CX500 GL500 650 Global

Ok. I've fallen for the earlier CX500's. mainly my '79. I've learned it's not an "A", "B" or "Z" but a UK CX500. I kinda still miss my '82 CX Custom from the States but life goes on, doesn't it. What's up with these seat pans? The on that came on my '79 CX is rotted bad enough that it loses pieces every time I put it on the center stand. I can hear and feel it give way under my fingers, so I bought another that looked in better shape. It kinda is, but the edges of the pan are still rotted and crumbly in places. Anybody have a tried and true method to make the seat pan usable? I considered rust conversion chemicals to stop the rust, them try to build up the parts that need to be built up with epoxy resin or automotive body filler or something. It really just has to hold the seat cover, doesn't it. Anybody?

What about fibreglass matting like car repair/boat building?I know what you mean about some of these old seats.They do decay badly.I recovered one of my seats and used small self tappers to hold the cover into whatever good metal was there.Not super but reasonable.

PS

Did you get my PM?
I could have got away yesterday for an hour or two.

The reason they get rusted out is because the film of plastic under the seat covering, breaks down over the years, and when they bike gets washed or rained on, the foam soaks up the water and has no way to evaporate out of the seat. That's when the water settles to the bottom and rusts out the pan.
The best way to fix it is to remove all the covering and foam, then have the pan sand blasted of glass beaded down to bare metal. Fiber glassing will work as a temporary fix IF you use EPOXY resin. Otherwise the regular resins will NOT hold to metal for very long. Trust me, I did it the wrong way for a long time before I learned this. Have you ever seen a hot rod with a hood scoop added to the hood and it was popping loose all the way around it? They didn't use epoxy!
Because you sit on it with all the weight of your body, and all the bumps we hit in the road adds more G-force to the seat pan, it's best to replace the rusted metal with metal that's welded in and ground back down to a good strong seat pan again.
One of the best paints to protect the metal again is Spray or brush on Rustolium. I painted a swamp cooler with it 5 years ago, inside and out, and it has not rusted yet, and it sits on the roof 365 days a year, filled with water.
The foam will never be as good as new foam, but at least make sure you add a new layer of at least 4 mill plastic under the seat cover so if water gets under the stitching, It wont saturate the foam again.

Hey Shep,
No PM, sorry. I couldn't have gotten away anyway. Work late on Monday Tuesday and Thursday. Sunday didn't work out well for me either. Sorry again. Time is a precious commodity in short supply for me at the moment. Thanks for the advice on the seat pan, though. I kinda figured you'd ran into the same problem. Some day we'll hook up at the coffee house. Really.