Copying the seat cover. Part 2.

Part 1 of my upholstery-business-major-breakdown ended in anger a few days ago. The problem with my sewing machine was solved in a very simple and convenient way. I bought another one! I found a very nice, low mileage, vintage Husqvarna automatic sewing machine (just like the one I have...) on "Blocket", our big ad site here in Sweden. It was sold by an older guy working as a sewing machine servicing guy way south in Sweden. I ordered it, paid for it, Thursday, and had it here in Stockholm, Friday! How´s that for service!

Here it is, in its lovely vintage carrying box, with the super nice sixties manual and all accessories intact. It looks and feels as new. A little sewing sample from the servicing guy´s final tests still in there. Nice.

In the box was also the first "Bill of sale" for the machine. Since We´re all "vintage guys" here,  I´ll share it with you. Imagine you had to pay 985 SEK (120 $US...) for a sewing machine in 1963! That must have been a lot of money at that time. On the other hand, the machine is still around and it works! Not much we produce today will still function as it was intended in 54 years...

I had a lot of expectations when I loaded the "new" machine with the same heavy duty thread and needle and started testing it. Smooth and nice action but still the same problems! As soon as I started sewing in slightly thicker material I had problems with the  thread breaking and getting the thread tangled-up on the rear side of the work piece. I tried a lighter thread and needle. Same problem! Now what? I can´t keep on buying machines... There must be something else I´m doing wrong. 

OK. Let´s start from the beginning, I have been able to do this before! There are some tips on troubleshooting in the manual and also instructions on how to load the machine properly. If the thread brakes easily, check the needle to be correctly inserted.... Aha! I had consistently put it in the wrong way! The flat surface on the needle´s upper part goes in AWAY from you, not TOWARDS you. Ok, slight mistake that cost me 300 bucks for a new machine! Always read the manual...

Time to test again. Sewing in thin material went just fine. Good. One problem solved, the needle. But when I started sewing in the thicker material the problems started again. Breaking upper thread and difficulties adjusting the tension of the threads. Thicker material needs the tension of both threads to be adjusted. This did not work properly on the new machine. I tried everything I could imagine to fix it but ended up going back to my old machine. This process and problem solving took the larger part of Friday and my temper has seen better days, I promise!

 After a few hours of testing, adjusting, swearing, testing and adjusting again I finally got it working. With the Alcantara on top, the foam rubber lining underneath and a thick paper at the bottom to even the pressure on the lining I could finally sew the 5 seams on the seat surface late Friday afternoon.

I might have chosen a slightly too thick liner but it was the only type the upholstery guy had. Anyway, let´s see this first seat cover as a test!  In the picture on the left you can see 3 out of 5 seams completed. I had it working OK now, but absolutely not perfectly. It still tangled sometimes so I had to start again right in the middle of a seam and that´s no good. Apparently it became easier to sew the second time in the same seam, because there was no tangling or thread-breaks at all.

And here´s the result of a full day at the sewing machine. Luckily I´m not a seamstress or tailor! That was also the thickest material I will have to sew in on this project. The sides of the cover will be Alcantara only and even doubled up it will be much easier to work with.

This is just a small peak in to our living room at present... My wife works a daytime job so I am able to roam the premises at free will during many hours. Now, it is time to clean things up a bit. Friday evening is approaching! We all like a cold beer at our local Chinese restaurant at 5 PM Fridays....

Saturday started out in a much better way. The top side of the seat being done (after two days of big problems...) and "only" the sides remaining to make. Same procedure here. Measure the template carefully, add a couple of centimeters seam allowance, cut the pieces and try to fit it together. There´s a seam on the sides just beneath the "back rest" part of the seat. These had to be sewn first. Before sewing the second one I had to carefully measure both the seat and back rest circumferences to get the side part absolutely correct in size. Being thorough here save´s lots of time later.

When those two seams were done it was time to see if the parts would fit together at all... They did, Surprisingly well at that! Starting to look like  a seat cover, right?

Lots of stuff can still go wrong, have no doubt about it! Here I have started pinning the parts together. Frontside to frontside and the smaller part towards the backrest side and the larger towards the seat. Better look carefully if you do not want to do it all twice. The padding is also very visible in this picture. If you look closely you can see some of my tangles as well. As I said, this is an experiment. can I or can I not make it myself??

Here we can see the parts pinned together and ready to be sewn permanently. The qualified seamstress and tailor can see quite a few mistakes I have made. Me? I noticed them later!

My wife and her best friend were sitting next to me watching TV, cheering and commenting my work now and then.
"Why don´t you take a selfie?"
Why not? I took two of them. This, the first one, is the true me....

This second one is for facebook and Instagram use only. I was not this happy at all. But here it looks like I know what Iam doing and that is all that counts. Live your perfect life and show nothing of real interest to people.

Time to take a deep breath and focus on the task at hand. This is a very important seam. It holds the cover together and decides the shape of it to a large extent. A miss here will be very visible.

Here it is. Done! Not perfect, but not too friggin´bad either. I like the way it looks with the padding under the seams on top of the cover. It looks a little "softer" than the original one. Good or bad? That is up to the beholder.

The last part of the cover was sewing the edge of the sides. I had planned to incorporate a reinforcement for the push buttons on the sides. I put a strip of vinyl inside and pinned the edges according the measurements from the stock one.

The vinyl can be cut without loosing any strength and is easy to handle and glue together with other materials. Here I tried to make one of the "cutouts" for the rear dampers. That proved not to be too smart. It was extremely difficult to finish that rounded hole in a nice way. Big mistake! The stock cover has these "cutouts" but they are cut after sewing and has no finesse in the finish at all. I´ll just keep this. first try, as it is and remember what not to try next time.

The Saturday afternoon went fast with me strapped to the sewing machine and the girls cheering and applauding my work. They even said they were "inspired" to do some handiwork themselves. I can sum up this project in the project now... IF I ever feel like doing it again I have learned a thing or two these last couple of days. 

1) If you´re going to try and make upholstery work, get a good sewing machine. Industrial grade, heavy duty or whatever you prefer to call it. Don´t even try on a 50 year old basic machine. It just will not work.
2) To save a whole lot of time and money... Trust your local upholstery venue with this kind of work! They know their stuff and will probably save you a heart attack and a bit of money ( since you don´t have to buy another sewing machine...)

Well, here it is. The finished product from Mr Olofsson´s upholstery services. Not too bad for an amateur, but to be frank, it won´t be good enough for anyone to use on a bike. I will just keep it as a reminder not to try this again. At least not in the near future.
























One of the perks with writing this blog and also posting on Facebook now and then is I come in contact with lots of people around the world who actually knows something about the things I am trying to accomplish. Tomorrow I´m off on a journey up north in Sweden to meet up with a guy in Delsbo that can help me make some real good copies of the seat cover! He also has a super nice Kawasaki H1 1970 project for sale and I don´t mind having a look at that while we are at it. At the moment I´m kind of fed up trying to sew at all, which is actually very nice, since I have lots of work waiting in the garage to be finished. Wheels, brakes etc are a constant bad conscience down there. I really need to get it done. First off: a small trip north to fix some nice copies of the seat cover!

UPDATE 21NOV17:

Yesterday I went north to see Jens Kruper and Per Svedin at NCCR, Northern Classic Custom and Race AB. Jens is the owner of the venue together with his wife and daughter. I got the full tour and visited their workshop and store. The hours passed quickly looking at bikes like this:

This is a build NCCR made a few years back for the Big twin magazine. Iron head sportster engine with the most beautiful aluminium tank I have ever seen. A true masterpiece! A classic look with  lots of modern accents. Check out the front brake and the head lights....

Look also at the leather work on these two bikes. Made by Per S, the other guy... I believe my seat cover copying is in good hands here, don´t you? The black seat on the rear sportster looks close to perfect for my application on the H1R. Leather is always leather and I kind of like it....

Here´s a close-up of the triple tree on the racer. Nice leather strap to hold the tank on the frame. Good attention to details!

After having coffee and a long chat in the workshop looking at the H1 1970 for sale (excellent find, by the way...!!), Per and I left for is house where he works as a tailor and sews the traditional folklore costumes used in Delsbo. Super exciting visit! Per is a master of his trade, that is 100% for sure. He is one of the few people around that still can make the chamois trousers and coats for these costumes. I got to see his work up close and was seriously impressed. I hope I´ll be able to share some pictures of his other work when I go back and get my seat covers. For now, I´ll show you ONE of his sewing machines. Slightly different from the one I used to make my own cover. I even got to try it. 
Wow! Now we´re talking... I need one of those! 
I trusted Per with my seat and covers and now he will reproduce one copy in suede leather and then we´ll see what material we will use on the other ones. I´m going to make at least 3 covers, one for me, one for Janne and one for my Canadian friend, Aaron. As Per will make his own templates for the covers I guess he can make more if someone needs it.




Thanks for reading!

/Per

Copying the seat cover, Part 1.

I mentioned earlier my friend Janne is getting his bike more and more ready. He asked me a while ago how the work on the seat cover is progressing... A couple of posts ago I fixed my own seat, got the push buttons back on there, fitted the oil tank, painted the underside etc, etc. And I finally concluded that my cover DOES fit. That means I can use my old, battered and repaired cover to make copies. The measurements are OK. Before telling you about that mission I´d like to show you exactly how far I´m willing to go to keep my stuff stored in a safe and convenient way. I talked earlier about my extra crank, rebuilt by Ebbe. I´ve been wondering how to keep it safe the best way. Cranks are delicate and can easily loose their true if dropped or handled roughly. They need to be stored in a stable and rigid place. I imagined a suitable wooden box to store it in with a possibility to secure it and maybe keep other spares as well. I bought such a box, but as I was looking at them in the store I came across these "flight cases" in different sizes. Real neat boxes/suitcases made for transportation of fragile goods such as cameras, sound equipment etc. Now, that´s my kind of solution!

 The case is sturdy plastic filled with 3 layers of padding that can be "picked" in to different shapes to house various objects with or without their own casings. Here I´ve started on the first layer and made holes for the crank.

And here it is fitted with the second layer. The third, and last layer goes on top and keeps the crank in place no matter what. I like it! There´s room for some other delicate spares around the crank. Maybe I´ll store some pistons etc here later on, we´ll see!


















Back to the seat cover! I bought material for this project a while ago from Germany. Remember it was impossible to find the correct fabric? Impossible is a strong word, I know. I have not found any, that´s for sure. People in the "recovering" business were quite puzzled with the surface of the cover and a couple of the guys I talked to mentioned "flocked" vinyl as a possibility. I haven´t ventured any further in that direction. I got a few square meters of Alcantara instead and that´ll have to do. I also bought a "padded" liner to use underneath the cover to make it a bit softer and to give it a bit "plush" look between the seems on the top side.

Time to take my mother´s old sewing machine out. This is the only machine I know how to use. It is from the early sixties and still work like a charm. Well, not quite, as we´ll see in a bit! I do love the vintage look it has. That´s for sure!

First off, loading the machine with a heavy duty needle, heavy duty canopy thread from the boating supplier. No big deal! That went well.

The cover is made of three parts plus reinforcements and buttons. I outlined the seat surface very thoroughly taking measures often. To this outline you need to add a margin to sew in, a seam allowance. That is why it looks slightly bigger. I added 2 cm on each side. Better safe than sorry.

Next is the "padded" liner. Approx 1 cm of soft foam rubber on a synthetic fabric. I cut it using the seat surface alcantara as a template. It feels a bit thick, but we´ll see how it plays out in the end. "No guts, No glory" as we say in the airline business!

The liner needs no seam allowance so it can be cut down to the exact size of the seat surface. That´s done here. It is always smart to test fit everything you do versus the old cover.

Here´s a test on the seat with the padding on. Looks OK!

Since I´m going to make more of these I need to document what I´m doing as I go along. The parts are copied on to paper during the process to make templates for the coming covers. Here´s the template for the liner being outlined.

And here it is being tested on the seat. Note I cut a bit outside the outlines to have a margin for error making the template. During this fitting it was cut to exact size. As you can see I do everything over and over again. testing, testing and testing! Experience have shown I need to do it that way.... I often make mistakes and this way I can eliminate some of them.

And one final test of the liner template inside the seat. Fits like a charm.

To make the seams on top of the seat cover I had to measure carefully and transfer the measurements from the template to the Alcantara surface. 35mm between the seams and a total of 5 of them along the entire length of the seat. These need to be exactly centered and evenly spaced. Better be careful here. 

With the seams outlined on the seat I attached the liner on the backside of it and pinned the two fabrics together. Time to start sewing! Being cautious I tested on another piece of fabric just to get in the "motion" of sewing again. It was more than 2 years ago I did it so a refresher seemed appropriate. And this is where things went downhill fast.... Our vintage sewing machine suddenly turned real "vintage" and didn´t function at all like it is supposed to. I spent a couple of hours trying to fix it but resigned, tucked everything away in anger and sank down in the sofa to watch 3 episodes of "Braking bad" instead!    F**K !!


That´s why this post is labelled "Part 1"....

I´ll be back when I have fixed the wretched machine!

/Per

Racer number 2: The history comes full circle.

The last week has been fantastic in many ways. I had a very nice and uneventful flight to Los Angeles Wednesday-Friday and a nice couple of days off here at home during the weekend. The most interesting days were Monday-Tuesday as I went to Malmoe and spent a couple of days there with my wife who was working at an exhibition there and also to meet with Ebbe at EBOS/Eptune to fettle a bit with racer #2. 

So, I loaded my trusted Sharan and went south....

Ebbe had finished up restoring this beauty for me:
The extra H1R crank that came with the bike! We chose not to do it together with the rest of the engine due to me needing to spread the cost over time a bit. Now, almost a year later it was time. All the rods were shot on the old crank and Ebbe was able to source new ones. Not cheap, but sure worth the money! In this picture you can also see the dual oil seals used on the racer crank. They can be replaced by the street bike ones, but no....

What he couldn´t get were the Oil receivers, 13045-005 or-010 that goes on to the crank webs to keep the oil from the pump at the main bearings. Ebbe and I discussed the need for those and he usually discards them and recommends people to use premix instead of the pump. Since I need this bike and engine to be as close to stock as possible I opted to keep the receivers. It took me 2 weeks to locate 3 of them. One in New Zealand, one in Switzerland and one in the US.... Thank you, internet!

He did source the roller bearings, though, just as on the other crank in the rebuilt engine. Here you can see the SKF number. Picking up this little beauty was the main purpose of the trip (second to spending time out of the house with my wife, of course!), but I also left some parts to be cleaned and polished by Tommy Andersson in Hoerby at Proswede. As a bonus Ebbe made place and time on the Dyno for racer #2....

I had connected a fresh battery to the terminals back home and found the ignition to be OK, at least the beeping sound was there from the CDI boxes. Since there´s no kicker on it and I didn´t want to try and run start it this was an excellent solution. Here we´re setting the bike up on the Dyno with a good battery and cooling air. We refilled the gear box with oil and expected to see a large leak somewhere, but no.... It held the oil! Back with the center pipe on and put some gas in the bottle. No leak here either! Not even flooding carbs. Wow!

A dynamic test of the ignition revealed good, fat sparks on all plugs. We also changed the heavy race plugs in the engine to more normal NGK B9HS. No need for race plugs in this engine.
After a few tries to start, it was obvious the engine didn´t get any fuel.... It needed a carb cleaning. That´s not very surprising and to be honest I had been thinking about doing it before going down to Malmoe, but never got around to do it. Shame on me!

The great BINGs had to get off the engine for a bath in a special cleaning solution. A very secret recipe that would make any environmentalist cringe...
Luckily Ebbe is a law abiding citizen so the left-overs were collected and recycled.

Here they are, ready to be assembled after their "bath". Really big BING carbs and interestingly a little bit different. The one in the middle has a drain bolt in the bottom of the float bowl and also a slightly larger main jet, 155, compared to 150 for the right and left carb. Probably to give the middle cylinder a little more fuel due to poor cooling. I know, it is a myth that triples always seize on the middle cylinder but it has stuck over the years. We kept it the way it was.

The carbs are back on and we´re ready for a new attempt. And now it started! And it ran quite OK at once. Some small adjustments to the idling and we could warm it up for its first run on the Dyno. Ebbe didn´t want to take it too far since it had been sitting for over 20 years and he had not rebuilt the engine. The responsibility for these runs rested with me, entirely. I was perfectly fine with that. After a few runs we changed the pilot jets from 35 to 45 to get slightly better idling and a bit quicker throttle response at lower RPM:s I was seriously impressed that Ebbe had a box of BMW jets that actually fit these carbs. Now, that´s professionalism! Next is a couple of videos I recorded during our session. Turn the volume up!

After that successful Dyno session and startup it was time to pack up and go home again. I had a great couple of days in Malmoe. Dining with my wife, enjoying another hotel breakfast and then starting up my racer #2! And the best of the trip was still to come...

Remember I talked to one of the presumed owners/builders of the bike? That guy was not the correct one. Before going to Malmoe I had searched for the next guy that Leo, my good historian friend suggested, online and found him. Or at least I thought so. Here´s the story.


Sometimes it is very true that reality beats fiction. This is one of those moments. Leo suggested two names that could be the driver in his picture. Remember it was taken in Karlskoga 1973, or that´s what Leo thought. The first name, Hasse Rutgersson, was not correct. He never owned nor built it....

Racer number 2 in 1973?

The second name was Erik Lundin, ESW. Now, what kind of a name is that? Well, I googled it and found a business in Eksjoe, in the southern part of Sweden, called ESW, Eksjoe special welding service. I thought I´d send a mail instead of calling directly this time. These guys are getting old and I am not sure everybody enjoys talking about old times. During our Dyno session I received a phone call which I didn´t hear for all the noice, but on the way back I checked it out. Erik Lundin! I called him right back...

He sure recognized the bike! He built most of it after he bought it in 1972 or 1973, he wasn´t quite sure. I still haven´t shown him this photo, but I´m positive it is him! He also told me that he built the exhaust system for the bike after measurements given to him by "Esso" from his new H1R-A! They are straight, just as on the later H1R:s and actually quite well designed and fits very snugly to the bike. I asked him about the front brake as well and he said that had been on the bike when he bought it and that he had no idea what make it was. He had no idea about the front fork either, but he remembered buying the fairing from Bo Granath in Stockholm, another world famous racer that also sold plastic motorcycle parts like fairings etc. The make is "Churchgate" and I believe it is that same fairing we can see in the picture above. And this is where the whole thing gets spooky...

"OK, who did you buy it from", I asked.

" From Björn Blomqvist in Åkers Styckebruk, and he had already built that front brake!"

How about that for a story coming full circle? Björn Blomqvist, who bought the H1R after "Esso" had driven it for two seasons, 1970 and 1971, owned this bike, racer #2, during that time... 

We had a super nice conversation on the phone for more than an hour during my journey back to Stockholm. When we finished talking I made another call to Mikael Berglin. Remember him? He is the guy that helped the family sell the H1R to me last year. He was also a very good friend of Björn´s and helped him out with his bikes during the seventies. It was Mikael that took the first pictures of the H1R inside the barn that I used and published in the very first post of this blog. I asked him if Björn had another Kawasaki before getting the H1R..

- "Of course he did! I sent you pictures of it. Don´t you remember? I told you about that bike when we looked at the H1R in the barn"

- " You´re kidding", I said. Goosebumps all over my arms!

- "Do you know what make that front brake is?" I asked.

- " Sure, I built that brake for Björn. I used two drum brakes from a Fiat 1100, welded them together and built that 4LS front brake"

So, the answers were there, right in front of my eyes, on my own computer....

In these first two pictures, taken by Mikael or Björn, the bike has just been bought by Björn from its previoyus owner, Hans Köpcke, another profile in Swedish road racing during the fifties and sixties. Hans bought a MACH III 1969  and built a racer for himself to use during his comeback after an accident in 1968. Sadly he had a car accident already in March 1970 and I guess that´s why the bike was sold to Björn. I need to figure out a bit more here about the bike´s first years! We can see here that the tank is the same, just a different color, the frame is not so badly cut yet and the front brake is still the original MACH III as is the front fork.

Here the right side of it. Stock carbs, stock swing arm and rear shocks. Real nice seat (can be the same as in the picture from 1973...?) and expansion chambers being built. I´m going to meet Mikael next week and ask him a million questions about this build! The tank emblems look like the ones used on the A1R/A7R. Not sure, though...

Here it becomes even more interesting. Mikael told me he built a not-so-good exhaust system for the bike. Well, that high position of the left pipe seems to create some unwanted problems. I can see the advantage, though, with only one pipe on either side of the bike´s rear wheel. But I bet you would burn your left leg on that chamber! Look at the front brake! There it is! My mysterious 4LS brake! Built by Mikael.... Two brake drums from a Fiat 1100 and manufactured brake plates etc. Genius, if you ask me! I still haven´t found the competition where #34 was used, but I´m looking....

Here´s another view of the bike. I see a two stroke oil tank from an A7R mounted where the battery is today. I also see the foot pegs are the same today with the same mounts. The swing arm has not been lengthened yet nor has the rear shocks been changed. Is the RPM-indicator the same? Not sure. The scoop on the rear brake plate is in place and looks the same as today. I wonder who the guy walking past that car is. The letter "K" on the license plate indicates it is from Blekinge, a county far south in Sweden. That is actually where me and my wife both grew up!

The last of Mikael´s pictures shows the left side of the bike during another race. #17 was used by Björn during two races in 1971. First at  Anderstorp, 8th and 9th of May and again at Kinnekulle Ring the 22nd and 23rd of May. The really cool thing here is that during both these races "Esso" and Björn competed each other! The two Kawasaki racers I now have in my garage have actually met in at least two races! In Anderstorp "Esso" came in second on the H1R and Björn didn´t finish. At Kinnekulle "Esso" and the H1R won and Björn came in 11th. Not bad for a bike like this.


















As you can understand this investigation in the history concerning both my racers will go on for a while. The goosebumps have left my arms and I am coming to terms with what I have in my garage. There were lots of road racers built here in Sweden from standard street bikes during this time by young, eager guys who wanted to race. I´ve talked to a few of them and the the more I learn about it the more fascinated I am over their drive and ambition to do something fun and cool. Today´s racing is far more serious and it takes a whole lot more money to reach the top even in a small country like Sweden. The search for more interesting things about my bikes will go on! I will continue telling the story about racer #2 parallel to that of the H1R. It all became so much more interesting when I found out they are "cousins" 

Update number 1, 2017-11-06:

Today I met Mikael Berglin here in my garage! We talked about the bike, Björn and their friendship and lots of other stuff as well during his stay. He definitively confirmed that racer #2 was Björn´s first Kawasaki and that he, Mikael, had built the front brake. He was actually a bit disappointed I hadn´t taken it apart yet, because he would like to see how he had constructed it. Bear in mind this happened at least 45 years ago!

Here he is, seeing the bike for the first time since 1973 or so... Mikael is a wonderful guy full of humor and lots of good stories from the racing tracks of the day. 

He built a total of 3 brakes based on car drum brakes. The first was used on Hans Köpckes Norton, early during the sixties. This was a single drum with actuators on one side only. Mikael was only 16 years of age and attending mechanical workmanship school when he built this first brake!

The second is the one on my bike. It was made of 2 Fiat 1100 drums with milled "cooling fins" and a spoke "rim" on the edge. bolted to a hub cast in aluminium at "Beckmans Gjuteri" in Nykvarn, just 50-60 km from Stockholm. Mikael used the cable to even the "pull" between the two levers (from a BMW-bike!). These "levers" used ball bearings on the inside instead of the "cams" used on ordinary brakes. The result is excellent! Easy to use, perfectly centered brake linings at all times and super smooth action when you pull on the brake lever. Björn actually complained the front brake was too effective! He risked locking it if he pulled too hard! Not bad for a home made front brake... The brake was altered at a later restoration and painted black. The "cutouts" visible at the top and bottom of the brake plates were also made later. Probably to increase cooling. It is a great thing to have on the bike. Makes the bike absolutely unique. The third "Berglin brake" was also made for a Norton, but Mikael wasn´t sure it ever got used. It was made slightly different from a steel hub with a welded bracket for the two aluminium drums. Where it is today, no one knows.

Mikael was very happy to see the bike and his drum brake! He pointed out lots of things he didn´t recall at all and some of it I could confirm had been built or changed later on by Erik Lundin or the guys owning it after him. The search for more information continues!

Update number 2: 2017-11-14.

As I was reading through some magazines from 1970 in the hunt for more information and stories about my bikes I came across this ad from Flöter (the Swedish Kawasaki-agent, remember?).

This is the body set that was bought for racer #2! I believe Hans Köpcke bought it from Flöter and built the bike to a racer in 1970 but I need to get that confirmed. There might be another owner before him. 225 plus 105 SEK in 1970 must have been quite expensive for fiber glass parts. Now I need to find out about the seat and oil tank on the bike today. When and who added these parts? 












Stay tuned, guys!

/Per