Purchase commercially available repro upholstery and try DIY "seat reupholstery" [Part 1].

If new complete seats of reproduction (reproduction remanufactured parts) are available, or if such parts are not sold for a model, the usual practice would be to ask a professional store to reupholster the seats. In addition, some popular models have genuine-type "reproduction seat covers" available for sale. Here, let's take on the challenge of DIY seat upholstery for the ever-popular Kawasaki 750RS/Z2.

Rainwater" enters the seat through the torn and diseased area of the seat skin.

After years of use, the surface of the seat skin has become smooth and wrinkled. In addition, the pattern has been torn and broken. This time, I will try to replace it with a commercially available duplicate seat surface.

Popular models of old cars have reproduction upholstery in the original design.

Reproduction seat upholstery based on the manufacturer's genuine seat design. In the past, such products were not available, but due to the old car boom, it seems to be easier to find reproduction parts for popular models.

The material's sheen, the feel of the grain, and the gussets, which are the "hooks" that are important when reupholstering, were sewn on the folded side. It is a product with a high degree of perfection.

Fans will also appreciate the cushioned construction of the patterned section, similar to that of the factory seat. If you have the chance, you want to purchase a product that is made with the utmost care and attention.

I used materials available at home centers.

Once you have made the decision to replace the seat upholstery, do the "best" you can. While it is best to hire a professional store for reupholstery, since we are doing DIY reupholstery here, we purchased commonly available repair materials at a home improvement center. Bond G17 is easy to use for gluing sponges.

The area where the sponge dancers overlap the steel plate at the bottom of the seat is often cut off due to deterioration of the seat for older cars. It is useful to have repair sponges of different thicknesses and densities.

For the areas where the bottom steel plate rubs against the skin and could tear the skin, we decided to re-set the protective braid that was cut and sold. The original protective braid had already fallen off due to deterioration.

Beware of "shark-tooth" conditions that can snag the epidermis.

Release the seat epidermis by putting back the "alligator tooth" like hook that hooks and holds the epidermis in place. If the hook is likely to break just by putting it back in, a new hook should be installed or the alligator teeth should be reinforced with brazing or sheet metal solder before it breaks.

Once all the hooks are back (not bent back completely, but back just enough to remove the outer skin), slowly and gently remove the factory seat skin. The damage inside is still terrible.

While removing the seat upholstery, unfortunately two of the hooks broke off. If they are reinforced with "brazing" or "sheet metal solder" before they are completely broken, they can be reused.

I managed to remove the seat skin. Since it was disassembled to this state, it would be amazingly good if the steel plate bottom was repainted. I will not repaint it this time.

Damp sponge iron should be dried completely in the shade!

Seat sponges often absorb moisture due to tears or breaks in the seat surface skin. This causes the sponge to collapse and rust on the bottom steel plate. Dry them in the shade.

The inside of the steel sheet bottom is correctly fixed with sheet sponge and adhesive, but in many cases the sponge has separated after years of use. Rust in the adhesive area is removed with a wire brush.

A protective braid is set on the outer edge of the steel sheet bottom to prevent skin breakage. On the seat being worked on this time, the front molding had fallen off. This is the kind of part that needs to be repaired.

Hot glue = glue gun for fixing the protective molding.

I decided to attach a vinyl braid purchased at Home Depot to the edge. Since it would come off if simply inserted, I used hot glue to hold it in place.

Hot bond was applied to the edge tips and the braid was covered (pushed in) and secured before it cooled. Not only the new molding, but also the old molding to be reused was fixed with hot bond.

Since the old molding could not be restored for the front part of the seat (the shape was also deformed due to deterioration), a vinyl molding purchased at a home improvement store was used. The curvature was adjusted by heating it with a heater.

After warming with a heater, the curved shape could be made to mimic the shape. If it is fixed with hot bond, the shape can be maintained + skin breakage can be prevented. This method seems to be a good way to regenerate missing moldings.

Seat condition is an important factor in determining the overall condition of a machine, not just an out-of-print used car. The "aging paint" technique, in which a faded gasoline tank is repainted with the same faded look, is becoming increasingly popular these days, but it is difficult to achieve the ideal condition for seat covers, which should have no tears or rips, and the covers themselves should be resilient. However, it is not always possible to obtain the ideal condition, because the seat surface deteriorates as the vehicle is ridden, and by the time one notices it, it is often "torn" or the sponge is "falling off". If you want to keep your genuine seats in the best condition as they are, you should store them in a place with little humidity and out of the sun.

Let's practice DIY seat upholstery here. For machine owners who want to reproduce the atmosphere of the genuine seats, we recommend the use of "reproduction seat upholstery" called reproduction parts. In these days of popularity of old cars, there are cases where "reproduction seat covers for reupholstery" of high quality and close to the atmosphere of genuine seats are sold separately. You can purchase such reproduction upholstery and bring it to a professional seat upholstery store, but if you are a handy Sun-mech, you should be able to do DIY seat upholstery. The important thing to remember, however, is that reupholstering is difficult unless the "hook" condition of the seat bottom steel plate is in good condition. Another important condition is that the seat sponge is in good condition and has not lost its shape (it is also important that it has not been uncoated in the past). If these conditions are met, it may be possible to reupholster the seats using commercially available reproduction upholstery.

In this case, we used a genuine Kawasaki seat as a base, and tried to achieve domestic Z2 specifications by DIY reupholstering of the repro surface skin and installation of a seatbelt. Since the condition of the base seat was relatively good, the work went smoothly. First, let's report on the removal of the sponge anchor and reworking of the seat bottom steel plate as the first part.