Took a few pics along the way in case anyone can benefit from the info.
Tape up the cockpit so that the bag won't catch on anything and tear.
If your cockpit does not have interior panels, make some out of cardboard so that the beads won't expand out into any voids.
Make a "dry run" with vacum on the bag, and kinda play with things for a bit, moving beads around, varying the amount of vacum, etc...
Mixing/kneading of goo and beads: I don't have a pic, but get a large, clen area to lay it out and add the bucket of goo down into the bag, insert vacum tube and seal it up. Get to kneading, it takes a while...
Get the beads all into the center of the bag horizontally and vertically, and lay into the chassis. With all your gear on, get into the car and start wiggling around, scooping beads around and out of the way to another area. From previous dry runs w/o bag, you know basically where you want to end up height wise, knees bent, back angle, etc...
Apply vacum and get to molding and smoothing things out. You do not want to end up with any folds or voids. Keep working the bag, you can pull on it pretty hard. Work loose parts of the bag along to combine into one fold. Kind of like drops rolling off the hood of the car and growing as they merge together with other drops...
Pull up on the back to get a visual, remember, no folds. The fewer folds, the stronger/longer lasting your seat will be.
After several hours of vacum, a few more hours and it's cured. At this point it's time to pop out of the mold. In my RFR chassis it was possible to get it all out in one shot. Lots of tugging, some tweaking, and "Poit", out it came. Many chassis will not allow a one piece removal, so you might end up cutting off one or both "wings". DO NOT cut the seat straight down the spine into 2 parts.
At this point you will be doing many trial installs and start trimming. You want to end up with a snug fit, but something that is easy to remove semi quickly.
Once the trimming is done, it's time to locate harness attachment points. Take measurements in the chassis from known parts like chassis tubes, etc...
Transfer these measurements to the seat so you know where to cut out the tunnels. Use a long screw driver to punch through the seat, to get a rough idea of the angles involved.
Make the cutouts large enough to get you fingers/hand into the hole to pull out the belts as you install.
Trail fit for the 75th or 6th time, with all gear, helmet, HNR, head surround clipped in, etc... to ensure you are ready to begin the next step.
Bust out the gaffer tape and have an assistant start taping on interior of the holes, and L, R, and top edges.
Then start with a strip right down the middle, and alternate from the left to the right, spreading out wider and wider, climbing the sides.
Keep it neat and sano, and if possible have a friend who is bead seat proficient help. This is my 2nd and my bud's 3rd.
Do the first race weekend w/ the tape job, make any changes with knife. hammer handle, fist, etc, re-tape and when it's all good, get it upholstered in nomex fabric.
