Carbon Fiber Bodywork

Six, did you forget how to count man? Yeah, awesome, if I could do it I would certainly make a bus load of them. If you can do them and make them look like they grew on the bike I would buy a set including a tail fin from you. Actually I am seriously thinking instead of getting my stuff painted to having a set made and painting the tank some kind of design to play in to that.

everybody likes a little a$$!

leon

saxjonz wrote:

I would buy a set including a tail fin from you.

X2!!

Also, just spitballing here, but check this site out: compositeenvisions.com/

Colored Carbon fiber raw fabric with interesting materials such as Kevlar and Zylon woven in.

I could see these being used to make front fenders, side covers, and tails in colors closely matching original Z1 colors with the midflake and graphics painted on them on a sleek fighter-style bike.

Well thanks saxjonz. I'd like to do a tail piece too.......lets see how well the sidecovers turn out first. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself :laugh:

Holy shit is right Dave! I'm just as happy about it as you guys :laugh:

WmsKaw wrote:

saxjonz wrote:

I would buy a set including a tail fin from you.

X2!!

Also, just spitballing here, but check this site out: compositeenvisions.com/

Colored Carbon fiber raw fabric with interesting materials such as Kevlar and Zylon woven in.

I could see these being used to make front fenders, side covers, and tails in colors closely matching original Z1 colors with the midflake and graphics painted on them on a sleek fighter-style bike.

It's funny you should mention the hybrid fabrics. I happen to have some carbon fiber/ yellow Kevlar hybrid cloth. I had planned to use some of it in testing to see how it would look and perform, so you guys will get to see it too. One of the reasons I haven't used it yet is cutting it. I need to buy special scissors for the Kevlar. That crap is STRONG! :lol:

porchev914 wrote:

531blackbanshee wrote:

thanks for making such a detailed thread porchev!
i believe that you have everyones attention.

leon

Yup, I've got everyone's attention alright, all 5 of you :laugh:

OMR'S having a family reunion this week,so everytime he clicks on theres actually an extra 60 people looking! :woohoo:

porchev914 wrote:

So lets take a look at the things we learned making the mold:
1. Brushing on the gelcoat is OK, but give it 2 coats without any fiberglass, letting each coat set up before you move on.
2. Start earlier in the day. I started waaaay too late, and ended up working until 4am.
3. DO NOT use mortar to fill in a mold box. It bonds great to concrete, but not to fiberglass.
4. When making a mold from an ABS plastic plug, DO NOT rely on release wax to allow separation of the plug from the mold. Use PVA. The gelcoat has chemicals that will bond to and break down ABS plastic. I wrecked the sidecover getting it out, but if I hadn't, it would have needed serious refinishing to make it look nice.

I put the tooling gel coat in a paint spray gun, you don't need to thin it any and it sprays fine and no worries about bubbles. Once you get a good few coats on it, then wrap it in fiberglass to reinforce.

You can spray PVA with an air brush to get a streak free coat. I've also used spray can clear to coat a part and sand it so it's smooth and it helps alot with separation. You can also make a few bursts with pressured air to start the separation.

Wax the mold, PVA the mold, lay your part and it pops right out.

Thanks cruspeed. I spray the PVA with a 1.3 tip in my regular spray gun. I assume by "streak free" you mean run free? I always spray at least one mist coat, sometimes 2 followed by 2 mediaum coats and it works out great. It would seem an airbrush would take forever to get an appreciable film thickness. I still feel apprehensive about putting gelcoat through my nice paint gun, but I'll try it with one of my primer guns on the other sidecover. Had I known before hand the amount of refinishing I was going to do to the mold, I would have sprayed PVA over the master plug (aftermarket sidecover). I learned the hard way, hence the list of lessons. The first few parts I lay up will be fiberglass and I will use wax followed by PVA until I feel the mold is seasoned. I will then do a wax only release with fiberglass. When I feel confident the part wont stick with only a wax release agent, I'll lay up a carbon fiber part. I do not want to use PVA with a carbon layup because of the slight texture it imparts to the laminate. I want as little refinishing (if any at all) to do on the carbon laminate as possible. Once I've fixed the few blemishes, I'll spray primer in the mold, sand it back down with 1500 and polish it. I also need to order a gallon of tooling gelcoat. That quart was barely enough for a sidecover, and I started geting skimpy with it towards the end...something that I shouldn't have done.

Right now, the biggest problem I see with my mold is a lack of a flange around the circumfrence. This is where my poor planning and low supply of gelcoat came into play. It's not a big deal to add one after the fact, its just an extra step I have forced on myself :dry:

I repaired the two main voids in the gelcoat and the tabs where the original owner drilled holes in the master plug, as well as a couple small chips/thin edges. I sanded the entire inside of the mold with 400 grit wet/dry paper. When I'm sanding something that is hard (the material, not the job) I will always buy 3M sandpaper. It lasts the longest, imo. If wet/dry paper is available in the grit I need, I'll use that over dry. I prefer to be wet vs. dusty :laugh:

You can see in the pic a 3" buffing wheel on and angle die grinder. After I get to 1500 grit paper, I'll use that to buff the mold. I could do it by hand, but that would take WAY too much time :laugh:

I got a little ahead of myself here. I noticed alot of pinholes in a few spots in the mold. I was planning to put 1 coat of primer in the mold and sand it down with 600 intil it was just starting to break through, then finish it off with 1500. That way the only primer left would be filling in the obvious small imperfections in the mold surface. I thought the primer would help fillin these pinholes

I was wrong. The primer did everything BUT fill in the pinholes

So, I will continue as planned with the sanding, but in the pin hole areas, I'll take it down to the gelcoat with 600, then mix up some more gelcoat and squeege it into the pinholes with a bondo spreader, then refinish it. On the next side, I'll try spraying the gelcoat through one of my cheap primer guns. I may even buy a cheap higher volume gravity gun with a 2+mm tip, which it should go through... :dry:

porchev914 wrote:

Yup, I've got everyone's attention alright, all 5 of you :laugh:

Many more than that. I've been following...great work and can't wait to see the final piece. Thanks for sharing the process.

I plan on diving into the mold making process soon so this is great stuff.