The Kirkeys have been part of my build plan since day-one but I've never loved their shape. Something about the side bolster bothered me. I noticed in one of Gumball's posts that he had reshaped his seats. I PM'd Chris and he was kind enough to direct me to one of his earlier posts where he had photos of his seat shaping in progress. So, finally I'm thanking someone besides EdwardB.

The Kirkeys have a slotted oval aluminum edge extrusion. I called Kirkey and they said they'd sell me stock edging for $5/foot. Nice to know it was available if I buggered it up but I was able to get this done and retain the original edging.

First step was to grind the welds loose. Easier said than done but I got pretty good at it after a few. Once the welds were loose, I could bend the edging out of the way.



I free handed the shape I wanted.



Jig saw and hand grinder with flap wheel and I had the seat shaped to my liking.



From here it was pretty easy to reshape the edge beading with a rubber mallet. I will stitch weld this all back into place later.
I made a cardboard template from my first side and was able to transfer that same shape to the other side and the other seat.



The difference is subtle but I'm very pleased with the change.



THANKS GUMBALL!

-Steve