What to do about my seat?

JPaganel

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I have the 1978 bench seat. The vinyl is splitting at the seam. I can get a new cover (my wife actually offered to make one), but I noticed that the seat pan has a crack and is a little rusty.

I am not having much luck in the Classifieds(http://www.xs400.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8486). I also struck out at the junkyard, since all of the seats with the right pan style were worse than mine, with pans rusted out really badly. The one seat of the right kind on eBay that doesn't cost $100 or more also has a cracked pan.

I don't want to build a cafe racer, a bobber, or anything else out of this. I just really want a functional bike. I could probably try to weld up the crack, but I'm not a very good welder.

Are there sources for decent pans, or ideas on some other seat I could use that would fit? Or any other suggestions on what to do about this?
 
If you're not a great welder, maybe you can braze it up with a patch over it for reinforcement. If your wife has any reasonable sewing experinece she should be able to pull apart the old seat cover and use it as a pattern for a new one.
 
If your wife has any reasonable sewing experinece she should be able to pull apart the old seat cover and use it as a pattern for a new one.

Her skills I have no doubt in whatsoever. She makes far more complicated things on a regular basis.
 
My seat is plastic, Since you local to here, You could call that place in jordan, for a new to you "Used seat" They had quite a assortment of bikes there. PM me, or look in some of my post from the last month. I am sure I put there web site on here. (I am at work, and can not remember what the name of their website is. I just called them yesterday.
Tobie
 
The place in Jordan is Sportwheel. www.sportwheel.com

The thing about Sportwheel is they have a ton of bikes and parts, but they don't keep inventory. I've been there, dug through the horrendous dusty piles of seats, and found nothing I could use. All three of the early seats with the steel pan were rusted all to hell. They mostly have the late seats with the plastic pan that mount completely differently. I would have to redo so much, it isn't really worth it.
 
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