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This topic will discuss some of the basics involved in building a glass seat pan. For those who wish to follow step by step, I'll be posting a "bill of materials" (by editing this post)... Several methods of forming the "mold" will be discussed, but there ARE other ways.... I'll take a lot of pics, and try to keep the "stages" current with my progress....
Steve
The first thing you will need to do is picture the desired shape in your head, and decide what method of forming the "mold" will work best for you.....
Some of the options.......
For my first-ever pan, I literally threw the glass on a fat rear tire (to get the correct curvature)... Then, I sectioned in strips to widen it and lengthen it and flat panels I'd thrown on a trash bag taped to the floor... I use this as the mold for the tail section, and throw the seat area on the actual frame to get an exact fit (you cover the frame with PVC tape, wax paper, aluminum foil, cardboard, or similar , anything that will "sculpt" to a tight fit... This will become clear as we proceed...) The pics below shows the "blank" tailpiece I made as discribed above, and trimmed for placement on a 450.
Another option is to cover the area on the bike, spray on "good stuff" (styrofoam in a can) and carve/sand that after it hardens.....
Papier-mache can be built-up and smoothed, balsa can be carved, cardboard strips can be cut and glued together, a balloon can be used, plaster can be built-up and carved, almost any method that yields the shape you want can be used....A friend threw glass over a football and got a unique and good looking tailpiece.....
For this one, I am going to attempt to carve hobby store styrofoam blocks and sheet (glued together) to get my mold...... This is mostly because the frame is very narrow, and will require some finessing to get the result I want....
Here we go!......
Steve
The first thing you will need to do is picture the desired shape in your head, and decide what method of forming the "mold" will work best for you.....
Some of the options.......
For my first-ever pan, I literally threw the glass on a fat rear tire (to get the correct curvature)... Then, I sectioned in strips to widen it and lengthen it and flat panels I'd thrown on a trash bag taped to the floor... I use this as the mold for the tail section, and throw the seat area on the actual frame to get an exact fit (you cover the frame with PVC tape, wax paper, aluminum foil, cardboard, or similar , anything that will "sculpt" to a tight fit... This will become clear as we proceed...) The pics below shows the "blank" tailpiece I made as discribed above, and trimmed for placement on a 450.

Another option is to cover the area on the bike, spray on "good stuff" (styrofoam in a can) and carve/sand that after it hardens.....
Papier-mache can be built-up and smoothed, balsa can be carved, cardboard strips can be cut and glued together, a balloon can be used, plaster can be built-up and carved, almost any method that yields the shape you want can be used....A friend threw glass over a football and got a unique and good looking tailpiece.....
For this one, I am going to attempt to carve hobby store styrofoam blocks and sheet (glued together) to get my mold...... This is mostly because the frame is very narrow, and will require some finessing to get the result I want....
Here we go!......