Does anyone make their own seats?

[Russ-Turner]

Hi, i'm nothing to do with the Formula Student programme (wish i was though) but i've been having a look around the site for the last few days and there are alot of great cars on here and some clever ideas. I'm planning a single seater Hillclimb car to race here in England. I read about Formula Student in Race Tech and i thought i'd tap into the wealth of building knowledge on here, if you don't mind fellas?
Has anyone on here made a bespoke seat F1 style by filling a bag with foam and waiting for it to go off? If so what did you use and what were the results? Hopefully i'll be making a few test models this weekend so any lessons learned would be appreciated, cheers. -Russ- http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

[Russ-Turner]

Hi, i'm nothing to do with the Formula Student programme (wish i was though) but i've been having a look around the site for the last few days and there are alot of great cars on here and some clever ideas. I'm planning a single seater Hillclimb car to race here in England. I read about Formula Student in Race Tech and i thought i'd tap into the wealth of building knowledge on here, if you don't mind fellas?
Has anyone on here made a bespoke seat F1 style by filling a bag with foam and waiting for it to go off? If so what did you use and what were the results? Hopefully i'll be making a few test models this weekend so any lessons learned would be appreciated, cheers. -Russ- http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

[Denny Trimble]

Yup, it's pretty straight forward. It helps if you only need padding in a few corners, so you can do small inserts and velcro them in. If you need to do an entire seat, you'll need a large trash bag, and it helps to have an engine hoist to lower the driver into the car, if you want any thickness on the bottom of the seat.

Do a few tests to see how much foam you get from a certain amount of liquid. And, wear some coveralls for insulation from the heat http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[syoung]

Hi Russ! Which Race Tech article did you see? Which teams were mentioned?

We've done one test-piece, it's pretty easy. Using anything other than two-part foam is pretty much useless. We couldn't get it from our local Homebase/Focus/etc. so had to order off the web - CFS Fibreglass (http://www.cfsnet.co.uk/) in Redruth (but I'm guessing you've already got that far if you're making up some tests this weekend).

We sat the driver on a thin piece of insulation foam to get him raised off the floor of the car while the foam started to rise. We got nearly a full seat from about 1.6+1.6 kg of foam (A+B). Like Denny says, test with a little bit first. Don't cross-contaminate when you're mixing together, and use a mixing container you don't mind ruining.

Wear thin clothes - ideally your race suit only - and expect the seat to shrink just slightly overnight after it's set. That said, be very careful with the two-part: good ventilation and lots of protective plastic needed. It's horrible if it gets spilled. Work the pedals while the foam sets, so it doesn't rise too high under your legs. It gets quite warm in there, but no warmer than a nice hot bath.

That's about all I can think of - good luck!

[95M3Racer]

Beadseats are the best by far.

www.baldsportsports.com (http://www.baldsportsports.com)

[Russ-Turner]

Cheers guys. I'll drop the one part foam and concentrate on getting the best out of the two part then. As for Race Tech the last time i read about you guys was the Feb/March issue (vol 10 issue 4) where the December event in Australia is talked about. The article gives an overview of some of the technology and designs you guys are utilising, but there's probably an article about F.S.A.E. every third issue.

[Dr Claw]

you can dump some bean-bag-chair beans into the garbage bag and pour the two part foam in after that, the beads create the thikcness in the bottom of the seat.

[Chris Boyden]

anybody use tempurpedic style memory foam?
It sure makes a comfortable mattress topper.
It can be a little pricey, but three inches of that stuff would be very comfortable.