Creafoam Bead Seat

[benbeames]

Yesterday I started making a creafoam molded seat in my S2.  This weekend I hope to trim away the excess material and cover it in black fabric.  Below are descriptions to go along with the pictures of the process so far.

Picture 1:  Old seat out. Clutch and throttle cables covered as well as seat belts.

Picture 2:  This is how the kit starts. The bag is full of something like styrofoam bb's. You mix some epoxy together, put it the bag, mix it up, seal the bag and create a vacuum with a shop vac.

Picture 3 & 4:Here' the mixed bag roughly placed into position.  I've done some basic forming of it before I put it in, but not much.

Picture 5:  This is the "Large" size bag from Bald Spot Sports and at this point I was afraid it was TOO big.

Picture 6:  So once the bag is in place, you have your driver (me) sit in it and wiggle around to settle down in it. You add vacuum and it gets rigid.You can turn the vacuum on and off to get a kind of moldable state so you can build up shoulder bolsters and what not.

Picture 7:  This is the bag locked under vacuum after I got out.  I put on some tape to better seal the bag closed and started marking a rough outline of what I'd need to cut away later.


Ben

[LotusJoe]

I use the same material to make my insert on my race car seat. Then had the insert covered with cloth and soft foam.

[benbeames]

I know its most often used in single seater cockpits, but since at 6'1" plus helmet I can use all the space I can get in the Europa.  Plus other seats I've tried haven't held me in place well while autocrossing.  This seemed like an interesting experiment in making a seat that is light, fits in the car, holds me in place, and isn't hurting me in some weird way.  So far, I'm very happy with the results.

[cal44]

This is interesting...........like a magic bag o' beans.  Can't wait for a final outcome. 
I was hoping you would post over here............much easier to view the pix and story line together.

Mike

[benbeames]

Yeah, I never intended to post it on the other forum but I couldn't  post here yesterday and was enthusiastic to talk about it.

Ben

[benbeames]

I'm still waiting for my hot knife to arrive, but I was curious how well it would cut the seat so I heated up a regular knife with a propane torch as a test.  It works really well.  I ended up doing a fair amount of the rough cutting, removing most of the major extra bulges around the seat so that this weekend I can focus more on getting the final shape down.

[EuropaTC]

Hi Ben,

How do you fix something like that in the car ?  Do they just sit there and your weight + seat belts hold everything where it should be, or is there a way of casting inserts/bolts to fix them to the floor ?  (I suppose either would work in a car with high sills & a central tunnel)

Brian

ps - Incidentally, I also saw the thread on the group summary and wondered what on earth it was all about, which just goes to prove pictures make life so much easier......

[benbeames]

Normally in something like a single seater with a 5 or 6 or more point harness you don't need anything else holding you and the seat in place.  In the Europa, I'm not sure.  I was planning to either run some elevator bolts through its bottom, or weld some bolts to a flat piece of sheet metal and epoxy it to the bottom of the seat (the bolts going through the floor of the car).  But now that I know how hard it is to get the seat out once its in, I don't think any of that is going to be necessary.   But I'll reexamine the problem once its all trimmed and test fitted again.  And I may just race it, see if it moves at all and then decide what to do.  Sometimes (on the better days) just trying something reveals something that works when you thought it wouldn't.

Though if I think it will work then it probably won't.

[EuropaTC]

And I may just race it, see if it moves at all and then decide what to do.  Sometimes (on the better days) just trying something reveals something that works when you thought it wouldn't.

   on reflection I think that's what I'd do as well,  sometimes it's best not to get too theoretical about these cars.....

[benbeames]

I've got the final shape cut and am starting to cover it.  I lost some lateral support when I cut the door side down, but getting in and out is much easier.   Its both easier then I thought it would be to cover it and yet I'm still not very good at this sort of thing.  The middle section is going to be covered with some self adhesive karting foam pad, that isn't coming till next week.

Considering that much of an S2's interior is black vinyl, I'm thinking instead of cloth, I should have covered the edges with a black vinyl wrap.  But hey its for racing, it doesn't need to look good (something I tell myself often after projects).

[benbeames]

Finally got the foam pad I ordered and finished the seat tonight. New pictures
have been added to the Creafoam Seat Album.

And for those wondering, with all the covering/tapping/padding, the seat weighs
8.5lbs. You could make one a bit lighter too. There's some areas that if I had
to do it again, I'd trim down more.

I've driven around some, taking some freeway on and off ramp loops quickly, and
it feels great. I'm snugly held in the seat in a good reclined position and
feel better connected to the car.

[cal44]

Mr. Beams,

that seat cracks me up!   If no one noticed, the insert reminds me of Gumby.  Fine job.  If you can do the other seat with an insert of Pokey you might start a trend.

http://www.gumbyworld.com/

Mike

[benbeames]

Apparently Gumby turns grey when you sit on humans he dies.  It makes sense if you think about it.

And who WOULDN'T want to sit on Gumby!