Ok, so I buy a new seat cover for the old VF500 on ebay. I was going to put it on myself, but I have never done it and I'm not sure if I need any special staples or what have you so I have my wife take it to the local shop. The guy there says he wants $80 to do it. Now mind you, I have already removed the old cover and the staples and brought him a cover that's already made to fit. There is one minor foam area that needs repair. Am I just a cheapskate or is that ridiculous? I told my wife to get it back and we'll figure it out ourselves. I was thinking $20-30 but there's no way in hell I'm paying $80 for that small amount of work. So anyone ever covered your own seat and have it look decent? What do I need to watch out for? What do I need? Can I fix the foam where a small chunk is missing?
Find a quote from another upholsterer. I had my 78 Suzuki's seat recovered with them making the cover from scratch and everything and it was $80. They should only charge like $25 for whatyou want done....it's really only labor. You might search the net on how to upholster your own seat, but you might have to buy special tools, adhesives, and foam padding. Don't forget to think about that! Always get more than one quote and take the stuff with you to show them.
Find a piece of extra foarm somewhere (Junkyard) and cut to fit to the seat. Putting your cover should not be too differcult. have yourself a staple gun ($12 at HomeDepot). Heat your seat cover with hair dryer so it can stretch easily to cover the whole seat. You can also throw the seat cover into dryer and for several mins just hot enough for them to stretch then slap it on the seat. Should not be too hard.
I've never re-covered a motorcycle seat, but I have done a bucket seat from a car I've been restoring and BTT is right on when he says to heat it first. I put mine in the dryer for a while and it made the job much, much easier. Might think about having a buddy help, too. An extra set of hands helped me keep it nice and tight. Only tools I used were a staple gun, plyers, and a razor blade for trimming.
Yeah, I saw that from BTT and thought 'that sounds like a good idea' I figured what the hell, I'll give it a try and if it works, it's a good how-to before and after, if it doesn't it goes to a pro and they fix it.
UPDATE - ok, I tried getting the seat cover on. It looked pretty good, but I tried 1/4 staples and they were too short so I went to 1/2 in which did the job but went through the plastic in some places. Anyway, I couldn't get one part to stretch right even with heating. I think I'm just gonna give in and pay a pro if I can find an honest one. I tried to take pics to put up and see if I was doing it right cause it's kinda weird to me how the cover was made. It's folded and sewn and I can't figure if I'm supposed to be putting the edge of the seat along the sewn part of fold it over and put the staple through all the folded part. Take a look at the pics and see if you can piece together what I'm saying...
