Carbon Fiber Bodywork

Wow i just found my bike in the posting...nice. Your carbon tank is making me drool.


porchev914 wrote:

531blackbanshee wrote:

the tribute bike is more scattered than together.it is in the trying to get the "right pieces together" stage.once i have all the right pieces we will get serious and knock it out.the plan has been kz steel tank with stock style graphics on a black base(with a custom mural on the top of the tank) with air brushed kz900 decals on your side covers and the graphics that match the tank on the tail with the carbon as the base.irish will upper triple,gixxer 1000 lower tripple busa legs spoked 17's front and rear with a 6 inch wide rear rim and 200mm tire.custom swingarm,sidewinder pipe 1075 cc engine(just waiting on me to finish the portwork).
the paint scheme will be similar to this members bike.

leon

It's funny you posted a pic of that paint scheme, I had decided to do the same paint scheme for my bike. I'm going to have the carbon fiber base with the main trim color Pearl white and the secondary trim color a dark Pearl red. It should look bad ass.
The tribute bike sounds like a bad ass machine, a cross between a drag bike and a street fighter

trianglelaguna wrote:

Yes.....i now weigh all my work related and career goals with the employer in terms of how this will affect my purchasing of motorcycle related equipment and parts.....i can put up with almost twice the amount of abuse and bullshit as the average worker when it is looked at as affecting my projects and bike goals if i dont try harder than the others at my work...

You know...I have found myself coming to the same conclusion lately.... As long as I can pay the bills, buy some cycle parts, have a project or two going, and brew some beer life will be good. The rest just fills in the extra time - doesn't matter what I do.

DoubleDub wrote:

trianglelaguna wrote:

Yes.....i now weigh all my work related and career goals with the employer in terms of how this will affect my purchasing of motorcycle related equipment and parts.....i can put up with almost twice the amount of abuse and bullshit as the average worker when it is looked at as affecting my projects and bike goals if i dont try harder than the others at my work...

You know...I have found myself coming to the same conclusion lately.... As long as I can pay the bills, buy some cycle parts, have a project or two going, and brew some beer life will be good. The rest just fills in the extra time - doesn't matter what I do.

That's what we call being in the groove at my shop. I actually enjoy life when this happens. The downside is trying to find time to work on that project bike, but I feel it's worth the effort. I just hate it when I am in the groove and something nocks me out. 15 hours a day :ohmy: That's a deep groove. Not much time for CF body parts. Hope you have time to check in once in a while Adam. Congrats on adding to the earning power. Hope you get overtime with whatever you do.

A philosophically unique perspective on a mans motivation in life...... I can think of worse ways to spend ones time, as well as relate to our fellow humans.

Yeah Josh, 15 hrs a day won't be a walk in the park, but I'm gaining a Rep a work as the guy you send when you need to get shit done without crying to a support group. I gotta do my best to Foster this shady reputation since it seems to be getting me more work........it just work that's 80 miles away :S. I'll be checking in from the field on my phone, I just sonic have much progress pics to share.

I picked up some additional cloth material for molds and to try on some sidecovers. The mold cloth is 24 oz fiberglass and is HEAVY. The carbon is some standard weave they had on sale. I wanted to see how standard weave looked, and see what you guys think of the aesthetics.

porchev914 wrote:

:laugh: I would like to hear from anyone that has undertaken or plans to undertake a composite project.....anyone?

I hope you don’t mind if I show you what I believe you asked for…..

Carbon fibre: seat, rear cowl (hinged and lifts up with a lock), the chain guard, side covers and the headlight brackets (not shown)….. paint is Purple/blue chameleon pearl with purple holographic flakes clear coated, mainly on the seat the rest is lama metallic flake and a little chameleon pearl… shame the photos don’t do it justice, also the chain guard is textured as in the top has heavy ply giving it a backbone feel/look…..Did this a while ago thought the carbon once laid took on a reptile skin appearance hence the shape of the chain guard.

If I may, you were questioning the finish with just resin as apposed to clear coat… the result you will get from just resin finish alone compared to a pearl and metallic clear coated finish will be incomparable. No matter how fastidious you feel you are with the vacuum bagging etc the result will be nice although I feel from experience it will not even come close to having the depth and lustre of a clear coated finish and that’s not taking into account pearls and metallic flakes also…. But that’s just my humble opinion….

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Whew! My first of many consecutive 15hr days. Thanks for sharing subby your parts turned out nice, too bad you can't see all the hard work you put into them. I'd love to see your sidecovers too.
As for the part finish, I was thinking out loud mostly. My first real job was in a bodyshop, and I am familiar with the magic of paint. Though I must say I've never painted anything as crazy as what you've got. More pics please......and if you don't mind, could you share your process of manufacturing if different from what I've been doing?

I must apologise first when I mentioned side covers I meant them pictured below. I gather you might have thought the side covers were moulded from the originals, just like you I too lost them although I’m too cheep to by replacements so I just started to cut away and came up with those designs (there back light with LED’s, looks wild at night).

Its all a learning curve for me, the bike was bought to refine painting, polishing and composite techniques…. bike also “glows in the dark” well some of it does as I was experimenting with glow pigments also. Frame, forks, swing arm and the cosmetics glow all bright green in the dark….shame though, wish I had a photo of it in the dark!

All the carbon was laid free (not vacuum bagged) hand you know layer after layer and built up that way. I was not too concerned about strength, seriously side covers and rear cowl are not high load bearing components, I spent a bit more time on the appearance factor, design painting etc… the resin also was only polyester not epoxy so there not as strong again either…. remember though were comparing chalk and cheese here as Carbon fibre’s tensile strength is generally compared with metal NOT plastic side covers…. chalk and cheese!

I wont take up any more of your thread as I will start a project forum of my own with the KZ and waffle on there, If you don’t mind though I added one more photo to give you an idea of that project, the moulded head will be the well... "head" light, its at the rough cast stage lifted off the picture (next to it on the bonnet, melted the picture though ) a few weeks ago… I know its not OEM, I like to be unique!
Composite stuff on the KZ will be things like side covers, headlight, dash, taillight (its a skull, had to compliment the headlight), rear cowl and oh yeh…….. I will be moulding my ass for the seat…

tell me, what seat will be more comfortable than your own “butt”!

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Super cool subby. You HAVE to post a pic of the bike in the dark. I very curious to see how your glow in the darp parts look, and what pigment ratio you used to get the effect. I have some glow-in-the-dark pigment as well, but I have yet to experiment with it. Very unique suzuk you have there!

My 5 lb jug of graphite powder arrived today, yay!

It was by far the cheapest I found, less than $14 for the jug at Blains Farm and Fleet. A much better deal than West Systems charging $15.99 for 12 oz of the same stuff. I know it says seed lubricant, but graphite powder is all the same.

I was going to work on my tail mold this weekend, then I got invited to go riding, so I was planned to postpone the mold for some much needed 4th gear table top adrenaline......until I got a phone call that some crooks broke into my dads garage and stole my cherry picker and the LT1/4L60E I had sitting in the cradle of my 72 El Camino I feel like I'm getting to be on a first name basis with the Hesperia PD dispatch girls :S

wow sorry to hear that...bummer...they will get their due recompense for sure

Damn, that sucks. I hope they catch the slimy creeps that stole your stuff. That takes a determined crook to take all those heavy items. How often do you check on your Dad's garage?

That's why this hangs on the wall in my garage. Hopefully it will remind would be crooks of my security policy.

The project I've been working on got postponed today and tomorrow. I wasn't able to get out to the desert to check on the old mans house, so I was able to make some progress on the tail mold.

My daughters soccer game got cancled due to our current wet weather, so it looks like I'll be able to lay up the mold tomorrow :woohoo: A little more to go with the clay flange fillets and she's ready for a coat of graphite laced epoxy.

Depending on how well this turns out, I may end up remaking all my molds from epoxy resin and graphite. For the ultimate in strength, you use carbon fiber cloth in the mold as well....but I don't need that kind of strength and durability (or cost)for a handful of parts. I definately need to remake the left sidecover....anyone have a nice spare they're willing to part with? I destroyed mine during demolding :blush: