Seat staple gun

[zorroz]

What sort of staple gun is strong enough to do seat covers? My bunnings job doesn't penetrate the seat so was looking on egay and saw these ones. Would this do the job?
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/281652333683?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[mick25]

Go for a powered brand staple gun
I have a heavy duty staple gun and not a cheap one and it hasn't got enough grunt to do the job .
Go for stainless steel staples to .

[Momus]

I tried couple of cheap hand staplers then went for a American air operated unit with heavy guage staples. Only way to go. You adjust the air to get the penetration right. I forget the brand though it was bought from website for about $100 US.

[Trokel510]

What sort of staple gun is strong enough to do seat covers? My bunnings job doesn't penetrate the seat so was looking on egay and saw these ones. Would this do the job?
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/281652333683?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I have one like that but never found it to be not much chop so I bought an electric one from BigW probably about 15 years ago for $25 and it still does a great job.


Aside from the money savings I find it to be very rewarding making my own seat covers from scratch.
Here's the one I made for the 510



And recently I started doing the lettering on them as well.
Here's one I did for the old XL250R

and the CR - this one was a bit rough as it was traced off the lettering on the old seat which was not original. But since then with a bit of practice I have improved and I think the last one that I did on the XR came up really well.


And a later model XR that I bought recently



Now I just need to get around to making one for my old 84' XR250

[skypig]

Trokel510

Some really nice work there!
Do you have apoulstery or sewing training?

[zorroz]

Thanks for thr tips guys powered stapler it is. Trokel, looks like you know how to cover a seat. What the hot tip for a 1st timer? I have and old seat to practice with but 1st ?

[Ted]

Hot tip.....Heat gun

[Trokel510]

Trokel510

Some really nice work there!
Do you have apoulstery or sewing training?

No training whatsoever apart from 1 term of sewing class that I did in year 7 at High School  . As far as motor bike seats are concerned I began by practicing on some old AG bikes that I used to have .

Thanks for thr tips guys powered stapler it is. Trokel, looks like you know how to cover a seat. What the hot tip for a 1st timer? I have and old seat to practice with but 1st

I have been buying my Upholstery from a local professional upholstery business and have found it to be a lot better to work with than some of the other stuff that I have bought in the past from fabric shops. This is a good time of year to do it as well because it is easier to stretch when it is warm and tension is the key to getting out the wrinkles. A heat gun also helps with this. Some of the more basic seats can be done without any sewing but it can make it harder to stretch it around neatly. If sewing is required I usually unpick the original cover to use it as a template.

[skypig]

I did one term of sewing in year 7 as well.
Should have spent that term learning to spell.....

[crash n bern]

Go an electric staple gun, I've got a bosch-ptk14e duotac. Electric might be a bit more versatile than air powered around the house unless you have a long air hose. My Bosch takes little brad nails which is handy as for nailing quad and other small timber bits.

Trokel, that's some great workmanship, I taught my self to sew as my mother refused to patch my jeans and have had a bash at upholstery.  Nothing as neat as what you have done, appreciate the effort you have put in to get that result.

[Trokel510]

Trokel, that's some great workmanship, I taught my self to sew as my mother refused to patch my jeans and have had a bash at upholstery.  Nothing as neat as what you have done, appreciate the effort you have put in to get that result.

Thanks.
 All this talk about seats got me inspired to finally redo the one on the ol' XR250R today.
Here's a before and some after pics of the process. Although there was a few things I could have done better I was still happy with the end result.










One of the things that has a big impact on the end result is the condition of the foam and if it is bad it can be quite challenging to repair. In this case the foam was good but a couple of my other bikes took a lot more work to repair the foam in order to get a reasonable result. So there is another important tip - If your seat is cracking up, recover it sooner rather than later as once the foam is exposed it starts to deteriorate quickly and will make the job much harder in order to get a good result.

Oh and I have to thank my mother in-law for giving me her 1950's vintage singer sewing machine a while back as the expensive modern Janome one the missus has was struggling to do the job. Just another example of how well things were built in the old days.

[Mike52]

Sweet job on the xr seat.

Here's something interesting.
New material.
No sewing at all.
XR400

[Trokel510]

Here's something interesting.
New material.
No sewing at all.
XR400

It does look Interesting. So what is it called and where do you get it from?

[Mike52]

Here's something interesting.
New material.
No sewing at all.
XR400

It does look Interesting. So what is it called and where do you get it from?

Sorry Trokel510. Paid $340 to Bill at Guzzler Motorcycle Seats in Brisbane for the Adventure riding mod and liked the cunning material he used.

[fred99999au]

I bought an air operated upholstery stapler from the US. The point of difference is that it has a long nose to get into those tight spots on seat pans that the flat ones cant get to.

The model I have is a Unicatch 7116L