Seat Repair

[Pappy49]

I have a Road Zeplin seat that I am replacing with a stock seat on my 02 Glide conversion. The extra size of the seat makes it hard to remove the side panels when needed and it rubs the paint on the top of them. I picked up a seat with perfect upholstery but there is the common crack where the front retainer bracket is attached. Knowing this is only going to get worse I figured to repair it before putting the seat to use.

My idea is to pull back the front of the upholstery and foam, heat weld the crack and then reinforce the area with a thin metal plate and fiberglass from the inside. The rivets for the bracket will have to be drilled out but I can reattach it with short bolts and lock nuts. Will probably add some red thread locker just to make sure the bolts don't come loose.

Any thoughts on how I am approaching the problem/solution?

 

[trike tech]

Only thing I'll add - If you can the direction the force was applied to cause the break; add a "ridge" (think the raised ridge in sheet metal roofing) in your metal support plate to prevent flex. It'll strengthen that much more & if nothing else may be cheap insurance.