How to build a Pennon bead seat
So this is a little out of order but I have been planning on adding an entry about creating a bead seat but I never had the chance to get around and do it. Now I finally have some time. Since I had purchased the DSR I knew that I had to build my own seat for the car. I looked around a little on the web but really couldn't find any good pointers as to who was the best so I took a slight leap and called up Pennon Composites and ordered a bead seat from them.<br />
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Three days later a nice big box arrived at my house and I opened it like a little kid on Christmas morning. The kit comes complete with a bag full of little beads that weigh absolutely nothing (and looking at the bag make you think there is no where there is enough to build a seat), some mixing cups, epoxy, and a very detailed instruction manual. So as is my nature I immediately put the instruction manual on the kitchen counter and start playing with the other stuff. Good thing I have intelligent friends that read instruction manuals. <img src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/templates/default/img/emoticons/smile.png" alt=":-)" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" class="emoticon" /><br />
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So fast forward a few days and my buddies <a href="http://www.trackpedia.com/blogs/eric" >Eric</a> and <a href="http://www.trackpedia.com/blogs/billy" >Billy</a> come over to my house bright and early on Saturday morning to first watch some Formula One qualifying and secondly help me build my seat. Qualifying went excellent and once again was the most exciting part of the race weekend, and then it was off to the garage.<br />
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<strong>Step 1</strong>: Tape over all sharp objects in your cockpit. You need to do this even though the directions say its not necessary with their anti tear bag…ask me how I found out.<br />
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<strong>Step 2</strong>: Lay down and tape in the anti tear cover.<br />
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<strong>Step 3</strong>: Place bead seat bag (basically feels like a big bean bag) into the cockpit and tape it up on the sides of the cockpit to fit as you would expect a seat to. Basically make sure you will have enough beads behind your back and under your ass and legs. This will typically take the other two members of your seat building team holding the beads in position waiting for step 4. <br />
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<strong>Step 4</strong>: Test fit phase. For the first time do this without the driver suit, etc as you will have to do this multiple times. Get in the car yourself and test fit. In essence what you want to do here is see if you can get yourself to a comfortable seating posistion in the car where you are low enough in the cockpit to clear the yard stick test AND can easily manipulate all controls. If this is not the case then you need to go to step 5, if you fit perfectly fine get back out of the car and skip to step 6.<br />
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<strong>Step 5</strong>: Depending on how little or big you are my guess is that your going to have to remove beads. I am 6'3" 225lbs and I had to remove about half of the beads in the bag to get to the point were the steering wheel wasn't hitting my knees. This took 3 different attempts each time removing beads. Make sure you put the beads in a nice clean box that is deep other wise they blow all over and you need to have them organized if you need to add beads back in.<br />
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<strong>Step 6</strong>: Everything fits ok now in the test runs time to but the fire suit on and do one more test. Make sure that you can easily work everything in the car with your suit on.<br />
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<strong>Step 7</strong>: Time for epoxy. You mix the epoxy together and then have about 10-15 minutes to kneed it like bread onto all the beads. This is a really painful process as it is a lot harder than you think getting all the little beads covered in epoxy. Work as fast as you can here. <br />
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<strong>Step 8</strong>: Put the bag full of beads and epoxy back in the car and once again have the other people helping you move the beads to where you need them behind your back and under your legs and butt then lower yourself into the car. Once you are in the car make sure you are once again comfortable. You have 40 minutes to play around and get comfortable so take your time and get the beads where you need the support. I highly recommend you make sure your ass is padded as my seat ended a little to thin there and my tailbone takes a beating. Have your two helpers work with you to help you form the beads around you as you like. <br />
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<strong>Step 9</strong>: Now that you are comfortable in the car you are ready for the longest 45-60 minutes of your life. Have an assistant plug the vaccume (shop vacs are the best) into the top of the bag and suck the air out the bag. You have to let the vaccume cleaner run the whole time you are in the car. Sit back and wait trying to move as little as possible for 45-60 minutes. As your friends to go inside at this time and drink beer or what not as otherwise they want to stick their asses in your face or do other strange things. <img src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/templates/default/img/emoticons/laugh.png" alt=":-D" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" class="emoticon" /><br />
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<strong>Step 10</strong>: Carefully remove the seat from the car. Depending on the car you have you may have to cut it but in my DSR it pulled out as a whole seat.<br />
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<strong>Step 11</strong>: Trim the excess off with a big knife and scissors and then use a quality contact adhesive like 3M and apply the nomex cover to the seat and bam your done!<br />
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Here's the pics of the complete seat.<br />
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<img width='640' height='480' style="float: left; border: 0px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px;" src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/uploads/beadseat1.jpg" alt="" /><img width='640' height='480' style="float: left; border: 0px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px;" src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/uploads/beadseat2.jpg" alt="" />