Looking to buy a '82 cafe project. need seat info.

Looking to buy a '82 cafe project. Needs seat pan fabrication (seat pan and rear sub frame has been cut off), needs a battery, gauges etc. any ideas how to construct the seat and fender.

For the seat of our project we decided the form we wanted by paging through hundreds of cafe racer images on the net and then adding our own twist. I mocked it up in cardboard and made a template I took to a local metal shop who cut it out and folded up the front section and rear section as 2 pieces. I welded them together myself and smoothed them out with body filler and welded some mounting brackets on the bottom. For the cushion, I kerf cut a piece of 1/4" plywood and covered it with fiberglass to maintain the shape and had a family member sew up the cover. I reused the original foam after shaping it with a razor knife and stretched the cover over the foam and attached to the plywood with staples. I attached the finished cushion to the pan with small bolts thru the plywood and drilled matching holes in the pan.

How does it handle after you lowered the angle of the rear shocks? I've been thinking about doing it myself but I'm worried about getting flung of the road on every turn Also does it put more stress on the shocks?

Beautiful bike btw

Welcome to the Forum.
Looks like you are starting off with an '82 Seca dohc. These have mono-shocks so the conversion will be different.
The upper part of the frame is the same as the Maxim's. A couple of folks on here have had some success.

http://www.xs400.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5824

http://www.xs400.com/forum/showpost.php?p=86353&postcount=50

http://www.xs400.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9972