Seat rip-Permatex

[Colorado-Paul]

My stock seat (which I like better than my custom) has about a 1" lg. tear and was curious if anyone has had any experience with the Permatex Vinyl repair kit? It appears to come with a sort of heat gun & you can supposedly match the subtile pattern on the exisitng material. Any feedback?
Thanks a ton
Paul

[racklefratz]

Originally Posted by Colorado-Paul

My stock seat (which I like better than my custom) has about a 1" lg. tear and was curious if anyone has had any experience with the Permatex Vinyl repair kit? It appears to come with a sort of heat gun & you can supposedly match the subtile pattern on the exisitng material. Any feedback?

Paul -

I don't believe it was the Permatex brand, but years ago, I did try one of those kits just to see what it would do. My impressions as best I recall won't be what you want to hear.

I looked at the Permatex product page, and it looks similar to what I tried. What you get is a few bottles of colored paste, which you're supposed to mix on a separate area till you get a match to the color you're patching, a little heating device, and a few patches of textured cloth-backed material you're supposed to use to create the texture effect on the finished patch. Sounds good in theory, right? The "too-good-to-be-true" saying comes to mind at this point.

The color matching part probably won't be too challenging if your seat vinyl is black. But things get a little more challenging from here on.

The device they give you to heat and cure the repair is like a low-powered soldering gun with a flat tip. Once you've mixed your repair paste and smeared it over the tear, you let it heat, place one of the swatches of textured vinyl on top of the repair area, then move it over and around the patch area till the paste hardens. Getting a good final result here is pretty tough. Too little repair material and you haven't really "repaired" anything - it'll just tear again. Too much and you'll get a "lump" over the area that probably won't even be fully "cured" by the heat. Additionally, the texture swatch will never really match your material, and it's very hard to actually know what your doing with the heating device with the texture swatch on top of it.

Lastly, and the ultimate bad news, at least for me, was that the stuff isn't all that durable, and on a motorcycle seat, I'd think that would be a deal-breaker. You'd be left with the same tear in the seat, and some caked-on "vinyl repair" stuff all around it.

Sorry I couldn't be more positive, but that's how I remember it when I tried to use some of that stuff.

[Colorado-Paul]

Originally Posted by racklefratz

Paul -

Sorry I couldn't be more positive, but that's how I remember it when I tried to use some of that stuff.

I was really afraid of that! I do appreciate your detailed post. And you are correct in saying "if it seems too good to be true, then it is"

I may try it anyway. The rip is in the small center section of the seat and will just have it recovered if (and when) the patch fails!
Thanks again
I'll try to post pix after I do the repair
Paul

[Bikendad]

Another option would be to go to your local body shop and ask whom they use for trim repairs or have them handle the sublet. All of us body shops have a guy that does this type of stuff all day long. I could get it done for probably around $100 or less.

[kemo]

I saw replacement seat covers on eBay for around $80. Not really a big job to put new cover on. You will need an air stapler though.
kemo

[racklefratz]

Originally Posted by Colorado-Paul

I'll try to post pix after I do the repair

Please do. I'd like to see what kind of success someone else has. I have to think there's SOME value to these products, but I also think using them to good results involves more art than science.

Good luck.

[brother]

I used it on 2 small holes in my tour box backrest. It work's good,but the black had a little gray look to it,had to color it with ma black sharpie.