Seat Repair Help

[HoustonAE2]

I have a 250sx. The front of the seat, closest to the gas tank, is turned up and does not fit flush. Has anyone dealt with this? What techniques did you use to fix it? I am thinking of stripping the seat, getting new foam and heating the plastic to rebend it properly...thoughts?

[Flyingw]

You are right on track. Disassemble the seat and heat the pan and bend it back. When its recovered, be sure not to pull the nose of the seat too tight.

[HoustonAE2]

I am leaning towards reinforcing it with some flat steel as well. My biggest fear is screwing up the seat and having to track down another one.

[Flyingw]

Naw, the pan is pretty robust. Its nylon. It will be ok. How's your seat covering skills?

[HoustonAE2]

Seat covering...never tried. However I have recovered various chairs and sofas, so the technique is similar.

My plan is to strip it down, remold it to fit snug around the tank and then put new/thicker foam on the seat for my big behind :w00t:

[coolpool]

I suggest over straightening the pan to compensate for a) stretching the covering too tight on re-assembly, and b) to address the natural lift that happens over the years; which is probably what happened in the first place.

I'll add upholsterer to the list of things I'm not.....mechanic, welder, painter, body man, electrical expert, upholsterer. That about covers my skill set; bring on the next trike for repair!

[Flyingw]

I tend to agree with coolpool. There are various reasons why the pan nose pulls back from the tank but mainly its from the original cover drying out and shrinking. Recovering the seat is not hard. I recover my seats thanks to a tutorial the Mosh's posted several years ago. The key is heat from a heat gun or blow dryer. I go to my local fabric store and buy seat vinyl by the yard. Usually one yard is enough for one seat with some extra fro about 10 bucks. I also buy a yard of headliner foam. Its a fabric faced 1/4" foam but I'll get to that in a minute. The problem with the OEM foam is its hard. The seat foam is actually a 2 part resin of sorts that's injected in to a mold and after it cures, its not very comfortable for long rides. A thicker foam won't necessarily give you a softer seat. For that, you need a different type of foam otherwise your at the mercy of the typical injected type of seat foam replacements you find on Ebay for the SX seat. I will say however the 25 year old seat foam in your seat does harden over the years to some degree so a fresh seat foam blank will give you a slightly softer seat.

As I said, I go to the fabric store and buy fabric backed vinyl and headliner material. There are many types of seat vinyl like marine grade vinyl but vinyl like that is designed to sit outside in the elements all the time. An off the shelf vinyl is fine if you store your trike indoors most of the time otherwise a marine grade vinyl would be required. You will need a heat gun or blow dryer, a stapler, scissors, and a razor blade. I usually start with disassembling the seat by removing all the staples. Do what you have to do with the seat pan to straighten it out. If you reuse your old seat foam, make sure it still fits the pan and isn't missing any chunks. Patch up any areas in the seat foam. Set the seat foam on the pan. I put the headliner over the seat foam and pull it around the seat foam and tack it down on the bottom side pulling it only tight enough to form it to the seat foam. Trim the excess off. Now the vinyl is not as hard as it seems. Heat is your friend. Start by laying the vinyl over the seat. Flip it over and tack loosely north, south, east and west. I usually start where the seat turns up to the nose. Use the heat gun to warm the vinyl. Staple down the two sides at the bend. Warm the vinyl as you go but work your way up the nose of the seat. Pull the vinyl tight enough to get the wrinkles out. Warm the corners and pull the vinyl over the corners and staple down. After the nose is done, work the flat part of the seat the same way working from front to back. I know this is kind of vague but its really easier to see what I'm saying when you have the vinyl in your hands and you can see how the vinyl gets more pliable and stretchy when its warmed up. Anyway, the key is heat and don't pull the vinyl too tight.

If you don't want to tackle covering your seat yourself, Check your area for upholsters. I have a guy here that charges 40 bucks to recover an ATV seat. You might get a better price if you bring them the seat already disassembled.

[ironchop]

I`ve recovered four seats. All were pretty easy after the first one which ended up with all its staples pulled back out and started over again. I used mosh`s tutorial. I put my covers out in the sun three of the four times and left one over the register one winter for all day so that they were a lot more pliable to work with.

I bought an air stapler from Harbor Freight for 20 bux and it worked flawlessly once I got the pressure set right. It will drive half-inch long staples in a plastic stock Honda seatpan flush with the pressure reg set at half. I haven`t tried the steel pans yet but I`ll bet with a quick half turn of the knob, it will drive those in as well.

there are folks on this forum who do recovers and foam rehabs and their work always looked great. I just prefer the DIY route most of the time and thanks to mosh`s instruction, I did get four very sweet looking atv seats to be proud of.

I actually unstapled the front of the seat on the LifanX because its curled up too. I left it sit a few months hoping it would come down a bit (its laid against a Clarke tank which is already a misfit as it is).....no dice....I`m goin to try the heatgun idea and see if I can`t get it to lay down a bit (like 4 inches!)

[Flyingw]

Hey Iron, is the Mosh's tutorial still posted here? I know it was at 3WO but that post is long gone now.

[ironchop]

I`m not sure. I thought I had read it at .Org anyway

[Flyingw]

I was afraid of that. That tutorial was worth its weight in gold as far as I'm concerned. I would love to have it available again but I don't know if it was ever posted here.

[ironchop]

FOUND IT! go AF.com!

http://www.airfoolers.com/performance/seatrecover.html


this should be a sticky for sure

[Flyingw]

Oh man, you rock!!!! Bookmarked.

Houston, this is everything you need to know to recover your seat.