Z1R Custom

Hey Les

Sooooo, once upon a time, Les entrusted me with a nearly priceless OEM Z1R dash. For anyone that is not familiar with these bikes, they were only imported in the U.S. for 2 years (right?) and even then they were a low production bike. The dashes for the fairing are a common problem, as the plastic goes to hell from age and UV exposure and nearly all that have survived are cracked or have had cracks repaired. Les was able to snag a well repaired example on ebay for this build, which is nearly impossible, as these rarely come up for sale. After a few emails and phone calls, I received the dash with a few other tid bits with the task of recreating it out of carbon fiber. I was busy for sure, with work and my own projects, but I was eager to help out a fellow enthusiast looking for that little something different. Blah, blah blah...so after spending time and and money working on making the required molds, I ran into a snag. I knew I shouldn't have tried it... I knew the odds were against it working, but I had so much going on, this would save me hours of extra work, and I was so sure could pull it off, I tried it anyway. Of course anyone reading will know the end of this story. It DIDN'T work, and the mold I was working on (the indicator box mold) is stuck I tried to make it one piece, and there is no draft to the part. So, with my work schedule getting weird, I put it back in its box and went away, wondering how I was going to get the damn thing off the dash without damaging it in any way. I decided that I needed to cut the mold in half, and make it a two piece mold, like I should have done in the beginning, but I was still extremely reluctant to do that for fear of damaging the priceless part underneath. Ugh, so I continued to put it off, until now. I was cleaning up and uncovered the box and the dash inside, and decided it was high time I manned the eff up and fixed this. So here I am.....This is a pic of the back of the dash as it sits, with a small notch cut out of the top. I procured some tiny saw blades for a dremel to cut the sides, and the corners will need to be done with a razor blade as the radius it too tight:


I always told myself I would have made an excellent surgeon...nows the time to put up, or shut up.

My aplogies for putting this off for so long Les, and Leon :blush:

OK, removal was sucessful without damage to the OEM part :woohoo: but now I'll need to re-prep the part and reconstruct the 2 PIECE mold. I hate doing work twice, ya know? Serves me right for thinking I was smart in the first place :pinch:

The worst part is, if I hadn't screwed it up, this would have been a bitchin' mold!

Understood man, things happen. Glad to see your still haven't given up! The part is not as needed as it was in the beginning, bought the reproduction unit from redline but I'm still looking forward to putting a carbon fiber one on the this bike. Just keep us updated.

Les

adam,
you know that i have four z1r's, :whistle: and one unbroken dash and pieces of two more :pinch: .

you'll be fine.
sometimes when i get in too deep i have too take some time and figure my way out,have some dreams or something :silly: .

then develop a plan of attack and get back on task.

sounds like you are back on task :evil: .

keep up the good work sir.

leon

Great to see you back at it. I'm sure your second go will be even better, given your previous work!

Thank you Leon and MM, I like to be making progress Today I finished cleaning up the mold from the original part, and sprayed it with PVA. Then proceeded to begin laying up the master plug:


Here I have placed a layer or two of chopped strand mat around the perimeter of the flange, letting the initil coat of resin tack up a little more. Throughout the afternoon/evening I continued adding additional layers of chopped strand mat over the entire surface. Tomorrow I will release it and as long as it looks good, I'll start making the necessary modifications to the master plug. Once that is complete, I can make the master mold from the master plug and laminate a primary part...Doesn't sound like too much, does it?

porchev914 wrote:

if i didnt know better, i'd think u were building a robot.
Keep at it bud.

After demolding the master plug, I was disappointed (but not surprised) to find a few air bubbles here and there. The tight radii are the most difficult to get the cloth to conform to, even chopped strand mat. I really don't feel like repairing a bunch of bubbles in addition to modifying the part, so this one is going in the trash. No matter, it was good practice Oh, and the red color.....I tossed some red pigment in the first coat of resin for fun :silly:

You have to have fun while your doing this stuff! Liking the progress.

Les

mark1122 wrote:

porchev914 wrote:

if i didnt know better, i'd think u were building a robot.
Keep at it bud.

My first thought was "Darth Vader"
But maybe a new villain to combat Iron Man.
Fiberglass Man or Carbonfiber Man. :silly:

AHAHAHAHA! Before I went out to the garage carrying the mold, m wife made the comment that "you remind me of Dark Helmet from SpaceBalls..... you should wear that for halloween next year".

Anyway, master plug take 2. I really didn't want to have to do this 3 times, so I sloooooowed things down. I'm still working on this, and probably won't get the layup finished until later this evening. I applied 1 coat of clear resin and let that kick off, then I mixed a batch with high density filler to make a thin paste. I used the paste to fill in the sharp radii and the fuel/amp guage bezels. That way I don't get the fiberglass lifting and creating bubbles....I HATE fixing bubbles!


Then I followed that with 2 layers of chopped strand mat. I'll start laying fabric now, then tomorrow I'll set it out in the sun to finish curing (UV activated polyester resin speeds things up during the day, and slows things down at night)

So, my patience paid off and I was rewarded with an acceptable raw master plug to work on:


Its tough to see because of the relative transparency of the fiberglass, but I will remove the ridges around the fuel/amp gauge bezels, and fill in the speedo/tach openings flush with the indicator panel opening. Then it will be finishing work/painting to get the part ready to make the master mold.