ATV Seat Repair, ATV Seat Cover, or Reupholster

[Ajmboy]

Over this winter I started to get some cracks in my ATV seat cover on my Yamaha Grizzly and they got progressively worse. One crack ran across and more cracks at started to form.  For the time being, I bought some wide black duct tape as a temporary repair. I’m thinking or a few seat covers but and alps thinking of reupholstering the seat. Any thoughts? I guess my quad is officially old now being a 2004 and to be expected...

I used 3M Super Tough Heavy Duty All Weather Extra Wide Black Rubberized Duct Tape 2.83-in from Lowes.

 

I'm leaning towards this seat cover on ebay which I can just use my pneumatic stapler with. 

 

I was also looking at this Kolpin Gel-Tech Black Seat Cover on Amazon

 

Looks Like I can get a new one on Partzillla for $100

 

[MarkinAR]

I have recovered a lot of seats, but not one with that many compound curves.  If the cover is a formed cover I'd just recover it.  If it's flat material though, it's going to have a lot of wrinkles.  The picture seems to be a formed cover though....

The last 300 seat I recovered had several holes in the foam.  I ended up filling them with spray foam and then shaving it to form with a cheese grater type of file.  Worked really decent.

[Ajmboy]

That's great info @MarkinAR, I'm torn on what to do and may just buy a new seat for the $100. However I'm thinking to try the Kolpin gel cover. Found it on summit racing for $39.99. I just don't know if I'll like it..lol.

[labyrinths]

My seat was pretty bad. I bought the Kolpin Gel-tech seat cover and wasn't quite fully satisfied with it. So I got some spray contact glue and glued it down (so I didn't need the straps that normally hold it down). Then I bought some outdoor/marine grade vinyl and stretched it around and stapled it to the underside of the seat frame (my seat frame is plastic). I used a air stapler. Made it a pretty easy job with a second person to staple while I stretched and held it.

[Ajmboy]

Thanks @labyrinths, very helpful. I wasn’t sure about the gel tech seat cover. Did it slide around on you? Was it comfortable?

[labyrinths]

didn't slide around and was comfortable out of the box but was still not like a factory seat. After I covered it I liked it better that the factory seat. That gel layer is nice

[RolledIt]

I'm kind of liking the tape job! Is ther another way? haha I've recovered a snow machine seat before and it was pretty difficult to keep the tension even on it for the wrinkles.

[weekdaze]

I've got a couple of pockmarks in the seat of my 92 Bayou. I'm wondering if it's necessary to tape them to keep the damage from spreading?

[mikeexplorer]

The seat on my old quad got the point it was more duct tape then seat. The material can be found at a craft store and it wasn't hard to remove and replace it.

At the time, I think it was only like $10 for enough material to do the seat.

 

[mailman1]

I have a 1996 Big Bear 350 and have replaced the seat cover with the one you refer to from ebay and haven't had a bit of trouble with it wearing or fitting. If I have to replace it down the road this is the route I will go.

[BUKNDUK]

Check out gillmorescamo.com

2004 Yamaha Grizzly camouflage seat cover $36

I have one on my 2004 Yamaha Bruin 

[Hagbard]

On 6/23/2021 at 9:09 PM, weekdaze said:

I've got a couple of pockmarks in the seat of my 92 Bayou. I'm wondering if it's necessary to tape them to keep the damage from spreading?

100% yes, I do boat upholstery for a living and I've rehabbed a few wheeler and motorcycle seats - if you leave the foam exposed to UV for much more than a week or two it will start to degrade and get progressively worse til you have deep valleys or pock holes. cover with tape until you can buy a yard worth of 4-way stretch vinyl. This site https://www.marinevinylfabric.com/products/36x54-marine-vinyl?variant=39463706361940 has really good pricing for vinyl and a sale on right now where you can get single yards of 4-way for $16, enough to do 2 seats probably. 4-way stretch makes it MUCH easier to cover those compound curves without having to sew in gussets, but it will also show imperfections in the foam beneath more readily. If a seat's foam is really bumpy, a layer of sew foam (scrim backed foam) or headliner material will help give it a smoother appearance. If there are deep valleys or chunks missing, you can either fill in with similar foam, by gluing it in with contact cement, or you can shave out surrounding foam and make a lower seat profile by using an electric turkey knife.  You can pick up a decent air stapler from Harbor Freight for about $30, I use the 20 gauge one with 3/8" staples for most seats, 1/2" if its a super thick spot. Hope it helps and happy to answer any questions.