Bimota DB2: Seat suite

Here is a summary of the work on the seat that I finished today.

It started with two problems:
1) The vinyl was loose on both sides of the seat and it didn’t look very nice.
2) When I tried to dismount the seat from the monocoque the fastening nuts was very rusty and almost impossible to remove.

With lots of WD40 and careful use of a hot air gun I finally managed to remove the nuts and the seat. I decided that I needed to re-glue the seat vinyl, and also to make a new fastening bracket from stainless steel.

I made the new bracket from 3mm stainless steel and slightly larger than the original. I also used about 5mm shorter screws since the length of the originals made it difficult to remove the seat. A friend at work has a TIG-welder and helped me welding the screws to the plate.
To attach the new bracket to the fibre glass base of the seat I used an adhesive film that’s very easy to work with and has very good adhesivity. With the new bracket in place I glued back the piece of foam I cut out using a contact adhesive Casco Kontaktlim S9 Super from Akzo Nobel. The adhesive was chosen after recommendations on Internet forums for Car audio builders. It’s a good adhesive for gluing vinyl and withstands heat on a hot sunny day very good. When the foam was back in place I gently sanded it to get a smooth surface. I guess that very small irregularity will been seen through the vinyl when it is stretched over the foam.

I carefully cleaned the edges of the seat base and the edges of the vinyl and applied the contact adhesive. From the Car Audio people I learned that vinyl can be stretched quite a bit if it is gently heated with a hot air gun. Taking grate care not to overheat the vinyl I warmed it and stretched it back in place. It was easy to work with the vinyl and the adhesive seemed to work well and felt very strong.

I’m quite satisfied with the result and it feels really good to be able to put the seat aside and know that it is ready!