Topic: Anybody carved their own seat?

[Pecantree]

Have an extra seat pan for the 750 and want to make a lower more comfortable seat.
Looking to pick ya'lls brains for tips and suggestions.
Thanks
Steve

[martin99]

I use an electric carving knife to cut the foam. Makes an easy job of it.

[KayOne]

+1 on electric carving knife for general shaping. Use a 4" angle grinder for smoothing. Works really well. There is a good video on the net regarding gluing/shaping foam on seats. Unfortunately I lost the link.

[Steve F]

The electric knife and 4" disc sander are essential to good results.  Also get a really thin piece of spring steel about 1-1/2" wide and sharpen to a razor edge will come in handy too.

[goldarrow]

Carving knife is good.  10 bucks from Walmart

[Pecantree]

Goldarrow- Have the same seat, want to do something similar to what you did.
When I bought my bike the PO was running the King/Queen but had kept the original on a shelf.
I've been running the original and want to carve the K/Q down to get me more on the deck.
But still be comfortable for long day rides.
Love to see more pics!
Steve

[goldarrow]

Seat cover may be the issue.  This is how the seat looks at the moment

[Terry in Australia]

I've got a proper "Foam Knife", but essentially, it's just a big electric carving knife.

What ever you do, don't use a "Hot knife", (normally used for cutting nylon climbing rope) I tried that once and didn't realise that it would cause the foam to emit Hydrogen Cyanide gas, and within seconds of touching the foam, all 3 guys in the workshop started to dry retch, and we had to evacuate the 'shop until it had dissipated.

I spoke to a fireman about it later and he said that most people who die in house fires die due to inhalation of gas from burning mattresses, furnitue etc, and not actual burns or smoke inhalation. Cheers, Terry.  

[Old Moe Toe]

I took a brand new reproduction seat to a local automotive upholsterer who had a whiz bang state of the art foam cutter.
I find the stock seats look rather fatarsed and since I am slowly turning my old roughie into a bobber I wanted a thinner/slimmer seat. He charged me 100 bucks which included removing the cover,cutting the foam and putting the cover back on. Pretty happy with the result.

[754]

Damn..that looks really good..

[Old Moe Toe]

Damn..that looks really good..

Yeah I reckon it does.
Here is a shot of the grotesque seat that was on the bike when I got it, a shot of the aftermarket one and a shot of the cut down version.

[Old Moe Toe]

Just for extra info, here is a picture of the foam that the upholsterer cut out. It's a strange looking foam made up of lots of little bits stuck together. The upholsterer thought it was pretty second rate crappy foam but I guess thats what you get buying aftermarket replicas instead of genuine. The seat is actually still very comfortable plus it gives you about 45mm less seat height.
As an afterthought you can see in the previous post that not only the seat has changed. The original back wheel rim was replaced with one from a K7(130mm wide rather than 100mm) which I painted 2 pack black as well as the hub and then laced up with stainless spokes. The Carpy exhaust that I liked but way too loud for the cops here has also been changed back to the one that was on the bike when I got it....no idea what make it is. Plan to somehow chop up the Carpy one and add a bit more muffler eventually.

[Pecantree]

Wow! Your original seat looks like an overstuffed whorehouse couch.
I like that slimmed down version you've got now.
This project on hold right now, doing carbs.
But am collecting pictures of what I've found.

[Stev-o]

This project on hold right now, doing carbs.

K6 carbs?

[Pecantree]

Running K3 carbs while I do the K6 ones.

[faux fiddy]

That short seat looks great.   Maybe that's what I can do with an old saddle  from swap that got hot (in a fire?) one time and shrank a corner of the cover back a bit. Except for the blemish the rest of it is freakishly new.

Bu the way, Welcome to the forum motoe.