Motorcycle Repair: bike restoration, cycle salvage yards, suzuki gs 1100

Question
Hey Wayne,
I recently got a 1982 Suzuki gs 1100 gk as a project bike. i realize w/ this being an older bike parts are scarce and expensive. Surprisingly, I've had no real problems restoring it except for one part, the seat. The seat does need to be re-upholstered, badly, but the base/pan for it is also pretty rusted. The latches and small cushions are salvageable because they are just bolted on. Since I'm not really crazy of the seat(it is very square and doesn't have much shape to it), I figured I'd just replace the foam cushion, but I cant seem to find the base anywhere. I've even given up looking for just the base and tried to find a used original seat for cheap just for the base and cant seem to find anything. Any ideas how I'd be able to get ahold of the base?

Answer
Hi Cameron,

Other than cycle salvage yards you can join one of the GS forums
and ask around about spare seat pans for sale:
http://www.thegsresources.com/
http://www.moto-directory.com/salvage.html

Some stuff shows up on ebay occasionally and there are new Corbin
seats available but a bit pricey:
http://www.corbin.com/suzuki/8283gs1100.shtml

Some other alternatives are to build one yourself with
either steel or fibreglass as the base:

http://www.customfighters.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22549
http://www.jeffreyphipps.com/seat_pans.htm
http://www.roadglide.org/showthread.php?t=5306

These seats are almost all getting rusty so building one
might be the best option.

WS
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