Bum perch......................

Well I've not been entirely idle.

I've spent hours, cutting, grinding, brushing, rubbing down and painting the old seat pan. Carefully shaping it to fit flush with the frame, maintaining the original hinges (I'm still hung up about accessing the two stroke oil tank) and giving it a coat of hard black paint, after removing the gold Hammerite, and the rust underneath.



Don't like it! I thought I'd like the seat to have a little kick up at the rear. I don't. The hinges don't sit flush with the frame, protruding 7mm. Looks wrong, even though the exhaust will cover it up.

Plan B then.

I cut the first seat pan out of some left over alloy chequer plate I had. I then pondered for ages over how I was going to fix it to the frame. Without a welder, I'm limited to making bracket's and hinges that will rivet or bolt on. In the end, I realised I'd cut it 30/40mm to short, and the rear was just a bit to squared of. Without any more alloy, I turned to some sheet steel. The second cut (after I did what I should have done and used some card for a template) and I'm happy.

Now as I've already cut the seat subframe down, and needed to make good, and I would ideally like to weld the seat pan, and the expansion chamber I bought would need cutting and welding, and I'd need to fabricate some hangers for it, and weld them on, and.......................... I bought a MIG welder.

It's a pretty basic, 4 setting 130amp welder, hopefully it will do what I want

Not easy welding, is it? Armed with a useless instruction manual, and after watching two or three really bad "how to weld" instructional's on You Tube, I've locked myself away, with some off cuts of mild steel, and welded......and welded, and, sadly, not very well.

The steel pan is quite heavy. A bit more so than the stock pan, so, armed with some hole cutter's, I've (to quote the late Colin Chapman) added lightness. Although it wont be seen (but I'll know it's there) I've then bolted on some Stainless Mesh I'd had in my garage for more than 20 years (bought to make an MG Midget Grille, but never used) I'll then wrap the underside of the foam in a contrasting vinyl - orange sounds good - before adding a black seat cover.

Just ordered some flat head socket screw's, which will look better

The "Hook" is 30mm od pipe, cut and welded. There's zero sideways or forward movement.

Tabs hold the mesh firmly in place. The seat pad will cover all this.

I've been busy with the welder, fabricating an oil tank. I'll get that posted tomorrow.

The disc conversion is in place, bar the pipe, which I'll not fit until the final build, and the flat bars ordered are also fitted.