a little to help with the stop/standing. I have some tricks that may be helpful to others.




First, I wanted to lower it a little and make it look OK as well. I drew an outline for a step up seat. I have tried many ways in the past to cut foam and fell back on the idea of a hacksaw blade as shown in the picture. It usually cuts very evenly with very little effort. I used an 18t blade here but would like to use a finer tooth blade if you can find one. Make sure to use a non offset blade, meaning teeth line up with one another and don’t zig-zag back and forth.



Cut through the foam starting on one end and work your way though with very short sawing action. This will make the cut as smooth as possible and not tear the foam. Make note to take off less than you want seat dimensions to be the first pass through, you will be working the foam to smooth it out and you won’t have any left to work with.

Once you make your first cut you will notice sharp edges in the foam as well as lines where you cut it. I hate seeing that through the cover and tried many things in the past to smooth this out. The only thing I have found to remove these is by using the saw blade almost as if it was a file. I lay the blade flat on one side against the foam. Now when working out the cut marks I use the blade in a file like motion using very little if not any pressure against the foam. Make sure you don’t do this inside at the kitchen table as there will be foam particles everywhere. When you work the blade over the foam you will be just filing away the high points.

Now when rounding out the outside edges make sure you use the cutting teeth from the outside in, the outside that you didn’t cut to the freshly exposed foam. The outside will be much more brittle and tend to fall apart in chunks. If using new foam it is not a problem doing it either direction. Work the foam and bevel all the contours until you have it the way you want it.


If you have ever done your own cover you know what a pain it is to get smooth, tight and even with no wrinkles. This is not such a pain on big bikes since they have a much flatter top than older and little bikes. The first thing I do (and I know others may have their own system) is to slip the front part of the cover over the seat and secure it as tightly as possible. I staple the front down knowing I will be pulling them up later to readjust but this gives me the tension I need when working the cover down the seat. I work the cover by rolling and stretching it tight and stapling again (these me be pulled later a well). Once I work down to the point the seat curves I pull the rear as tight as possible and put some temporary staples to hold it in place.

As you can see in the pictures the middle is all wrinkled and will be difficult to get out. Now you must keep working the material back and to the side pulling and stretching it to smooth it out. Little at a time pull it over a put a staple in when you get it tight, keep working it to the back of the seat evenly on both sides. Slowly it will stretch and become smoother. Once you get to the rear the original staples will need to be remove that were place in the back. Now you can start working back to the front placing in staples in the voids.


Now back the front, pull the staples out that were placed in earlier and work the material tight there will be slack and this will remove any remaining wrinkles in the cover. There will be excess material to trim on the underneath. Be sure to careful cut this off and remove the area for the seat brackets and tuck it in using a flat bladed screw driver to give it a nice tight appearance.

[pragmatic393]

Awesome thread, DH! Very good description and excellent results