Deacon's KZ650 Cafe Seat Build

Thanks for posting this information; I've never worked with fiberglass, so reading this thread has given me a lot to ponder as I prepare for the big job. You did a great write-up, and the pics are VERY helpful; I understand now that I've got a lot more to think through than I originally realized, and the job will take more time than I'd planned for, so it's back to the drawing board for now.
 
HerrDeacon said:
Now comes the dusty stage...body filler. I first gave the seat a nice coat of body filler just to fill in the unevenness of the fibreglass. Then once I had this smoothed out somewhat, I mixed up a milkshake (combination of body filler, fibreglass resin, mekp and body filler hardener) to coat the seat with. This mixture is a lot more fluid then ordinary body filler and so creates a nice smoother finish. Regardless, still needs to be sanded...and sanded...and sanded and then sanded again. ;D Finally I'm happy with the look and spray a coat of primer.

Deacon, your seat has turned out fantastic! I was hoping you might answer a couple of questions for me, I'm at wits end. I started with the expanded pink insulation foam and have even built a real sweet hot wire cutter for the project. I gave up on that foam after having the seat about 70% formed because it tended to "chunk" out when I went at it with sandpaper to shape it. I tried very fine sandpaper and still ran into the problem. After reading your thread, I went out and got the potting foam for artificial plants. This stuff was a dream to shape but I couldn't, for the life of me get the blocks to adhere to one another! I tried 3m 45, super 77 and even 90 high strength, but they never adhered. Now, I'm working with the harder, larger-celled potting foam for artificial plants. It adheres well but I'm concerned sanding may pull chunks out of it like with the pink foam. Maybe you can tell me the trick to getting that soft green foam to stick together. Man I'd appreciate it. Also, I was hoping you could tell me the mixing ratio for your "milkshake." Thanks so much man!

Josch
 
Thank man. I used some of that expanding foam as well for part of mine and hated it as well. For the same reasons you mentioned: hard to sand and chunks up. Some people have good success with it, but it didn't agree with me.

To stick the bricks together I used 3M Hi-Strength 90. I'm surprised you had problems with it as it worked great for me. Wondering if the bricks are the same material. Did you spray the glue on both pieces and let them sit for a minute before sticking together? If your going to use the bricks, make sure you put them together so that the middle seam matches up with the centre of the bike, makes getting symmetry much easier. I didn't do this and makes it harder to visually see if everything is symmetrical, throws the eye off.

This was the first time I used a milkshake and I read the ratio is around 5:1 (body filler:resin), but I basically took out enough body filler to do the job and just added resin until it was the right consistency for what I was doing. When I was adding the resin I took note of how much I was adding so that I could add the correct amount of MEKP. Also, added the correct amount of body filler hardener.

Best of luck.
 
Thanks for the reply. You know, I did spray both sides and let sit until they were very tacky but it seems like the bricks I had were so soft that the adhesion was broken at each joint simply by the soft powder pulling off the surface of the joint. Maybe they were different material than yours. I ended up using the harder green foam for artificial plants, it turned out great! The only downside is that the cells are pretty large, so the form will probably soak up a ton of that milkshake. I'm going to go mix it right now, I'll snap some pix when I'm done. Thanks again!

Josch
 
oooooh hell ya!!! i have been putting it off longer and longer to do my seat pan cause i had NO CLUE how i was going to do it... man this is truely a GREAT IDEA!!! I love the seat pan with the 1x wood added to it... what a fantastic idea... that will allow you to staple that fabric and still have it fit super tight... MAN! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!! i may actually start on this tonight... i really dig that pan idea...
 
HerrDeacon said:
Yes, I wetsand after every stage (i.e. primer, colour and clear).

I love painting with Tremclad. I painted my car a couple of years ago using the roller method and would have done the bike as well but I couldn't get a colour combo that I liked in Tremclad. Durable stuff too.

Yeah, be sure to post some pics of the progress. Best of luck.

I painted a car using the roller method and Rustoleum that turned out pretty nice. Have thought about doing the same when I paint Maggie.
 
BigBSBusa said:
I painted a car using the roller method and Rustoleum that turned out pretty nice. Have thought about doing the same when I paint Maggie.

Cool, any pics of the car? Pretty durable too, isn't it. I've had mine done for two years now and no issues. I almost have the itch to paint it again just to change colours :D
 
i just wanted to say that i typed "how to make a cafe seat" in google and this is the first link. this thread is extremely informative, thank you.
 
degenerate said:
i just wanted to say that i typed "how to make a cafe seat" in google and this is the first link. this thread is extremely informative, thank you.

LOL, that's interesting. :)

Post some pics when you build yours.
 
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Did he ever say how he accesses the cubby after the seat was put on? I'd love to see the seat have a hinge and be able to access it.
 
The cushion section of the seat is only attached with velcro, so it can be removed at anytime to gain access to the cubby.
 
are both sections (bottom and back) of the cushioning attached with velcro? that was the one question I had after going through this awesome tutorial.
 
I only had velcro on the bottom horizontal part. The pan for the cushion was one piece and I never really needed any velcro on the vertical section.
 
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