I had an upholstery person lined up to repair/recover my '01 Road King Classic seat but it fell through b/c of the thick side piece with the RK logo on it. I gave them the seat before removing the cover to make sure they could handle that thick piece. I was told it could be done, so bought the new material. I guess they didn't really look at the seat too well. When I had removed the cover and sent the seat, they then told me their machine couldn't go through the piece with the logo.
So, I did some careful repairs re-gluing the tears for now.
Here's my question: The center of the seat at the seam has some loops on the back that these little aluminum pieces go through. The cord is attached under the frabric them pulls through the pan to the underside where they need to be tightened but I can't figure out how to pull the fabric and cord tight and then knot or tie it while still maintaining the tension. Not sure if that is clear, but hopefully the pics will show what I mean and someone can tell me how to do this.
In one of the pics, you can see the string coming through the foam and pan to the underside. I need to put the string through that hole then somehow pull it tight to keep the seat fabric down snug to the foam in the center part. The little metal piece then spans the hole to keep the seat material pulled down. Where I am pointing on the seat is where the other clip is attached through a loop on the underside of the fabric.

 

I would use a trigger clamp or a c-clamp to compress the area, tie the knot and then simply release it.

 

Hey Prockey:

Any chance you could tie a couple of loops and then use a zip tie to snug it down?

Regards,
Crankster

 

That might work. It seems like there should be a way to make a knot that could be snugged up to pull the seat material down tight. I'm looking at some upholstery videos to try to find a method to do this.

 

prockey:

If you do not want to do a zip tie, you can loop a string back and forth three or four times and pull it tight such that it multiplies the pull. Usually the friction of the multiple loops will hold it while you tie the string with minimal loss of length.

Crankster

 

look up sliding slip knot

 

That's a hog ring. You need hog ring pliers. Pull the cord tight through the pan, then use the pliers to crimp a new hog ring around the cord on the underside. It's a two-handed job. Watch an upholstery video on YouTube for motorcycle seats, it'll show the technique.