Cafe seat build...

[TheCafeKid]

So n1elkyfan came by today. He's working on building a fibreglass tank. Me...i bought a cafe seat on ebay..exactly what i was looking for...One problem, it's way to wide for our GS frames. I mean this thing is simply massive.

Needless to say i was a little dissapointed, and the search continued for a different seat. While elkyfan was over we got to talking about possibly cutting the excess out of this seat i bought and 'glassing it back together.

Well, if i was going to do that, why not just build one exactly like i want, that fits, from scratch. Why not? Im no artist, never carved in my life. Screw it, lets try it.

Step one: Buy the supplies. Open cell foam from Michael's arts and crafts. I bought 4 5x5 blocks, a 2x24x12 block and and another block 1/4x24x12.

Here's what it started out as.



Glued together the blocks with the glue for this purpose (forgot to mention that i bought that also)
And after a bit of cuting and carving..it was starting to take shape..

[Ironriot]

n1elkyfan turned you to the dark side huh? Pretty cool so far..... I also see that your frame darkened up a bit. Looks nice. More bronzy and less golden.

BTW you have a PM

[TheCafeKid]

Lil more cutty cutty and shavey shavey..and we wanted to see how it looked on the bike so far


Here's our finished foam buck, ready for 'glass, and that will come tomorrow.



I'll post up some more pics tomorrow as we go...what do you guys think so far??

[Ironriot]

Dude the finished product looks F*ing awesome. Killer job man

[TheCafeKid]

Thanks man! Thanks to elky too for helping me so much with it. It was alot of "how the fvck are we gonna get it to look like that???" It went actually alot easier than i thought it would. We'll see how easily the 'glassing goes, as we found pretty quick it could turn into a bigger job than i thought. I figured that part would be easy, and making the buck would be hard...lol

[n1elkyfan]

Things never goes the way you think it will. can't wait to get this thing glassed so that we can start to see the final product.

[Ironriot]

Can't wait either. You two are brave souls. I think about fiberglass and shudder. Thinking about how I can screw it up or how big of a mess I can make turns me off of the whole thing.... BTW would either of you happen to know if fiberglass is impervious to heat? Like extreme heat lol

[n1elkyfan]

Look like the limit for fiberglass parts have a limit of 200-300 degrees depending on what resin you use.

[Ironriot]

Lol well that blows. Ok looks like that's out of the question for what I was thinking about using it for

[TheCafeKid]

The resin is the key i think. Most of the baffles we put on our bikes use fibreglass wadding i think, and that obviously can withstand heat.

[Ironriot]

Very true. Now that I think about it. Fiberglass is flame retardant after all. (Home insulation duh me )

[TheCafeKid]

Elky!!! We may have serious issues...check your PM....

[Ironriot]

If its about the resin eating the foam its no biggie

[TheCafeKid]

Ima try to cover it with alu foil and see how well that works. I dunno bout elmers glue..

[Ironriot]

Yeah I've never heard of using elmer's before. I know I've seen alu foil used and the end result is pretty good. Just got to be careful not to rip it when applying it. Also look online for a good release agent. I'd like to think petroleum jelly would work but that's just crazy thinking. Hell maybe KY would work lol. Either way something just to help keep that resin from sticking to the alum foil