Welcome back for step two in the process of building a custom fiberglass seat pan for your motorcycle. Whether it's a stock bike you want to do something different for, a chopper or custom that no one builds a seat for, or anything in between this article should help you out. If you have questions track us down on our website or Facebook and we will be more than happy to help if we can.
In the last article we showed you the prep work involved in getting ready to lay down the fiberglass mat and cloth to be able to make a strong seat pan. Here you can see I layed the cloth down on the bike to get a rough idea of how big I needed, then I marked it with a permanent marker to guide me when I lay it down. As seen in the last article I had drawn the "t" in the center of tape I used to cover the frame. I do this so I don't have to make the seat pan bigger than needed, which in turn makes it harder to remove from the bike when done. I draw the line 1/4" - 1/2" out from where I need, depending on the area. I then leave another 1/4" or so outside of that, just in case.
I like to have everything laying out right where I can get to it easy. Once you get started you only have a certain amount of time until the resin gets hard. Once it's hard, you have to stop and let it cure. You can then rough it up with sandpaper, etc to make it so the next layer you add is able to bond. Of course if you get it done and it's thick enough and shaped right the first time, you shouldn't have to add more layers. So think about everything before you get started. I also like to have 3 people handy to get this job done.
One to cut pieces as you go to make sure you get pieces that fit right to help you get it thick enough to strong and handle the load. If you are working with resin, and get it on your gloves ( be sure to wear gloves, this stuff is nasty) you will have a hard time handling the mat or cloth. One person the apply the resin the the glass (as seen in the above pic) and to help lay it down on the bike. It can be hard to do when you are working with larger pieces. The third person will be using your tool to squeegee to the air bubble's out of the mat or cloth that can get stuck in your piece (which is not good). The third person will also work with the first person to identify the areas that need more material to make it stronger and the size and shape of the pieces to make it work well.
Here you can see we are applying the first large piece to the bike. Here you can see one of the tricks to the job, wax paper. When we applied the resin to the first large piece ( and any other large piece that you may need to use) we laid a sheet of wax paper under our cloth to make it easier to transport to the bike. Be sure to remember that the was paper will be on top when your applying it, so make sure your cloth is upside down to how it will be on the bike. It's not easy to undo, so take a second to plan this before you get started.
Here you can see Hugh using the squeegee to remove air bubbles in the cloth. You can also see the "t" on the bike and on the cloth line up. It really does make it easier to get you pan right the first time. The lines on the outside work well also to make sure things are lining up where you want it to.
In this shot Kody is applying extra resin to areas that got a little dry during the installation. Remember, the resin isn't what makes the strength, it's the cloth and mat. Adding resin does help the got be some, or makes transitions thicker, which is nice. If when your working the mat/cloth and it's sliding around alot, try putting some more resin on. It's tricky, as to much is not good, but enough to make everything wet is needed. Practice will make you better at this.
Here you can see Hugh applying resin to make, that we will then install on the pan. Between the mat and cloth the initial see pan we did was 3 layers thick all over, with small pieces making it even thicker where extra strength was need. Note, that we did go back and did a second set of fiberglass over the first, as this seat required great strength because of the design of the bike. We like to overbuild things, as it sucks to have to do a job twice, when if done right the first time it wouldn't have been needed.
This shot shows how well you need to cover everything. This resin is nasty stuff and will peel paint and damage chrome if it gets on it.
This is what it looked like after we let it cure overnight. Be sure to let it take time and let it cure. Fiberglass gets hard quickly on the outside, but the inside will still be wet/soft. Let it cure. We use cutters like these to remove excess fiberglass. Here you can get an idea of how much we go past where we want the seat to be when we get done. It's easy while making it to go bigger, but once your done, it's a bummer when you need a little bit more but have to go through the whole process to make it that little bit larger. Here is where we decided we wanted to do a second round of glass work to strengthen our pan up.
We trimmed the pan down to close to what we needed, then we re-waxed the form ( which is important, don't forget). We then did all the steps over again to essentially make it twice as thick as it was before. This pan ended up with roughly four layers of cloth and at least two more of mat, with up to six more in critical areas.
Be sure to check back for part 3, where will will finish trim the seat pan, as well as add foam to finish it up and make it fit the rider perfectly.
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