On Fri, 20 Jan 2017 21:19:41 -0800 (PST), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:

On Saturday, January 21, 2017 at 12:01:47 AM UTC-5, John B. wrote:
On Fri, 20 Jan 2017 20:16:37 -0800 (PST), Frank Krygowski
wrote:

I did it once, long ago. Actually, I was customizing a hard plastic bodied
saddle. I drilled a few holes in the places my sit-bones hit to give it some
more flex, and built up cushioning lumps using RTV silicon. Then I stretched and
glued a new leather cover over the saddle. IIRC, I used contact cement.

It wasn't difficult, and it worked very well. The saddle's still good, although
I haven't been using it for quite a while.

- Frank Krygowski

Do you remember any problem in laying the covering smoothly over the
contact cement.
--
Cheers,

John B.

Hi again John.

The two great things about not gluing the entire cover to the old saddle are #1 it's a lot easier to stretch the leather and #2 you have lots of time to do that. what I did was glue the leather to one side on the inside of the old saddle shell and let that cure. I do find that cyanoacrylic glue is a lot faster but you don't have the same working time as you do with a good quality contact adhesive/cement. Plus you have to be more careful. With a contact cement you can glue that one side and when cured you can then stretch the new leather (or vinyl) cover over to the oppsite side and mark on the inside of the leather where the contact cement needs to go. Then you apply the contact cememt to the leather and to the inside of the saddle shell and then take your time stretching the leather over the shell. With contact cement you can in need to pull the leather away from the shell if there's a wrinkle and then stretch the leather both side to side and lengthwise to eliminate any wrinkling.
I found the thin leather I used could stretch a fair bit in either direction. I also found that if the new leather covering was stretched moderately that it did not wrinkle in use. If concerned about the contact cemented edges coming loose you can then stich the leather to the bottom sides of the saddle shell by drilling small holes through the leather and saddle shell and then stiching the leather to the shell too.

Cheers

In the article I read the author had used staples to make sure that
the edges, folded up under the bottom of the seat and glued, did not
come loose, which sounded like a good idea. I had thought that they
might be special staples but he mentions buying the short ones needed
in a business supply shop. I thought I'd look into that also.
--
Cheers,

John B.