Foam Race Seats...?

[wfarrell]

Has anybody out there got experience of making a foam race seat ?

 

I want to make a pukka fitted seat for the forthcoming race season.

 

I've seen DemonTweeks sell a product called 'Indi-Seat' as well as the basic

two-pack foam material - has anybody got experience of these products, or even (gulp) made a seat ?

 

Any help or info much appreciated.... :)

 

- Will -

 

--- www.TeamTool.co.uk ---

[Paul Gibb]

Will,

I have an Indi seat supplied by DT. I used a 70l bag which makes a large one piece seat with ample shoulder & thigh support. The kit was suprisingly easy to use and produces a seat that gives a little being considerably softer than conventional foam.

You will need a vacuum (I used an electric paddling pool pump) to remove air enough to make the bag workable. Practice a few times & then repeat having added the resin & fixative. Setting is slow allowing you to shape the bag around shoulders & under thighs whilst remembering to depress peddles. Once set the shape can be trimmed with a modelling knife allowing cutouts for crutch straps etc. I trimmed the seat with tank tape to protect edges and have used it for one season with no problems.

It is an expensive seat but IMO places you considerably lower in the car than the Tillet.

I will mail you pics.

Paul

 

L7 FUN

[wfarrell]

Paul,

 

Many thanks for the info - i totally agree re. Tillet seats - I'm 6ft and just can't get a good race driving position with the upright Tillet design

 

have a few questions for you:

- would you go for a 70l or a 60l kit if were to make another ?

- is it a two person job: is it possible to get in and out of the

cockpit during seat fitting without distorting the un-cured foam ?

- how much time did you have before the foam cured ?

- would a good vacuum cleaner have enough suction for the job (oo-er) ?

- how did you manage to prevent the base and back of the seat

becoming too thin during the fitting ?

- is the final product durable ?

 

lots of questions ! i wanna be confident before i send DThieves another

wedge of hard-earned...

 

Cheers - Will

 

--- www.TeamTool.co.uk ---

[SvenDriver]

I've just got some 2-part foam mix from a site reccommended elsewhere. www.cfsnet.co.uk. Much cheaper than DT. The foam sets within 5 minutes.

 

I've yet to actually do the seat but 1 eggcup of mixture foamed to 2/3 pint so I suspect that not much is needed. I think I'll have enough to do at least 1 seat maybe more

 

2Kg/(3l?) of foam mix with P&P was £16. The foam mix itself is about £9.

 

Now with correct URL

 

Edited by - SvenDriver on 27 Jan 2003 21:34:39

[westy]

I cannot get the link to work

csfnet.co.uk?

[mav]

www.cfsnet.co.uk or here

 

Used their products a couple of times now - best used in a warm environment to aid expansion and setting.

 

Online ordering is great and delivery service is top notch.

 

Foam does what is says on the tin.

 

 

[Gridgway]

I haven't used it yet, but I bought some from fsnet last week. Great service. I am planning to make a 'booster seat' to get my 14yr old close enough to the pedals. It'll prob just be an insert between her back and the back of the seat.

 

Graham

[Mike Bees]

Well, it *must* be time for this again:

 

A friend of mine once built a canoe. He spent a long time on it and

it was a work of art.

 

Almost the final phase was to fill both ends with polyurethane

expanding foam.

 

He duly ordered the bits from Mr Glasplies (an excellent purveyor of

all things fibreglass) and it arrived in two packs covered with

appropriately dire warnings about expansion ratios and some very good

notes on how to use it.

 

Unfortunately he had a degree, worse still two of them. One was in

Chemistry, so the instructions got thrown away and the other in

something mathematical because in a few minutes he was merrily

calculating the volume of his craft to many decimal places and the

guidelines got binned as well.

 

He propped the canoe up on one end, got a huge tin, carefully

measured the calculated amounts of glop, mixed them and quickly

poured the mixture in the end of the canoe (The two pack expands very

rapidly).

 

I arrived as he was completing this and I looked in to see the end

chamber over half full of something Cawdors Witches would have been

proud of. Two thing occurred to me, one was the label which said in

big letters "Caution - expansion ration 50:1" (or something similar)

and the other that the now empty tins said "approximately enough for

20 small craft"

 

Any comment was drowned out by a sea of yellow brown foam suddenly

pouring out of the middle of the canoe and the end of the canoe

bursting open. My friend screamed and leapt at his pride and joy

which was knocked to the ground as he started trying to bale handfuls

of this stuff out with his hands.

 

Knocking the craft over allowed the still liquid and not yet fully

expanded foam to flow to the other end of the canoe where it expanded

and shattered that end as well.

 

A few seconds later and we had a canoe with two exploded ends, a

mountain of solid foam about 4ft high growing out of the middle, and

a chemist firmly embedded up to his armpits in it.

 

At this stage he discovered the reaction was exothermic and his hands

and arms were getting very hot indeed. Running about in small

circles in a confined space while glued to the remains of a fairly

large canoe proved ineffective so he resorted to screaming a bit

instead.

 

Fortunately a Kukri was to hand so I attacked the foam around his

hands with some enthusiasm. The process was hindered by the noise he

was making and the fact he was trying to escape while still attached

to the canoe.

 

Eventually I managed to hack out a lump of foam still including most

of his arms and hands. Unfortunately my tears of laughter were not

helping as they accelerated the foam setting.

 

Seeking medical help was obviously out of the question, the

embarrassment of having to explain his occupation (Chief Research

Chemist at a major petrochemical organisation) would simply never

have been lived down. Several hours and much acrimony later we had

removed sufficient foam (and much hair) to allow him to move again.

However he still looked something like a failed audition for

Quasimodo with red burns on his arms and expanded blobs of foam

sticking everywhere. My comment that the scalding simply made the

hairs the foam was sticking to come out easier was not met with the

enthusiasm I felt it deserved.

 

I forgot to add that in retrospect rather unwisely he had set out to

do this deed in the hallway of his house (the only place he later

explained with sufficient headroom for the canoe - achieved by poking

it up the stairwell) .

 

Having extricated him we now were faced with the problem of a canoe

construction kit embedded in a still gurgling block of foam which was

now irrevocably bonded to the hall and stairs carpet as well as

several banister rails and quite a lot of wallpaper.

 

At this point his wife and her mother came back from shopping......

 

Oh yes - and he had been wearing the pullover Mum in law had knitted

him for his birthday the week before.

[Jason Plato]

😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬

 

I was hoping you would post that again Mike

 

Ps - how are you

 

dave

[Paul Gibb]

Will,

Pics have just been emailed. If you are v. tall the 60l bag may be big enough for you. Although the seat back appears thick at the top it is thin in the middle of my back.

The seat shape is held by vacuuming out air from the back after mixing in the setting agents and you can exit within minutes - I lifted myself up using the side intrusion & petty bars. I have a vauxhall race tonneau which prevented the bag from oozing over towards the passenger comp at shoulder height. There is plenty of time to mould the seat early on whilst hanging on to the steering wheel. It takes several hours to set, ie overnight and remains slightly soft & compressible even when set.

No problems with durability etc. I've forgotten the other questions!

Paul

 

L7 FUN