Malaguti Spidermax - replacing the seat cover

When the sun destroys you seat

updated 2014-8-25
2011-7-17
On the place where I sit the seat cover is starting to develop cracks. After putting a small duct tape patch over it new ones outside the patch began to emerge. Covering them too with a now bigger strip of black duct tape a new one outside the taped area appeared the next day.
That was when I realized it is time to look for a replacement.



Asking around who would do this kind of work I got an offer for 55 Euro for the front seat and 100 Euro for front and back.
That seemed a bit expensive for me so I looked where I could get the faux leather plastic what covers the seat.
Since the black gets pretty hot in the sun I was looking for something not so dark. Finally I found a warehouse what had a huge selection of this kind of "fabric".
I decided for a light tan leather and for 7 Euro a meter by 1.6 meter I took a piece home.
I also needed to get a staple gun and 6mm short staples. Since the staples get shot into plastic, I needed an electrical one with more power than the hand tools.
We have a tool rental place but they wanted 15 Euro for a day for a small electric staple gun.
Carre Four had one for 10 Euro but this one used 4mm wide staples and they had only 12mm long staples available. Alcampo tried to sell the same staple gun for 30 Euro and did no even carry staples. At Leroy Merlin we found a no name brown cardboard box staple gun for 20 Euro with the normal size staples and 6mm staples for 4 Euro.
To see how it would look like I stapled the new material over the existing cover in a quick and dirty way.

The sun did heat the brighter material to similar temperatures as the black one.
I also did not like that this color had a touch into yellow.

Going back to the fabric store I looked at blue and dark blue, silver (to match the frame) and several others until I found this tobacco tan which me and my wife fell in love with instantly.
We got 2 meters in lengths for 14 Euro to cover the seat and the backrest with enough to spare for side projects.

Now I just need to get some UV resistant sewing yarn and I can start up the sewing machine the work on a proper replacement.
Will keep you posted about the progress.

2014-8-25
this happen to a blog when you have next to none internet. No updates.
In 2012 I decided I am just too lazy to change the whole seat to leather look, so I took off the seat, removed the brown and the original black cover and stapled a new black cover on.
This is how it looks 2 years later with lots of dust on it.

I was too lazy to sew the half round front piece, so I just folded the material and stapled it that way.
Looks and last like the original material.