Author Topic: cafe style seat (Read 3857 times)

wardmoto · « **on:** April 17, 2006, 10:22:13 AM »

want to do a fiberglass seat pan (cafe style...flat seating portion with a bubble but rear end) for a 350 F. Short of Air Tech, www.clubmanracing.com and some others, does anyone have any suggestions from prior experience??

crazypj · « **Reply #1 on:** April 17, 2006, 10:28:24 AM »

I had a look at Airtech, too expensive for me

I'm going to make a sheet metal one, (eventually

) shouldnt be any heavier than fiberglass and much easier to fit neatly.
Made seat bases before, but not cafe style. If it turns out #$%*e I'll just have to pay the money

PJ

wardmoto · « **Reply #2 on:** April 17, 2006, 10:30:27 AM »

thought about that too...how you gonna do the compound curved "ass bubble"

tsflstb · « **Reply #3 on:** April 17, 2006, 10:53:45 AM »

If you want to work with steel, you could find a beat up gas tank and cut off the rear section. Or you could just use it as a mold for your glass.

Another idea I've seen is using a mixing bowl cut in half for a seat hump.
http://ww1.williams-sonoma.com/cat/pip.cfm?src=srkn1%7Ctm%7Cv0%7Cwstainless&skus=4739579&pkey=xsrd0m1%7C15%7C0%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C%7Cstainless&gids=sku4739579&cmsrc=sch

There's probably something laying around the house or garage that could be used.

I had a bunch of ideas, but I have zero experience with fiberglass. I'm as do-it-yourself as the next guy, but when it came time to find a seat I had a 'moment of clarity'. I figured I'd spend a couple of weeks breathing fumes, a couple more filling and sanding, and still not like the results. Just click on Ebay. They got what you need.

tsflstb · « **Reply #4 on:** April 17, 2006, 11:01:17 AM »

I forgot about this one...here's a pretty decent site with some seats...

http://www.clubmanracing.com/

The site is more for vintage Brit bikes, but the main dimension to look for is the seat width. If it'll clear your frame rails and is about the same width as your tank, it will look good and you can make it work.

ohiocaferacer · « **Reply #5 on:** April 17, 2006, 11:29:06 AM »

Another idea I've seen is using a mixing bowl cut in half for a seat hump.

Funny to hear you mention the mixing bowls. I was talking with Bob Hansen(Factory Honda Team Race Manager during the 60's) last summer at Mid-Ohio and he was telling me how the seat used on the 1967 Honda CR450 race bikes that won Daytona.....were old rice bowls he cut in half and riveted a seat pan to. Even the big guys use what they can find.................

Later,
Greg

Geeto67 · « **Reply #6 on:** April 17, 2006, 11:42:30 AM »

Not a bubble back seat but this was an idea a friend of mine and I did a long time ago on his cb350F. He wanted the bike to look more like a late 50's early 60's brit bike so we removes all the emblems, repainted it (including the fenders), used a limp sausage taillight, and ran some very curvy low bars. When it came to the seat though the stocker was a dead giveaway that the bike was a 70's bike. We had an old Ca77 305 dream lying around in the back of the shop so we snatched the seat off it cut the stock brackets and welded a plate so the dream seat could use the stock hinges. Really cleaned up the look of the bike and made it feel thiner. It fooled a lot of people too, most thinking the bike was from the early 60's. CA77 dream seats are kinda expensive these days ($100 for the pan) but if you happen to get your hands on one they look killer on a cb350F. The seat is smaller but you can still ride 2 up on it if you are thin.

theunrulychef · « **Reply #7 on:** April 17, 2006, 12:14:29 PM »

If you want to do it out of glass, I highly recommend using pink foam from a home improvement store. Use spray adhesive to layer up the blocks of foam. Use a rasp, serratted knife, sanders etc to get the shape you want. Then cover the whole shebang in plastic wrap, packing tape etc to keep the resin from eating away your foam. Once you've got a couple of laminations on it, you pull out the mold (or melt it out w/ some acetone or gas). Keep doing laminations until you've got the strength you want & use body filler to smooth it out. Here's mine.

If you want to do it out of metal, it takes more tools & shop skills. To dish the curved hump, you could use an english wheel (expensive or time consuming to build), get yourself a tree stump w/ dishing bowls carved in it, or use a leather shot bag. Then planish/smooth out your curves on a ball stake (in an anvil). Sand & polish. It's more complicated than that, of course, but his would actually be a really good project for someone w/o any dishing experience to learn some of the basics. Some friends & I used to make medieval plate mail for the SCA, and the first thing they taught me was how to make elbow & knee "cops" - essentially the same dished shape as the rear of the seat except tighter.

Hope this helps,
Jay in Philly

wardmoto · « **Reply #8 on:** April 17, 2006, 12:29:17 PM »

thanks Jay in Philly (where...I grew up in Lansdale) I am a sucker for a project...I may just attempt it. Where do you get the glass and resin...regualar auto body stuff???

cbjunkie · « **Reply #9 on:** April 17, 2006, 12:30:36 PM »

jay - that tank looks really nice - i notice you had a different version at one point...

did you pound those inserts in yourself? i'm using the F tank as well...

ProTeal55 · « **Reply #10 on:** April 17, 2006, 12:39:57 PM »

Quote from: cbjunkie on April 17, 2006, 12:30:36 PM

jay - that tank looks really nice

I agree with ya CBJ, that tank is kick ass..
All you guys wiht you knee inserts are gonna make me take a dead-blow to
my tank sooner or later.....

keiths · « **Reply #11 on:** April 17, 2006, 01:23:06 PM »

That's a great looking project, Jay.

Wardmoto, you don't want to sell your stock seat cover from your 350F, do you? I've bought several on Ebay but my original, with a large gash in it, is the best of the lot.

paulages · « **Reply #12 on:** April 17, 2006, 01:25:42 PM »

glass from the past out of canby, oregon has a pretty good selection at decent prices. i believe his online selection doesn't look as honda friendly as the ones he has for sale at the local jap/euro bike shop i frequent. his look good though, and are in the $130-$170 range. there are even a few upholstered pans there (at vicious cycle) that aren't much more expensive.

http://all-digital.net/gftp/

wardmoto · « **Reply #13 on:** April 17, 2006, 01:27:34 PM »

yes, I am interested in selling...gonna e-bay or sell a lot of the stock parts I removed soon. I am leaving work now, I will try to get to you at home later in the pm. Home wardmoto@comcast.net
Work bdward@ccpa.net

Jay B · « **Reply #14 on:** April 17, 2006, 05:25:07 PM »

Yep, Jay's bike is gonna be killer. I just built a fiberglass cowl for my 350f (see avatar) and I'd add one thing. Take your time building the mold you are going to build on. Get it as perfect as you can before you start glassing. I didn't, and it took lots of sanding and lots of layers to get it to look good. It's still not perfect, but it looks great in the sunlight. I'd never done a fiberglass project before, I thought it was kind of fun.

Chris Liston · « **Reply #15 on:** April 17, 2006, 05:55:31 PM »

Would it be better to build a new seat pan or use an existing pan. I have a spare seat and pan for my 550 and bought it with the intention of using the foam/pan for a cafe seat. I know it would make sense for mounting reasons. Thoughts?

paulages · « **Reply #16 on:** April 17, 2006, 08:30:20 PM »

i think the stock seatpan is a bit wide if you go with a low profile padding. i shaved down the foam on my 350T, and it's not so comfy when your feet are on the ground.

theunrulychef · « **Reply #17 on:** April 18, 2006, 05:06:06 AM »

Thanks for the good feedback on my Carpy "Copy Rocket". It's a good thing I'm not a good photographer

. Personally, I can't wait to see how Paul's tank is looking w/ paint on it. Those hard lines around the knee recesses are gonna look killer.

Quote from: cbjunkie on April 17, 2006, 12:30:36 PM

jay - that tank looks really nice - i notice you had a different version at one point...

did you pound those inserts in yourself? i'm using the F tank as well...

That's the fiberglass one I started (Yellow / Blue one in my pics). I've halted that, as well as swapping out the comstars for spoked wheels because of money issues & the weather being so perfect. I went back to my original tank because it was much closer to being done. I'm skipping alot of the little things I want to do until next winter, like high polishing of little bits etc. I don't think I'm even gonna have the dough to rebuild the motor, so I hope I can get one more season on low compression

.

Getting too far offtopic. I received this good bit of advice from one of our members. I got it too late for my seatpan, but it's a good idea for some of you that are about to take on the project:
"If you are having trouble getting your seat pan rigid put some ribs in it. You can use just about anything that is round ( rope, rubber hose, large drinking straws etc.) just glass over them and this will strengthen the piece. We used to use this trick when we were making glass molds as they had to be extra strong.
-Greg Keith"

Keep up the good fight
-Jay in Philly

KB02 · « **Reply #18 on:** April 18, 2006, 05:28:39 AM »

Quote from: Chris Liston on April 17, 2006, 05:55:31 PM

Would it be better to build a new seat pan or use an existing pan. I have a spare seat and pan for my 550 and bought it with the intention of using the foam/pan for a cafe seat. I know it would make sense for mounting reasons. Thoughts?

I'm using a stock seat pan on my seat project. I've just got to kick myself in the arse and get back to working on it. RIDING SEASON IS HERE!!!! ... and the Ducati has to go in for it's 24000 mile service... valve adjustment, timing belts, oil, plugs, front wheel bearings AND I need to repack the pipes.... I'm gonna need something to ride! I've gotta hurry up.

theunrulychef · « **Reply #19 on:** April 18, 2006, 05:41:42 AM »

Quote from: wardmoto on April 17, 2006, 12:29:17 PM

thanks Jay in Philly (where...I grew up in Lansdale) I am a sucker for a project...I may just attempt it. Where do you get the glass and resin...regualar auto body stuff???

I used the Bondo brand stuff for my seat, alternating between mat & cloth glass. Some people use mat for the interior laminations, then switch to cloth when they're doing their finishing laminations. Allternate the cloth direction 45 degrees on those laminations for maximum strength.

I also used a shop vac & garbage bags to pull a slight vacuum while my laminations set up. It helped to pull alot of the excess resin to the surface, which I could then sand off to save on weight. Resin apparently doesn't add any structural integrity just by itself.

I was using Super Hard epoxy resin & kevlar cloth for my fiberglass tank. Got all the stuff from Tap Plastics. If you want to go a little more high tech than bondo, I highly recommend these guys. They've got all sorts of stuff like carbon fiber, resin dyes (don't use w/ the bondo brand though), filler materials, and a whole slew of resins.

Safety: I breathed alot of this #$%* in when I first started working w/ it. Don't do that. I'm a moron. It sucks. Hopefully you have a respirator mask. A dust mask will suffice if you're doing it outside or have a really really good exhaust setup, but be cautious. If you can smell the resin, you're bringing it into your lungs. Also, wear your crappiest of crappy clothes & put on 2 or 3 sets of gloves. Then, as they get gunked up, pull off the outer layer & you can still keep working (the resin is all time sensitive stuff).

Good luck,
Jay in Philly

Chris Liston · « **Reply #20 on:** April 18, 2006, 06:42:56 AM »

Quote from: KB02 on April 18, 2006, 05:28:39 AM

I'm using a stock seat pan on my seat project. I've just got to kick myself in the arse and get back to working on it. RIDING SEASON IS HERE!!!! ... and the Ducati has to go in for it's 24000 mile service... valve adjustment, timing belts, oil, plugs, front wheel bearings AND I need to repack the pipes.... I'm gonna need something to ride! I've gotta hurry up.

KB02, what process did you use with the stock base, take all foam off and start ground up or leave alittle foam and build from that?

KB02 · « **Reply #21 on:** April 19, 2006, 05:01:36 PM »

I stripped the pan down to the metal and made the "hump" out of Harware Cloth. Once I had the shape that I wanted, I just fiber glassed over it. Bondo to smooth it out (still working on that) and then I plan to paint. I still have to make the seat cusion, but for that I have just cut down the stock foam to the size I wanted (about 1 1/2" thick) and then I'm going to make the outer seat skin with vynal. I plan to attach the cusion with snaps.

Thats the plan anyway. I've got to get going on it so I can tell you all how it turns out.

heinrich · « **Reply #22 on:** April 22, 2006, 06:06:19 PM »

Quote from: paulages on April 17, 2006, 01:25:42 PM

glass from the past out of canby, oregon has a pretty good selection at decent prices. i believe his online selection doesn't look as honda friendly as the ones he has for sale at the local jap/euro bike shop i frequent. his look good though, and are in the $130-$170 range. there are even a few upholstered pans there (at vicious cycle) that aren't much more expensive.

http://all-digital.net/gftp/

I can also recommend Glass from the Past. Brett, who runs it, is a great guy and does good work. He probably wouldn't have a pattern for a CB350F though.

Ycould try Bartel Engineering in the UK (Ireland, I think). I got an aluminum racing tank and a nice bump stop seat (upholstered) from them a couple years ago. At the time, the seat was something like 75 GBP. But then there's the hassle and the shipping.

Thirdly, I can't recall how similar the CB350F and the CB400F chassis are in the seat area, but take a look at this thread:

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/cb400f/message/2429

--Aaron Heinrich

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Author Topic: cafe style seat (Read 3857 times)

theunrulychef

theunrulychef

theunrulychef

heinrich