Well, I went by the upholstery shop today and spoke with the guy about my seat. I was hoping to get the price reduced, but instead it got jacked up....and as much as I hate to admit it, I agreed to pay what he asked.
We discussed several options, including the idea of him ordering a sheet of high density foam, which is probably the best choice, but he doesn't have a need for the stuff, so he wanted to charge me for a whole sheet, which would run about $100. If I had some other use for that, I might have considered it, but I couldn't see any way to make that work.
I ended up agreeing to a multi-layered process using a couple of different types of foam. The base layer is similar to a carpet padding type stuff, with a middle layer of thick foam and a top layer of another dense 1" type stuff.
I'm too ashamed to admit what it'll cost me, but I should have it back by the end of the week. And this is a small family run business, so that helps me feel a bit better about spending the money. The new battery will be here by the time I get the seat back, so the timing is pretty good.
I picked up the materials to make the tool tube and got that knocked out pretty quickly today. I'll get it painted black tomorrow (or the next day, if it rains) and start working on a mounting bracket for bolting it onto the bike.
If all goes well, I should have some new pictures to post of the recent mods sometime this weekend.
I'll take a peek at that Baja shell. I've looked at their DS kits several times, and have been pretty impressed.
Yea, the one car garage with a car and a bike...doesn't leave much room for a second bike, but I'll keep working at it and see what I can do. I don't like to think about parking the EX outside.
Edit: Oops, I misunderstood. That's the light, which will fit into our shell. Very nice to know it'll swap out with minimal hassle. And their shells look nice too!