Kz1000 Carbon Fiber Fuel Tank

I stopped by H.F. today and picked up a 90 degree drill. 15 minutes later my front tank mounts were off


Pay no attention to the globs of body filler :laugh: I'll sand all that down tomorrow. If I'm lucky I'll be able to prime the tank Sunday and catch up with the tail piece.

Great work on the tank can't wait to see it done. I had a gsx-r with a fiberglass tank and never had a problem with cops,fires,or leaks, as long as you do it right which by the looks of it you are you should not have any problems.

porchev914 wrote:

Actually Josh, the plan is to mold the mounts into the tank during the layup. I need to find a die to cut those tiny theads on some turned down 1/4" stock, and thread them into to the tank when I layup the mold. Then I'll use those same pins to hold the new mounts in the exact same location. It's clean and simple..... in theory :laugh:

You mean you can't single point thread metric screws on that lathe of your's. :whistle:

Are you talking about molding threaded studs into your tank or just molding the studs in there and backing them out to mount the emblems with normal screws?

I really like the idea of using the Kawasaki emblems on the CF tank. I bet somebody will ask you if its a factory tank eventually. That was my favorite thing about the 1967 Ranchero that I used to have. People would routinely ask me if I cut the roof off of a Fairlane and added the truck bed. Either that or "I didn't know that Ford made an El Camino?"

testarossa wrote:

porchev914 wrote:

Actually Josh, the plan is to mold the mounts into the tank during the layup. I need to find a die to cut those tiny theads on some turned down 1/4" stock, and thread them into to the tank when I layup the mold. Then I'll use those same pins to hold the new mounts in the exact same location. It's clean and simple..... in theory :laugh:

You mean you can't single point thread metric screws on that lathe of your's. :whistle:

Are you talking about molding threaded studs into your tank or just molding the studs in there and backing them out to mount the emblems with normal screws?

I really like the idea of using the Kawasaki emblems on the CF tank. I bet somebody will ask you if its a factory tank eventually. That was my favorite thing about the 1967 Ranchero that I used to have. People would routinely ask me if I cut the roof off of a Fairlane and added the truck bed. Either that or "I didn't know that Ford made an El Camino?"

I think he's saying placing studs in the mold to hold the threaded anchors in place while he performs the layup on the CF. Am I correct?

Josh, your first guess, and elfmagic are right. The threaded pins will hold inserts that will be layed up with the tank. The pins will be for holding the inserts in the proper location, and will be backed out after the layup cures leaving the metal inserts. I don't want to risk problems having the stock emblems mate with plastic threads. And no, my little Harbor Freight lathe can't point thread anything, let alone tiny metric machine screw threads
Thanks for following along rslingshot and for the kind words. I'm glad to hear you had a positive experience with a composite tank, you and dutchz are the only ones that have chimed in with experience, and both were positive

does anybody have a shot directly behind a z1 showing shape of tailpiece over taillight compared to a kz,i dont know if i have one without going through tons of pictures. my old standby doesnt give a clear view

holy crap bud....its a good thing you live in cali and not N/alberta....

awesome stuff....sign me up right now for a complete set of body work....

and if the cops have nothing better to do than pinch me for a c/f tank...well I guess the xmas party is underfunded so who can blame them
:dry:

cant wait to see the outcome!!!

Here is my Kz1000 tail

It looks like the Z1 tail has a smaller lip around the back?
A close up of a Z1 tail would help.

I'm glad you stopped by Ben. I'm almost ready to prime the tank. Then I'll block sand the outside, then reprime. The underside will simply be wet sanded to remove sanding scratches, reprimed if necessary then polished.

Progress, YAY! I got the underside of the tank finished and ready for primer

Well, in the pic I still had some small sanding to do on some spot putty, but the rest was ready

I had previously prepped the top of the tank, so once I touched up the bottom I primered the hole tank

Infortunately I only had enough primer for 1.5 coats, so it'll have to do until I get another can. I dislike the canned primer filler though, it's too thin to put on any real film thickness :
I'll sand this down with 320 grit and recoat, but I'll probably need to do this twice since I wasn't able to put on a thick enough application this time around. The final primer coat will be wet sanded with 1500 grit and polished, then it's time to make the mold! :woohoo:

I'm including this step for the guys that are just doing bodywork and painting-

Once you have primered your part, take a rattle can of flat black paint (or any contrasting color) and "mist" the body part with it. Use short bursts of the nozzel and keep the can back about 18" from what you're spraying. This is called a guide coat, and it allows you to see any remaining low spots in your body work. The guide coat stays put where the sandpaper doesn't get to it (the low spots) and comes right off anywhere else. It'll also show you high spots too, but it's main objective are the low ones. Here is what my tank looks like with the guide coat partially sanded off

It's kinda tough to see, but the darker areas are low spots or deep scratches that I haven't sanded out yet. Dpending on the severity of the low spot, you may be able to fill it with another application or 2 of primer filler, or you can smooth on a very thin film of spot putty for the deeper holes/scratches.

I finished the body work on the underside of the tank and sprayed the final coat of primer. I didn't spend as much time as I could have making it perfect.....after all, it IS the underside of the tank