Restored my Seat

[dreux13]

So I wanted to restore my seat on the cheap and cheap without making it look real bad. I bought a yard of vinyl, some vinyl dye/paint, and a boat load of staples. Even though my BR is an '86, I prefer the black seat over the gray. This is how she came out.....



Not perfect as I had to do two folds on the corners, but pretty good if I must say so myself! Also made the homemade template based off of a printout from a google search. Did have a little bleed-through so up close, it looks homemade, but hey, this is what you get for $30 and an hour or two worth of time!

Now on to painting my racks with some bedliner paint.

[thestud25]

Not too shabby!

[coolpool]

Definitely looks better. I'd call that a win for sure!

[Blown 331]

That looks great! I do all my own seats as well. Heres an 85 Big Red seat I just did for my dad. I grabbed this piece of vinyl from the remnants pile, it cost me $1.25!!!! With a little practice you'll be able to do it with out any wrinkles on top at all. Seats like this one and the Honda sport models are real easy since they don't require sewing. I've done a bunch for ATC, SL and XL70s. Those all require sewing as did my brothers Tecate. Can you explain in detail how you made that template. I haven't gotten into that but I'd like to add some to mine. Looks great.

[briano]

Looks good to me. I did one of my 70 seats and it looks like a poorly wrapped Christmas gift lol, but it's good enough for me.

[sinsayers]

looks good man, I'll be doing one myself in a few days.

[dreux13]

That looks great! I do all my own seats as well. Heres an 85 Big Red seat I just did for my dad. I grabbed this piece of vinyl from the remnants pile, it cost me $1.25!!!! With a little practice you'll be able to do it with out any wrinkles on top at all. Seats like this one and the Honda sport models are real easy since they don't require sewing. I've done a bunch for ATC, SL and XL70s. Those all require sewing as did my brothers Tecate. Can you explain in detail how you made that template. I haven't gotten into that but I'd like to add some to mine. Looks great.

That looks great! So what's the secret for the corners? I left the vinyl in the sun on my trucks hot hood for a couple hours, so it was definitely soft. Since I have enough left-over materials, I can try it again if it's something obvious. The 'gathering' tehnique with small folds under the corners was what ultimately got me the result you see above.

I was almost ready to buy a sticky honda template on ebay for $12 but then decided to try this:

1) Find a logo and resize/print using MS paint
2) Take some 1.5" or wider painters tape and put it on something plastic (I used a plastic cutting board)
3) Tape the printed logo on top of it and trace out the logo using a sharp razor or exacto knife
4) Once done, carefully remove the tape/paper used to trace and then very carefully remove the first peice of tape that now is the stencil. Put that on the seat and you're ready to paint (with proper masking of course)

If I were to do it again, I'd consider just buying the stencils. Like I said, it isn't perfect and the painters tape did allow for a little bleed-through due to the grain of the vinyl. I also got a little impatient with the paint. You really have to truly 'dust' every coat which probably would have resolved my bleedthrough issue.

[Blown 331]

I figured the stencil went something like that, sounds like you don't really recommend it though. lol. I just remembered there was someone on this board years ago who had all the seat stencils drawn out in a CAD program. He would email them to you for free too. I had them on email but that email got hacked and I got rid of the account. He suggested getting blank stickers sheets and putting them in your printer, then print his drawings right onto the sticker sheets and cut em out with an exacto knife.
I'm not real sure what the seceret in the corners is. lol. I'm not sure I can really describe how I do it. I start with a few staples in the front and back of the seat. Then add a few more in the center of the sides and go from there. In the corners I'd say I pull it fairly tight directly in line with the corner (45 degrees from the side / 45 degrees from the rear)- hopefully that makes sense. That eliminates any folding right there. Then you'll have a bunch of material to work the wrinkles out of on each side of that corner staple. I usually get all the wrinkles worked out before adding any more staples in the corners at all. You basically work all the wrinkles to the bottom of the seat (underneath). If you just play around with it for awhile I'm sure you'll get it. Leaving the vinyl on your hood first should be plenty warm. I've got a heat gun. Its nice and it helps but I could do nearly just as good without it, just a little more work maybe. I also bought an air stapler as no manual stapler I could get ahold of would go all the way into those plastic pans.

[dreux13]

I was going down that path and I think what hurt me was the elmers sprayon adhesive I used. It was too sticky and seemed to dry rather than just create a light 'tack' making things more of a pain when stretching. I had the corners perfect just as you described, but then had all kinds of extra folds in the middle and I think the fact that the adhesive was preventing those parts from stretching more hurt me.

I was going to sugest the method of printing on sticker paper next. Don't worry about a true stencil. Search google images for 'honda logo' and you'll be good to go. An exacto will work better too (which I didn't have). As with the seat, the trick to it is all in your patience.

Thanks for the tips!

I figured the stencil went something like that, sounds like you don't really recommend it though. lol. I just remembered there was someone on this board years ago who had all the seat stencils drawn out in a CAD program. He would email them to you for free too. I had them on email but that email got hacked and I got rid of the account. He suggested getting blank stickers sheets and putting them in your printer, then print his drawings right onto the sticker sheets and cut em out with an exacto knife.
I'm not real sure what the seceret in the corners is. lol. I'm not sure I can really describe how I do it. I start with a few staples in the front and back of the seat. Then add a few more in the center of the sides and go from there. In the corners I'd say I pull it fairly tight directly in line with the corner (45 degrees from the side / 45 degrees from the rear)- hopefully that makes sense. That eliminates any folding right there. Then you'll have a bunch of material to work the wrinkles out of on each side of that corner staple. I usually get all the wrinkles worked out before adding any more staples in the corners at all. You basically work all the wrinkles to the bottom of the seat (underneath). If you just play around with it for awhile I'm sure you'll get it. Leaving the vinyl on your hood first should be plenty warm. I've got a heat gun. Its nice and it helps but I could do nearly just as good without it, just a little more work maybe. I also bought an air stapler as no manual stapler I could get ahold of would go all the way into those plastic pans.

[Blown 331]

Oh. I don't use any adheisive at all. Might be something to try. I've never done it with adheisive so I can't really comment on it. I'm no seat professional, just sharing the methods I use.

[remsandpets]

All well and good for the plastic seat pans but MY Honda 200 is a steel pan with the folding type pins. The seat cover is shot, I might just try that though. The portion that the points go thru is double or maybe triple thick. This one might take some sewing.

[Blown 331]

All well and good for the plastic seat pans but MY Honda 200 is a steel pan with the folding type pins. The seat cover is shot, I might just try that though. The portion that the points go thru is double or maybe triple thick. This one might take some sewing.

Metal pans might be even easier. You don't have to handle a stapler at all, just stretch the material and hook it on those metal hooks. I've ran into a few seats with rusted off hooks so I put the covers on with sheet metal screws. Only 6 or so screws are needed.

[remsandpets]

I was thinking hog rings. They use them for other seat cover applications.