Seat pan restoration

Took the seat off my KZ750E and found out just how messed up the pan is. I was also surprised to find out how thin the metal is. I guess it has to do with keeping the wait down.(?) This is an '81 model and I'm wondering if anyone of you knows what other seat pans might fit. Also, I'm wondering if any of you have had any luck with welding the tears back together and then re-enforcing the foam side of the pan with extra pieces of steal straps or patches welded to these stress points. There is some rust present, but I don't think it's enough to have caused the metal to tear -- that's at the hinges and across where the rubber rest sits against the frame. I've heard hints of this being a common problem.

Thanks

PS: I hope this is the right forum for this question.

Go to a bike bone yard. Lots of seat pans there.

I wasn't too happy with my last salvage yard experience. Maybe it was just that one that turned out that way. Maybe there's someone here from the DFW area who knows a good place to go lookin'.

Thanks.

cracks in seat pans are common problem.if you cant find a replacement id just weld the cracks up and grind them smooth you can weld a gusset on the top side under the foam where it wont be seen to keep it from cracking again.ive had pretty good luck having seat pans powder coated after repairing them seems to hold up good on them;)

The seat for your bike (Kawi part# 53001-1187) shows as only fitting the '81/'82 KZ750 E models, however the seats from a KZ1000 J and KZ1300 look fairly similar.
I'm not sure what the differences are (length? width? mounting brackets? etc.) between them.
If you know of someone near you that has one of these bikes, maybe they'd be kind enough to let you see if their bikes seat will fit your bike. If one of them does fit, then you can broaden your search for a complete replacement seat.

Other ideas for locating a replacement seat are:
Posting an ad in the classified section here.
If you have an eBay account, you can post a free "Want It Now" ad there.
You can also register (for free) to FindMyPart.com and post a wanted ad there as well.
All of them have worked pretty well for me.

Good luck.

Post edited by: RetroRiceRocketRider, at: 2007/02/11 12:03

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I found very good reponses from MRPARTS search. Very reasonable to out of my range considering how much I think I'll have to spend to try to fix this one myself. There's the fun of fiding out if it can be done and ,also, the foam and cover on mine are almost perfect. I'd rather know where the imperfections are than to take a chance on sight-unseen sometimes. Just had to hear another guy say it's been tried successfully.

Thanks again!!!

Correction...MrCycleParts was through which I got some good feedback.

Quite a while back, I seem to remember where a guy made a replacement seat pan out of fiberglass fabric and resin like you use for body repair. He took Saran wrap and put it all over the area of the bike where the seat pan sat then layed the fabric and resin over it and let it harden. He cleaned it up and then covered it and had a new seat. Might be worth a try if your pan is shot and you can't find anther one.