04 & up spring seat mount for 10 bucks
 

A friend of mine wanted a spring seat on his 09 Iron. We looked at mount kits because he didn't want his bike down too long and what I've noticed is that the kits available for these bikes are ridiculously overpriced.

Here's his bike. Tired of hauling a passenger & ready to ride solo.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...0810102312.jpg

What it looks like with the seat off...I'm sure everyone knows what this looks like.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...0810102317.jpg

Took it apart enough to do the work.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...0811100407.jpg

Cut three pieces of 1.25" wide plate.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...0811100032.jpg

Bent the two short pieces with a hammer in the bench vise.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...0811100037.jpg

Drilled holes where I needed them.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...0811100100.jpg

Before I welded the pieces together I needed some measurements but first I had turn the rear tank mount into a pivot bushing.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...0811100209.jpg

I enlarged the holes in the tank and in the frame (where the tank bolts) to fit these bushings.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...0811100214.jpg

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...0811100228.jpg

The tank is very secure with the bushings tapped in. I chose this style of bushing because the frame mounts are rarely perfectly aligned with the tank mount but mostly so the front seat pivot mount can do its job without damaging the paint on the tank mount and the powdercoat on the seat mount.


Fitted the pieces snug, took some measurements & tacked the mount together.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...0811100140.jpg

Fully welded & final test fit.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...0811100232.jpg

Template for the frame cover/pan.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...0811100423.jpg

Test fit after it was cut & bent. I bent this one in the vise as well.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...0811100508.jpg

It's bolted in existing holes where the oil tank is mounted to the frame.

Here it is reassembled ready to go.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...0811100842.jpg

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...0811100904.jpg

I did two bikes at the same time so I stopped taking pics toward the end...and they were taken with my phone so the quality is crap but you get the idea.

All I did to mount the rear springs was drill holes in the frame and tap them for through bolts. The frame in this area is formed plate, not tube so a simple bolt with a nut on the opposing side would be just fine but the rear fender will need to be removed to take the seat off if needed.

So there it is. Ten bucks and just a few hours.

Nice work! That's awesome.

Howzit
 

Very cool,this might just be my next project.

Thanks. His has 3" springs. He wants to put rigid struts on it now & I think that'll make it look better. I'm usually not a fan of seat springs & rear coils together...but it looks pretty cool. I powdercoated the parts mirror black but I guess I forgot to take pics of that.

I'm doing an 04 real soon so I'll try to take better pics. Everything is exactly the same except for the big hole left in the fender on the 07-09's.

I've been admiring the chopped fender and spring seat jobs that I've seen on here and I'm tempted to to it myself. Where are you guys buying the seats from?

Ebay has a ton of them. I got the one on my Nightster from J&P Cycles.

Ever thought about making extra and selling them?

I would be interested

Looks great and is probably much better quality than the one I got from HD and it was ridiculously priced. Wish I had your talent.

I would be interested also.

Sweet job - love the retro look - I wanted to buy the HD kit but it does`nt work on the 2008 - for some dumb reason it works on the 04-07 and 2010 but not the 2008.