Kz1000 Carbon Fiber Fuel Tank

Looks so cool!....It's getting there!

Good job!....On keeping Pictures Posted!

Every one has there own standerds but that looks great !!

hey if you arnt gona use that tank top smash it with a ball bat

That would be like a crash test !! :laugh:


If you dont have the hart mail it to me and I will youtube it for all to see !!!!
tab under, bad a$$ z tank smashed by idot lol

Damn that think looks cool! If you're not going to use it, you should send it to me to hang on my garage wall!

fantastic work...your progress seems to be exponential...I would keep that one ..its your first...you never know where this will take you

Fantastic!!!

Don't know if you mentioned it, but how long before you think it will be safe to hold gas? Is it fully cured, or is there an extended period where it will cure more?

It does look good with a little spit shine, doesn't it? I thought about some destructive testing like ready2ryde suggested, but I think I'll hang it in my garage along with my first sidecovers like irishwill suggested, my learning attempts will be displayed, like the progressing development of a tadpole into a frog....but a REALY SEXY frog :laugh: :laugh:

loudhvx, the epoxy takes around 5-7 days to fully cure, then it will be coated with a tank sealer. Then after the tank is assembled I'll coat the interior seam with sealer and that should be it. I still need to finalize the petcock arrangement and find a suitable filler. Thanks for the encouragement fellas

The way that email was written i think he may have meant 3-4 layers (coats) of clear. Not layers of CF. Just guessing.

Looks fantastic! My CF work is making me happy, but I wouldn't even try a tank. very impressive!

Nelson wrote:

The way that email was written i think he may have meant 3-4 layers (coats) of clear. Not layers of CF. Just guessing.

Looks fantastic! My CF work is making me happy, but I wouldn't even try a tank. very impressive!

I just reread that email and you may be right about the 3-4 coats referencing the clearcoat. That just means they use a bunch of fiberglass to get that king of thickness, or a really thick core material. My bet is on 10 lbs of glass I'm glad you're happy with your own carbon work. I'm just replicating parts right now, but once the bike is back running, I am going to make a custom carbon front fender to copy the style of the stocker. Later...much later

I've been wondering about trying a resin infusion set up for the tank top mold, but the more I think about it, the more I think I rather try it on something smaller to see what the finished product looks like. The tank tops are expensive to make :whistle: Not much progress today, I had my little brother over so I was alternating between sanding the Z1 tail, throwing knives and reading comic books

Make sure that you don't get confused and throw knives at your shiny tank. :laugh:

May I offer a suggestion on your petcock dilemma: www.pingelonline.com/powerflo.htm Pingle offers a few different styles of tank bungs. I would think that you could laminate in one of their weld in bungs in the same fashion that you did the emblem mounts. If you went with the bolt in option, I would suggest that you take great care to properly seal the through hole so that gasoline doesn't work in between the the layers of your tank. That could be disastrous. I don't believe that the epoxy resin is fuel resistant, correct?

BTW the tank looks killer. I think that I'm starting to formulate a plan for testarossa 2.0. A set of your CF bodywork might just top it off properly. You already know what you need to do to fix your issues, and I have a high degree of confidence that your second effort will yield a usable tank.

It's funny you should mention the pingel weld in bungs Josh, I was looking at those a couple weeks ago and was leaning in that direction. As far as durability from fuel, I know epoxy is much more resilient than polyester resins used in fiberglass tanks, and I've read it is fuel resistant but I wasn't going to take any chances hence the coating. Come on, you don't think I would go to all this trouble to make a tank and screw the pooch with a poorly designed bolt in petcock solution that leaks like a seive

I too, have a high degree of confidence in top #2.

porchev914 wrote:

And enjoy some more :woohoo:

THIS IS ABOUT THE COOLIST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN FOR THE KZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: EVER!!!

As far as durability from fuel, I know epoxy is much more resilient than polyester resins used in fiberglass tanks, and I've read it is fuel resistant but I wasn't going to take any chances hence the coating.

Are you going to rough up the surfaces of the epoxy before you but the halves together so the coating will have something to bite into?? Or is the epoxy rough enough??

Oh, P.S. this is epic.