Doing a thing, part 2

T

toast449

top rider
Joined
Aug 16, 2023
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299
Location
Lon Gisland NY
I don't see any build threads in here, so I'm starting one.

So far not a lot, swapped out the stock mirror for CRG bar ends and used Tom's template to fit a Duke 390 tail tidy using mo.Blaze Ice turn signals. Stock battery removed for a Shorai unit and removed the passenger pegs after machining a new exhaust mount. Just those little things knocked ~13 lbs off the bike.

This weekend I started paint. I ordered replacement tank panels for $90 from my dealer so I still have all the originals.

Paint is from a Cherokee, Red Velvet pearl. Rattle can base and 2k clear. Garage was about 60 and I kept the cans warm in a big bucket of water (~100 F) Sprayed great but had a couple little imperfections. Wetsand with 1500/3000/5000.

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Used Griots stages polishes (1/2/3) on one half at a time
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Was going to take it to glass but the stock tank has some orange peel so I left a little in it. Didn't want to sand the tank flat and find out that they barely used any clear on it.

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Final result looks pretty good.

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Really need full sun to make this paint pop so of course it was cloudy all day.

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Next step is to redo the pillion cover (right now it has the strip of bright yellow that is covered with electrical tape :) ) with the same kind of strip but in burgundy. Forged carbon radiator caps and I will continue the body line from the bottom of the tank across them and paint the top burgundy before clearing the whole thing. Same idea as the custom one at the motorcycle show.

Front fender will be black on top with the forged carbon side panels.

Also going to take apart the dash, I hate how big it is. If the actual guts are the size of the viewable screen I'm going to 3d print something smaller as a case and mount it on the bars so that I can make a bikini fairing that lays very flat right above the headlight.
 
Yeah, I love the one they settled on.

Stitched up a new cover for the pillion seat to get rid of the yellow stripe. The vinyl I had isn't truly black, more like a very dark grey, but I think it will be fine for now and once I get the numbers cut for the tank bulge (doing a Husky logo and 801) that vinyl is almost an identical color so it should tie in well. Ultimately it all comes off and I'll make a forged carbon cover for the pillion base.

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Toast949, nice. job. I was thinking about doing something paint wise. Was going to get my local garage to put some clearcoat on the tank and mudguard, (silver Vitpilen here) I quite like the idea of pearl white myself. Did you have the same problems as Tom with the indicator by the exhaust melting? I also have workshop/garage envy, some nice kit in there bud. Nice Golf R, I had one of the first in the UK. Loved it. Since retired and moved to Spain and anything without much ground clearance won´t come down the track to my cortijo.
 
I have an entry in Tom's tail tidy thread, I'm using motogadget tail signals which are considerable smaller than stock. Totally out of the exhaust stream. I probably should bring that pic here for completeness.
 
2 color coats, just enough to be fully covered. Then 3 of the spraymax 2k. First coat is a 'bonding' coat, your goal isn't high gloss, second coat is medium, should have nice gloss, third coat is wet, just shy of runs. Gives great depth, cures hard and plenty of clear that you can wetsand fully.
 
All the forged carbon parts (radiator spoiler, front fender, heel guards) are backordered until the end of September. BOOO!

Looks like I'm going to start making molds and trying my hand with raw carbon flakes.
 
Yes, I built them in Fusion by hand.

Once I was done I realized my '1' isn't the same as the stock logo but I like mine better.

Decal was a sheet of vinyl that I cut using my xTool F1.
 
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Sprayed the front fender today, came out fantastic, won't even be necessary to sand/polish.

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The sides of the fender I scuffed the hell out of and tried my hand at skinning them with chopped carbon but it wasn't great. I thought I could use my mitivac brake bleeder pump to do the vacuum bagging but it was just too much air volume. Saw online people have success just using the bags that you connect a literal vacuum to for clothes storage, so when they get here I'll try again.


Also swapped the stock header to the Arrow part. What a gigantic pain in the ass to fit. Just getting the O2 sensors unplugged required taking half the right side of the bike apart and the pipes are an extraordinarily snugged fit. On the plus side this is the only bike I've ever had where the exhaust donut gasket came right off the stock header and slid on to the aftermarket collector pipe.
 
toast449 said:
Sprayed the front fender today, came out fantastic, won't even be necessary to sand/polish.

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The sides of the fender I scuffed the hell out of and tried my hand at skinning them with chopped carbon but it wasn't great. I thought I could use my mitivac brake bleeder pump to do the vacuum bagging but it was just too much air volume. Saw online people have success just using the bags that you connect a literal vacuum to for clothes storage, so when they get here I'll try again.


Also swapped the stock header to the Arrow part. What a gigantic pain in the ass to fit. Just getting the O2 sensors unplugged required taking half the right side of the bike apart and the pipes are an extraordinarily snugged fit. On the plus side this is the only bike I've ever had where the exhaust donut gasket came right off the stock header and slid on to the aftermarket collector pipe.
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Great job there, looks excellent. Are you got to put the Husky logo on as well?
You may get a little smoke off one of the rubbers on the spring that holds the two parts together, it’s only one spring that makes contact . I couldn’t get it to fit without the rubber touching the downpipe slightly. I even sanded a the rubber a little. It stopped smoking after a few rides tho 🧐
Looks like you managed with the O2 frame wire clamp btw.
You definitely need a little patience when installing it don’t you. I’m going to take mine off to mirror polish it at some point, hope it’s not too stuck with the joint paste.
 
Frame wire clamp is definitely two plugs that you will definitely destroy when you remove them. Fortunately the are plugging into threaded holes, so I reinstalled it with black stainless m8 thread screws.

I wound up removing the rubber off one of the springs. Even after bending the spring perch up it still clears the pipe with only 2mm of room.
 
Started skinning the black parts of the front fender in chopped carbon. Messy work, if I didn't like what it looks like so much I would have done normal carbon weave.

If you want to try this you need some vacuum bags for cloths, chopped carbon tow, resin, 100% polyester interlining (inside of dress material) and some fleece or old fluffy towels. And a shit load of sandpaper. And a mask. And gloves, always use gloves.

60 grit across the whole surface of the part. Paint on a thin layer of the resin and wait 45-60 minutes until it is past the gel stage but still sticky. Sprinkle carbon tow and press in place with your fingers, shake off excess. At this point many will say add another layer of resin, but when you try to do that with a brush you will inevitably break up the strips of carbon into a mess of threads, so I prefer to vacuum bag it at this point. Cover with the interlining (acts as a release layer) and put the fleece over that. Prop the parts up on something small inside the vacuum bag, you want the vacuum to pull the lining and fleece around the edges. If you lay it down you won't get nice sides. Leave overnight. Remove, peel off release layer and sand with 60 grit to knock down the high spots.

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Another layer of resin, another sprinkling of chop, another overnight in the vacuum bag.

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This is where I'm at. Back to 60 grit to level and shape everything. If you sand through to plastic you can mix up a tiny amount of resin, apply to those spots, attach some carbon and bag again. If not, another layer of resin, overnight, then sand it.

I'll keep documenting how this goes.
 
Vacuum bagging done, high spots knocked off and the first coat of epoxy.

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Sand it with 60 grit to mostly flat (don't want to go through anywhere at this point) and add the second epoxy coat.

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Getting there. Having now done all this I would be so much better at it if I did it a second time. Biggest thing to learn is I would have put partall paste (non-stick stuff for skinning) inside the mount indentation and not have skinned that, just put epoxy in it to make it shiny. No one will be able to see in there if it wasn't carbon and it is by far the most time consuming part of the entire project.
 
Constantly doing resin coats and then sanding them down is annoying. I hit the parts with 2k clear in 2 heavy coats and will use that to flatten everything to final conditions. I didn't set up a spray booth, just did it outside so I got a little dust in there but I wanted to see it on the bike. Super hard to get a good pic with the gloss, but looks pretty good (those wavy lines through the middle of the parts are not real, some kind of reflection).

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Also order forged carbon rear fender and chain guard for a KTM 790, but those are custom parts so they will take several weeks.
 
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