1984 KZ550 LTD mods (was a rear tail..)

I've kind of gathered that you shave the foam with rasps, filet knives, etc (I don't know where I picked that up, if I'm wrong feel free to correct me). What I have a question about is the paper and mod podge. Do you just take a single page of the paper, brush the mp all over it, and lay it on, and then just keep laying piece after piece to build it up? And is there a final coat once you have it all laid down, before it dries and you sand it out?

That tail looks great, nice work.

Thanks a lot

It's like collage work - so the best way to do it is actually with smaller pieces of paper. You pretty much paint some MP on the form, then stick the paper down so it covers the area you've painted, then soak/cover the paper with the MP, and let it dry to a nice hard shell. ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoupage )

When the paper is being soaked with the MP, it tends to fold easier, and get into the bends a lot better..like wet newspaper becomes much more bendy when it's wet.

Once it sets, you're ready to do another layer, and another..etc. You can eventually just paint more layers of MP on and let it get thicker like you say before sanding..which is also what I could do next..now that I think about it.

Ever used plaster of paris and newspaper to cover a baloon? Same idea.

The closest I've ever come to working with this type of stuff is when my elementary school art teacher used to have us dip the newspaper in a bowl of something and roll it into long sticks to make baskets or something out of. I don't remember ever actually making a basket, just rolling those dumb sticks :laugh: .

I was talking to my wife about it and evidently she's used the stuff before. She doesn't know it, but she's going to be helping fab bike parts very, very soon .

Thanks for the pointers, I think it's high time I hit the crafts store and start getting messy!

hahaha.. yeah, that's the stuff

I've come to the realisation, that I think I'm ready to go.

Using the fleece-to-soak-resin idea, I'm going to either pin some fleece to bottom half of the foam mold, resin it up, and the repeat for the top half (then trim and put them together later), or just wrap fleece around the entire thing, drench it in resin, and let it dry with the foam encased.

I could then slice the top section off around the 'cap' type area, and cut the foam out if I wanted it to be hollow, then just put more fiberglass inside for structure. I'd need to figure out a good way to attach it back on though..probably just a couple well placed pieces of sheet metal or something.

It's definitely not the traditional way to do it, but I think it'd work! Maybe I could do a couple layers of fleece-resin instead of glassing the inside though.. dunno really.

I'll letcha know

I've mocked up a seatpan with wire mesh, and need to finish that up with some fiberglass too. There's a lot of glass work in my future I think..

Post edited by: pyxen, at: 2007/01/29 08:47

Okay.. so here are a few more pics:

Seatpan:


The seatpan fits over the front lip of the rear cowl, so that I can mount the rear taipiece and still lift the seatpan up and down on the hinges.

Modded Rear Cowl 1


Modded Rear Cowl 2


New fender eliminator and light/license bracket 1:


New fender eliminator and light/license bracket 2:


The only thing I have left to do on the brackets is paint them black, get some turn signals and a new tail light, mount/wire them and we're ready to rock there..

The cowl needs some fiberglass still - obviously, then paint!

Post edited by: pyxen, at: 2007/02/04 16:43

Looking great man! Eagerly awaiting your next update

I like how you did the tail..

Here here....good work, and keep them pics coming!

Thanks!

If you do go the fleece route, be sure and stretch it tight around your mold before you soak it in resin. This is the same way they mold amp racks and subs into vehicles. I plan on fabbin' a fiberglas flyscreen for my bike this spring.
Good luck with your project.

Thanks!

Yeah - that's where the support for my 'fleece does work' argument comes from.

If it's good enough for $50,000 automotive upgrades, it's good enough for me!

Aight..So I've fleeced the seatpan and tail. I haven't epoxied it though, so there'll be another set of photos after I've done that. It probably won't be for another couple of weeks..I'm kinda sweatin' that part

Here they are!











There'll be a little 'bump pad' on the tail too - to cushin' when I'm pushin'.

Cheers!

PS: those're my perty TK 26'ers in the last pic.. I'm so looking forward to getting my bike back together and finally ride!! Now I just need some good weather

Post edited by: pyxen, at: 2007/02/15 22:27