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PostPosted: May 17th, 2022, 11:25 am 
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Joined: June 28th, 2001, 7:00 pm
Posts: 2909
Location: Freeland, Maryland USA
I picked up a couple of used bucket seat pans to use in some future decked canoe or low seated pack-boat rebuild. I really like the comfort of Ridgerest sleeping pad foam on pan seats, and it was time to cushion the two new pans.

The usual Ridgerest routine; make a paper template for approximate size and shape to be covered, trace the outline on the Ridgerest and cut out the foam, It’s better to make the template a little larger than seemingly needed and trim any excess after a fit test.

Lay the cut out Ridgerest pieces on the bucket seats (I weighted them in place with sandbags) check the fit, mark and trim as necessary and, on the tall bucket that gets Ridgerest only on the bottom, lay it back in place and Gold Sharpie an aiming outline.

Drill a couple drain holes in the lowest part of the pan seat, best done before the foam get glued in place.

Then the laborious part, evenly coating contact cement onto/into the ridge recesses. Unlike a Waffle House breakfast I don’t want contact cement maple syrup puddled in the recesses. And, unlike a flat piece of minicel the waffled Ridgerest probably has three times the surface area, = three times as long spent on thorough, un-puddled brush strokes as a flat piece of minicel.

ImageP5150004 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

ImageP5150005 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Two coats each on the seat pans and Ridgerest pieces. The long push pins are simply to hold the Ridgerest in place while coating with contact cement. Re-coated and timed tacky, a little heat gun reactivation action on both surfaces, pressed into the Gold Sharpie outline on the deep-dish seat and hope my aim is true. Press the Ridgerest down everywhere on both seats, center and especially edges.

I don’t want to be thumb-pressing Ridgerest on seat pans for the next hour, or overnight. Time for some binder clips on the critical edges.

ImageP5150008 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

And then a pile of Zip-locked sandbags laid atop for overnight compression weight.

Day Two. Yes it takes me parts of two days to do something as simple as glue RidgeRest to a seat pan.

A little razor blade trimming of some RR that extended past the pan. I wanted the Ridgerest cut close enough to get the binder clips on, so a little overlap was fine. It is seriously not worth trying to cut the Ridgerest to exact perimeter dimensions; insta-seating the contact cemented Ridgerest it is easy to get a little off kilter, and any overlap slivers cut like butter with a razor blade.

The pre-drilled drain holes now covered by Ridgerest. A lack of drain holes isn’t a big issue when my cheeks are covering the seat pan, but there is puddle if I exit the canoe in the rain without some low point drainage. Even with drain holes the Ridgerest waffles will still be wet, but not nut-soaking deep water. A sponge wipe takes care of most of it, and if it’s raining I am either wearing raingear or, height of sweaty summer, don’t mind being wet.

Holes melted & sealed using a Propane torch to heat the head of a nail.

ImageP5160009 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

ImageP5160012 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Hot nail head going first from the hole-visible bottom side, then back through the hole again from the foam side for a cleanly melted & sealed holes in the Ridgerest.

Done. I don’t yet have a rebuild that needs a bucket seat, but when I do. . . . .


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