Seat Kit Arrived & Painting Finished & Decal Designs

My seat arrived today. The kit looks great, can’t wait to try and mould it. Will possibly be doing that tonight, fingers crossed!  The process seams quite lengthy, but it’s best to be thorough and get it perfect than to rush it. After all, if it goes wrong, I may as well have just thrown £145 down the drain!

I think I will have to add some more wood to the bottom of the cockpit, the seat needs to be raised slightly, the front being level with the entrance to the front half. It might be possible to shift the beads enough to fit it perfectly, but I’m unsure. The last thing I want to happen is for me to end up getting pins and needles/dead leg whilst driving. That would be a nightmare.

I’m also thinking of covering the seat in either black suede or Nomex cloth.

Anyway, the painting is completely finished!

Paint process:

• Sanding
• 1st Coat of Zinsser Grey Primer
• Sanding
• 2nd Coat of Zinsser Grey Primer
• Sanding
• Grey Undercoat
• Sanding
• 1st Top coat
• Sanding
• 2nd Top Coat
• Sanding
• 3rd Top Coat
• 4th Top Coat

Glad thats over! Each of the Top coats required 16 hours drying time in between. Although it will take around 10 days to fully cure.

Last night I drilled a hole in the bottom of the front half of the cockpit for a couple of wires to enter the cockpit. I will finish this off with a silver metal disc, so the hole is completely tidy.

I also spent a couple of hours last night preparing the decal images. This was a fairly length process. Each image requiring the correct size (in CM/MM), a blank backgroud, correct naming etc. Having to pull each one off the internet in a decent size was more difficult than I thought it would be.  My desktop is now littered with the files!

In total there will be 37 decals on the cockpit. This seems a lot! However, every decal on one side also needs to be on the other. And then 7 decals for the top. Just like my initial design.

If the printing company can do the job, I’m ready to go!