Seat cover fitment issues

[BlackThunder]

Hey everyone. I am trying to cover my seat with a cover from "pit replica" it seems that it is slightly the wrong model. There is a lot of excess material and I'm wondering if I can add some foam somehow and get this seat cover to fit snug or any other ideas that might help, because i'd hate to waste this 60 dollar seat cover...

Untitled by David Torres, on Flickr

Untitled by David Torres, on Flickr

[Grimly]

Adding foam is easy enough, the difficulty is getting the right stuff and not pay through the nose for it.
You'd think it was spun from pure gold, by some of the foamster's prices.
Pit Replica have a good name hereabouts, so if they made a wrong sized one, it's likely either a) the pattern seat they made it for was already non-standard and had too much foam, or b) yours is foam-deficient, either through age and wear or a PO had it lowered with some foam cut out of it.

[Gorminrider]

Yes, if you know yours is "stock", I'd email Pitreplica if only to inform them.

As to foam maybe the easiest local bet is "bed" foam from a store that sells foam mattresses . Bedfoam comes in various hardness these days and scraps maybe available. Real bedfoam does not tire out easily! Or an auto-upholsterer. My local town is about-umm 20,000 perps and I have both shops here so they should be as common where you are?

I guess you could use hard (blue) camping foam from just about anywhere but I wouldn't except as a filler behind real foam... It'd be hard to get the seatcover to conform.

You might ask at the foamstore how to glue it so it won't shift when you are fitting the cover but some sprayon glues will do it -3M is preferred I believe....looks like you've done a good job by the way.

[rphillips]

That cover just looks like it isn't correct for your seat. I'd have to talk with Pit Replica. If not, let a auto upholstery shop fix it, they should have the correct foam, know how to build it up & put it together so it looks correct. Just my opinion. Good luck.

[BlackThunder]

Thanks for the suggestions. I notice my seat looks something like this



The cover I ordered, different (my fault, knew it was a risk...)

[rphillips]

Phone call's are cheap, see what they say. Surely they'll have an explanation, Especially if you can show them pictures.

[BlackThunder]

I sent them an email because I couldn't find a phone number. This could possibly be the correct seat cover but its hard to tell without seeing it installed on a seat

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SUZUKI-GS850-GL-GS850GL-T-1980-GS750-L-GS750L-T-X-1980-1981-SEAT-COVER-STRR/172898647158?hash=item28418ffc76:g:DHcAAOSw1BlZPIRE

[Alan Schlosser]

That seat cover looks like my 82 GS1100L looks like. Not similar to what seems to be yours.

[BlackThunder]

I got an email back from Pit-replica. They told me I ordered the wrong year seat cover and I should try and sell it to recoup some of the money, and that I would have to pay for shipping to Thailand (probably expensive I'm guessing). I also put a small, 1mm tear in this seat cover trying to pull it snuggly over the foam. I'm wondering if I would get a good result from a local upholstery shop just making/installing a simple cover, because I'm not sure if I trust myself (or the strength of the pit-replica cover) to not put any more tears in the cover. I did not expect it to tear so easily during my attempted install, because I was being somewhat careful, but I guess this type thing requires extreme finesse.

[BlackThunder]

I called a local upholster today to find out how much it would cost to fit a new seat cover (not the wrong one I bought, the correct cover) he said $75 to fit it. That seems very high, it would probably take an experienced upholster about 10 or 15 minutes to install that I'm guessing without too much trouble because its the exact fit cover pre made.

[Burque73]

That price doesn't sound too bad actually. If the upholstery shop tears it, they'll have to buy another one. If that happens then their 15 minute job is a wash.

[LAB3]

I paid $35 for my cover on ebay and the upholstery shop wanted $60 to staple it onto the plastic seat pan. Needless to say I now have a $25 harbor freight power stapler! I'd always heard that carpet foam is what they use to make custom seats and if i had an old Yoga mat around I'd be game to try that.

[BlackThunder]

I paid $35 for my cover on ebay and the upholstery shop wanted $60 to staple it onto the plastic seat pan. Needless to say I now have a $25 harbor freight power stapler! I'd always heard that carpet foam is what they use to make custom seats and if i had an old Yoga mat around I'd be game to try that.

I think plastic seat pans are probably easier to recover. My seat pan is metal so it just has the sharp teeth. I'll just call around and see if I can get a better price. Worst case scenario I will pay the cost they charge and spend about $135 all together and just have a good looking seat and be done and over with it.