I'm sure it's going to come up lovely, be sure to only grind what you really have to from the welds. It is only 1.2mm sheetmetal and easy to go too far on something you may never see. I hope it still 'pans' out straight using the new rubbers as a straight edge guide, if not you will have to shave the rubber with a blade as discussed.
the seat pan has been derusted and while pitted on the top side where the water would sit when the seat gets soaked the metal is still solid, and the bottom side is mainly fine. the pan has been zinc platead and courtesy of Dodgy Customs it has been sprayed with two coats of etch primer.
painted the pan yesterday and very happy with the finish, satin black. after all the treatment it got the pan is now at least twice as thick as the original and looks 4 times as thick! off to the upholsterer tomorrow with the new cover to see if he might be able to cut foam to the required shape and put all together
i have an article in the latest CMM on upholstering seats.......
good timing cmoore... if your offer to send me a mail on fitting transfers is still on maybe you could include this article as well. though, i have done bike seats (and furniture upholstery) myself before and not that interested in doing this one without the proper foam-cutting knife
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nice job on that seat base, got a few tucked in back of shed if you need more practice so you dont lose the art.
here's the story: took the original seat to a car upholsterer and said: i've got the new base and the new cover for this seat, could you cut a piece of new foam on the basis of the original and then put everything together? the guy says no problemo. then 6 WEEKS LATER (apparently a problem with getting a piece of foam from the suplier) the guy says all done. very exciting... my new seat... i come to the shop and the new seat looks NOTHING like the original (and as it will be discovered later it cant even fit on the bike), it's visibly flatter, longer, wider, thicker... with no defining edges... the striping at the back is not symetrical on both sides and so aren't the holes for the seat rail. being pretty sick from all the wait i only said well the new seat seems a bit different to me than the original... the guy replies, oh well, that's because the cover is different size... fuming like a steam pot, i go home, strip both seats right back, compare the covers and the new cover is EXACTLY the same measurements as the original and fits perfectly on the original foam. but now the extent of the botch up becomes clear as the original and the new foam sit side by side. you be the judge.
so, 6 weeks of wait and $200 down the drain and with 2 surplus holes for the seat rail (as i needed to punch 2 new out) this is my semi-new seat (new base and cover but on original foam):
