custardtart Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 Hi, I want to fit a new fibreglass race seat for the forthcoming season, comfort is not important, neither is looks. Main questions would be: 1. Which ones provides the best lateral supprt? 2. Which is lightest? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DickieB Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 A DIY seat out of expanded foam will fit the best - as it's tailor made! They're also very light. Might take 2 attempts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
custardtart Posted February 18, 2007 Author Share Posted February 18, 2007 Where can I get the kit from? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SADDLEWORTH Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 Demon tweeks bottom of page 130 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
custardtart Posted February 18, 2007 Author Share Posted February 18, 2007 Any advice on how best to make one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stanton Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 Wear old clothes large robust bin bags, plenty of gaffa tape and a friend is needed to position bags of foam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DickieB Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 Do a search - there's a very good canoe incident worth reading first. And I always recommend beer, a webcam and live internet feed so we can all have a good laugh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonbesant Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 I got two seats from a company called J K Composites they are very helpful and built the seats to my requirements and are reasonably priced can not recommend them enough the seats are very supportive and well made. Mounting brackets are a bit heavy but can easily be modded. there details are Tel/Fax 01704569730 jkcomposites@yahoo.co.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterg Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 The Canoe Story: 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 polyureathane 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 ratio 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark.anson Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 would a foam seat be legal for SS class F cars? or does the car have to be fitted with a "normal" type seat. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stanton Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 As a road-going class it should have road-going trim, blue book notes that drivers seat may be changed for one suitable for motorsport A foam seat is primarily used for circuit racing and not road-going or suitable and would receive a protest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 As Mark says, the drivers seat can be changed for one which is suitable for motorsport which of course a foam seat is But as a class F car it would not be in a road going class on the day so it will not need to adhere to this and therefore not receive any protests in any case You can also cover it with some fabric material and no-one would be any the wiser. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asterix Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Xcuse potential numptiness but even if you are "not in a roadgoing class on the day", aren't you still liable to a protest by fellow WSCC competitors as you're still competing in a WSCC roadgoing class? Interested as I have cans of Xmas expanding foam sitting on my garage shelf, ready to provide much comedy & video material later this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Possibly but unlikley. I refer you to sentence 1 in my first post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stanton Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 QUOTE Xcuse potential numptiness but even if you are "not in a roadgoing class on the day", aren't you still liable to a protest by fellow WSCC competitors as you're still competing in a WSCC roadgoing class? Spot on Peter and trust me there would be a protest Surely it is not in the spirit of the championship Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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