Originally Posted by
LesterOfPuppets
You can take a break between top and bottom with brushed-on contact cement. When you're ready to to the bottom, just run a fresh bead along the remaining material and let it tack up a bit before proceeding, I actually used two coats on the entire leather as it seemed to draw up quite a bit of my contact cement, and I wanted some glue on there. I cinched a couple of toestraps around the center part of the saddle while I was taking a break between sides. Seems like it was wanting to come up in that area.
I didn't even bother masking the rails or seatpan on mine. Excess rubbed right off the rails and I didn't care much about the bottom of the seat pan. The leather scrap I used was too thick, but just barely worked - gonna have to try finding some thinner hide for the next go around.
Thanks so much for the walkthrough, THEJAPINO!
Sweet! That's gonna look good with lots of use! Let's turn this thread into "show your recovered saddles".
Edit: I think the thickness of the hide is key to a clean recover. I tried to get leather as close to as the original cover as far as thickness/finish goes. I also did some vinyl that was close to the same thickness of leather and felt it didn't conform as well as leather did. I actually tore a piece of vinyl once while stretching. Leather makes so much sense in this application. I would do vinyl if I wanted it to be water resistant (marine vinyl) or didn't want animal products on my saddle.