Kz1000 Carbon Fiber Fuel Tank

I want MORE!!! haha. I've been dabbling with fiberglass things and such for a while and still suck at it...keep up the good work! :woohoo:

Wow... and I thought the carbon side covers and tail would be cool (and I still do)!

I can just see having a complete bodywork in carbon with Z1 graphics laid over it as described in the side cover thread. But I best not dwell on it too much as I am at work and would look awfully funny walking around with the result!

If you are happy enough with the outcome to produce full bodywork sets, count me interested. I'll sign waivers or whatever it takes, I don't care.

Incidentally I think a race-car style bladder from ATL or Fuel Safe, while NOT cheap, would offer adequate protection and solve any possible legality issues. If these guys can construct a cell like this to meet FIA (Formula 1) standards, I don't think DOT would have a leg to stand on.

Truly a beyond cool project! Now I must think of something other than this bodywork with a brown tint, orange midflake and '73 Z1-style graphics... yeah, not happening. :lol:

That's not a bad idea. Just do the orange/rootbeer paint translucent so that you could see the weave from the CF through the paint. Hmmmm.....

RsvBruno wrote:

I want MORE!!! haha. I've been dabbling with fiberglass things and such for a while and still suck at it...keep up the good work! :woohoo:

That's how it starts with these things......you're curious, so you give it a try. You like it, but you promise yourself It's only for special occasions. Then you find yourself doing it on the weekends too....but it's still recreational, you could stop anytime you wanted. Before you know it BAM!!!!! You're in the garage at 1 am trying to get a mold ready when you should be studying for those CalTrans tests tomorrow morning!

testarossa wrote:

That's not a bad idea. Just do the orange/rootbeer paint translucent so that you could see the weave from the CF through the paint. Hmmmm.....

You could do that Josh. It would be the same as ghost flames, just Z1 paint scheme stripes instead

Good news guys, thanks to kzr member supercharged, I have a meeting this afternoon with the owner of taylormade racing. They design and fabricate GP exhaust systems for modern sport bikes, as well as lots of carbon fiber bits. The owner has graciously agreed to let me pick his brain and look at some of the parts I have made. Help point me in the right direction if you will. Incidentally, he has experience making carbon fiber fuel tanks as well, so I'm excited to learn as much as I can! :woohoo:

wow supercharged that is very cool of you.
it never ceases to amaze me the good people that we have in our forum.
kzrider is a great place for us zedheads.

leon

I am sure that, as far as the PO-PO goes, you can just tell him it is some of that nifty "carbon fiber look" decal tape!

Then, if he uses a magnet, just tell him the tank is a cheap plastic replica with nifty "carbon fiber look" decal tape.

If he presses you, then just pull out a small hammer and threaten to set the whole scene ablaze!

:woohoo:

I love the guy just standing there, video taping the bike burning down :laugh:

Sooooo, after bothering Paul Taylor and his crew at Taylor Made Racing for a couple hours, I am extremely pleased to report that the whole team there was impressed with the quality of my sidecover and the mold :blink: When I pointed out some of the blemishes in the epoxy, they told me that it was normal, and that even their parts have those imperfections :ohmy: The guys there kept asking if the sidecover was clearcoated becasue it was so shiny. Nope, thats what it looks like straight out of the mold The crew was excited to see my work and gave me lots of little pointers and tips to try out. Probably the biggest thing I learned is that I really don't need to use the coremat in my layups. The nonstructural pieces they make are simply 3 layers of carbon fiber. They are fairly rigid, not like my sidecover that I can stand on, but PLENTY strong for what they are, and are very very light. So my next set of sidecovers will be purely carbon, no core material, and we'll see what happens.

When I started telling the guys that I was doing a fuel tank, they got excited and told me I had to bring it by when it was done. On of the guys (german I think by his accent) asked me where I lived because he wanted to help me with my tank mold. I guess I lived too far for him to come by, but still, I was grateful for the sentiment

OK, is everyone paying attention? Good.
Paul had a carbon fiber monocoque motorcycle chassis that had just come out of the autoclave. It was an integrated fuel tank and frame for some sort of racing bike, VERY TRICK :woohoo: So I asked him what standards the tanks have to meet to be legal for street use. He told me there are no crash standards for motorcycles like there are for cars. As such, there aren't any regulations for aftermarket tanks. That might explain the fact that I have found ZERO information or motorcycle fuel tank requirements. Again, encouraging info from someone in the business :woohoo:
I asked some pointed questions about the layering of fabrics in his fuel tanks. He got a little coy at this point, and didn't want to elaborate on the exact composition of his custom monocoque frames. No problem, I wasn't after proprietary info, I just wanted to learn as much as I could I thanked him and his team for their time and generosity, then he asked me if I wanted their material supplier info. SURE I said. So he gave me the website for the company they deal with. www.avtcomposites.com/index.php3
The materials are high quality and VERY inexpensive for the quality. My new supplier!

Now, off to make that tank bottom mold

Side note- I saw them make a custom carbon/kevlar sidecover guard for an 80's Honda. I hate the look of crash bars....now I know how I'm going to protect my points and generator cover from road rash :woohoo:

NOW, it has begun

1st coat of tooling gelcoat sprayed on the bottom of the tank. The one critisism the shop had, if you can call it that, was their warning about using polyester resins for molds. Even though tooling gelcoat is designed to be used for constructing molds, it will still shrink or distort to some degree over time. They recommended building a frame (wood or metal) for the molds to reinforce them and counteract any change in shape due to shrinkage. Sounds good to me. This mold I'll incorporate a steel support structure.

1 step forward, 2 steps back. I sprayed the first coat of gelcoat, and everything was fine. It tacked off, and I mixed up another batch of gelcoat and brushed it on (spraying is messy). When I went to check on the second coat, there was a bunch of alligatoring Most of it was on the flange, but there was a little on the tank. Unfortunately, even a little is unacceptable

Soooooo, stripped the gelcoat off. In the process my clay fillet was mostly removed as well as the pva. I lost a good 4 hours of work, and I have no idea why

Whew, I think I have everything squared away I repaired the clay fillet, resprayed the PVA and brushed on another 1st coat of gelcoat. The only thing that I did differently was I added a High Gloss additive to the gelcoat. It is supposed to help thin it out and improve it's durability/gloss retention. I added approximately 15-20% of the additive per the instructions, but it's the only variable that has changed. The first coat went down perfect it was after the second coat th eproblem showed. I wonder if this additive must be specialy prepped before recoating? Whatever the case, I left it out on the following initial coat. I am curious how the mold will turn out since I didn't spray it this time :whistle: Might not be perfect, but it shouldn't be too bad.