Kz1000 Carbon Fiber Fuel Tank

which tail are you looking to run?

i might be able to help?

DAMMIT!! That looks like a lot of prep work down the drain. Is the mold usable or do you have to start over?

I had a request by a plummen for a couple of stretched tails if I was going to make a Z1 copy. I really don't feel like making 2 tail molds at the moment, so I wanted to see the Z1 tail differences. Side by side you can see the differences, but it's harder (for me) to tell when it's on the bike. Leon has graciously agreed to lend me a freshly painted Z1 tail for molding from. Thanks for offering though Craig
Now for the good stuff :woohoo: Here is my tank bottom mold as removed:

You will notice the signifigant amount of primer stuck to it as well as spot putty and bondo. while it is not important in this case, it is a perfect example for why you need to scuff up your base metal prior to spreading body filler. I spread the filler into the tank deformations on smooth steel, and it didn't stick well. It feels good to have the bottom mold made though! Now I just need to clean it off :S

testarossa wrote:

DAMMIT!! That looks like a lot of prep work down the drain. Is the mold usable or do you have to start over?

Not to worry Josh, All is well. After some time with a razor blade and some acetone, the mold is mostly cleaned off

I'll wet sand it smooth and polish it. Then it'll be ready to laminate a tank bottom. Problem is, I don't have enough carbon to do a tank bottom at the moment. So, I'm going to take the carbon I do have and make a set of sidecovers. I'll also start on the upper tank mold, which will be a 2 piece mold, and take a little more time. This is gonna be sweeeeeeeeeet :woohoo:

One other tip the guys at Taylor Made racing gave me was to glass in a support for my molds. They told me that over time, the molds will change shape as the polyester resin shrinks. Glassing in supports will help the mold retain it's shape and resist warpage. Sounds good to me, so I uncorporated some braces in the tank bottom mold to (hopefully) mitigate any shrinkage warping

I look forward to the day when I can sit in the garage with a cold one and muse over my carbon tank sitting on the bike

Wow, and I wine to myself about having to sand 1 set of body work ,to prep for paint. u have some serious patients my man. i commend u for that.

mark1122 wrote:

Wow, and I wine to myself about having to sand 1 set of body work ,to prep for paint. u have some serious patients my man. i commend u for that.

It's all a matter of perspective Mark. Once you've hand sanded a handful of crew cab dually trucks a few times each, the stuff I'm doing seems insignifigant :laugh:

Now for the top mold

I removed half of the masking tape I had protecting the top of the tank, located the centerline and ran a strip of tape down it

You'll notice that the tape is offset from the centerline. That is because I have the edge of the tape marking the centerline. This will be the parting line of the mold halves.

I also needed to mark centerline of the fuel filler neck. Using a compass and the tape as my initial line, I drew the bisecting line and located the filler center. Then I places a couple layers of packaging tape and used a punch to make an indentation at the center. This will transfer as a dimple on the finished tank top.

Next I need to make a flange for the first half of the mold. I glued file folder paper together and kept trimming until it closely followed the contour of the tank. Not exact, but close enough.

I transfered the template to melamine laminated particle board

and trimmed it out with a jigsaw

And the particle board flange cut out:

It doesn't have to perfectly contour the tank, any gaps will be filled with modeling clay. In fact, the flange will sit on a bed of clay to hold it in place while I start laying up the mold