UPDATE:
I made a web store for these seat bumpers and will have some other products following. If you're interested in a set, here's the link:
--->Cruiser Trash Parts<--- (link updated 6/27/2022)
* * *
My rear seat makes all kind of noise because the latch is loose. I tried wrapping in tape and a cut up PCV hose, but both would fall off pretty quickly. The problem is that the post on the seat is much smaller than the opening in the latch..... Over the summer I found out that 60s came with small rubber bumpers that fit into the latch and held the seat post tight - I had never even seen them before. It took quite a bit of digging, but I was able to get 1 or 2 from Classic Cruisers, and sourced a couple more off junkyard 60s that popped up local to me. Some were in bad shape and others were mediocre. I would really like brand new ones, but I'm unable to find a part number for them - on diagrams they appear to be part of the entire latch mechanism, which is NLA.
Cue my molding & casting experience. I've done bronze sand casting and cast concrete into silicone rubber molds for work in the past. These little bumpers didn't look like they would cause any problems for a silicone mold process, so I did it last night. This morning I cast a test piece out of a hard resin as a proof of concept, and it worked great. Because the originals I used to make the mold are a little beat up, I'm going to work on the first clone a little bit to iron out the imperfections - maybe some putty to take out indentations and then spray it with a clear coat to make a next-generation piece. After that the task is finding the right material to cast the finished product - I'm looking at 2-part urethane rubber for that. The viscosity is good for a poured cast, it can stand up to abuse since it's urethane-based, and it comes in different grades of flexibility which will help the piece bend into position and absorb bumps in the road better. If that doesn't work, there's about million other products I can use.
Since I'm going to all this trouble to make myself a set of these little rubber bumpers I thought why not see if other folks would be interested. Consider this a feeler post. If this is something you might want, let me know below.
Photos below:
1: An original OEM bumper in place.
2-5: Some pictures of the molding process.
6: This is a first-generation hard-resin clone. (I didn't take any pictures of mixing up the resin and pouring the casting because the working time is 5 minutes - I needed to be quick)
I made a web store for these seat bumpers and will have some other products following. If you're interested in a set, here's the link:
--->Cruiser Trash Parts<--- (link updated 6/27/2022)
* * *
My rear seat makes all kind of noise because the latch is loose. I tried wrapping in tape and a cut up PCV hose, but both would fall off pretty quickly. The problem is that the post on the seat is much smaller than the opening in the latch..... Over the summer I found out that 60s came with small rubber bumpers that fit into the latch and held the seat post tight - I had never even seen them before. It took quite a bit of digging, but I was able to get 1 or 2 from Classic Cruisers, and sourced a couple more off junkyard 60s that popped up local to me. Some were in bad shape and others were mediocre. I would really like brand new ones, but I'm unable to find a part number for them - on diagrams they appear to be part of the entire latch mechanism, which is NLA.
Cue my molding & casting experience. I've done bronze sand casting and cast concrete into silicone rubber molds for work in the past. These little bumpers didn't look like they would cause any problems for a silicone mold process, so I did it last night. This morning I cast a test piece out of a hard resin as a proof of concept, and it worked great. Because the originals I used to make the mold are a little beat up, I'm going to work on the first clone a little bit to iron out the imperfections - maybe some putty to take out indentations and then spray it with a clear coat to make a next-generation piece. After that the task is finding the right material to cast the finished product - I'm looking at 2-part urethane rubber for that. The viscosity is good for a poured cast, it can stand up to abuse since it's urethane-based, and it comes in different grades of flexibility which will help the piece bend into position and absorb bumps in the road better. If that doesn't work, there's about million other products I can use.
Since I'm going to all this trouble to make myself a set of these little rubber bumpers I thought why not see if other folks would be interested. Consider this a feeler post. If this is something you might want, let me know below.
Photos below:
1: An original OEM bumper in place.
2-5: Some pictures of the molding process.
6: This is a first-generation hard-resin clone. (I didn't take any pictures of mixing up the resin and pouring the casting because the working time is 5 minutes - I needed to be quick)
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