Kz1000 Carbon Fiber Fuel Tank

when i was younger...i liked to trim off extra brackets and swap for lighter parts....seems...like a waste of time these days to try and trim 50-75 lbs off of the bike...

Thanks Ben, I am trying my best :laugh: I feel the same way when I look at your aluminum.

I have been watching you build this impressive carbon fiber KZ and I must admit I bow to you.

I am so impressed that I have started to wrap my 78 KZ1000 with carbon fiber, I know that it will add weight but I don't have the time or skill to build it like you. At least it will look cool like yours.

Keep up the great work.

porchev914 wrote:

Thanks Ben, I am trying my best :laugh: I feel the same way when I look at your aluminum.

well I just want to put my name on the list officially.....I WANT A SET!!!
Ive got this Idea...your body work...bst wheels....how light can we make one??

porchev914 wrote:

DoubleD, EVERY aspect of the mold gets imparted to the piece being molded. Every scratch, every dip, every pinhole, every imperfection is reflected in the laminated part. That is why mold quality is of paramount importance, ESPECIALLY a piece that is designed to show the fabric weave. The square you speak of is the rear tank mount. It is a secondary patch of steel spot welded to the main underside panel to reinforce the rear mount. I took off the mount, but I left the reinforcing steel patch there because it hase locating pins for the rear mount. The patch however had a small gap, and if that gap were to fill with resin, it would have locked the mold to the tank (not my idea of fun times) so I filleted the gap around the steel panel with modeling clay. So the texture you are looking at was imparted by the modeling clay, and I was too lazy to sand it all smooth :blush: Look at me, getting lazy :S

This is why molding equipment and specifically the molds themselves are soo expensive. There is a TON of finishing work to removing tooling marks from machined molds. As porchev says, if its on the mold, then it's on every part out of the mold. I wind up machining small plastic parts almost daily because the batch size is not big enough to justify the expense of molding. Some of those batches are for 5000 pieces, and that still isn't enough.