Kz1000 Carbon Fiber Fuel Tank

Although I had much fewer spots to fill with body filler on the top of the tank, it took me 3 times as long to finish it.

Now I just need to wet sand the orange peel out with 1500 grit and polish the tank. Then it will be ready for molding :woohoo:

Nice...
thanks for the tips (guide coat etc). Even though I'm never gonna make a carbon tank, so many of the lessons in these carbon posts are useful for general bodywork. (I've never been much on doing body work. It all seemed too much like art. Thanks for de-mystifying it all.

You're welcome loudhvx, it is my pleasure to help what little I can. Your observation is correct, body and paint work is an art. Quite the opposite of mechanical or electrical aspects of bikes. Everything I do to prep a master part or "plug" to make a mold is everything I would do short of spraying paint for a completed body part. So yeah, alot of the things I show and do apply to pre paint bodywork and prep.

I hope to have the bottom mold laid up tomorrow or Thursday.
I tried to polish the top of the tank, but this red primer does not polish at all All that means is that I'll spray it with PVA and spend some extra time sanding and polishing the mold. At least the mold will be easy to access and I can use my 7" buffer which will make quick and easy work of it.

You are off to a great start. it's looking great.

good progress adam!
my hats off to you for the commitment and follow through it takes to get a project like this done.not to mention your whole bike.i believe to say you are driven is an understatement,keep up the good work.

leon

Aww shucks Leon :kiss: The reality is most of the work I've done (sidecovers aside) is all standard pre paint prep. I'd be doing all this stuff anyway....well, I wouldn't have filled in the bottom of the tank, but mostly all this stuff just to paint my body. The real work is ahead of me laying up the molds, making the molds for the tank mounts, laying up the pieces and gluing it all together. Thus far has been the easy, CHEAP part. Now comes the expensive part :laugh:

I got smart this time and instead of using carpenters glue to attatch the flange, I picked up some spray adhesive

This worked much faster and holds stronger. In preparation for spraying the adhesive, I pretty much covered the entire top of the tank in masking tape :whistle: I have to protect my investment!

TIP:
When you are spraying crap like this around stuff you want to protect, either take the time to cover it ALL up, or at the very least hold a piece of cardboard right behind the spot you are spraying. It takes some coordination to move both arms at the same speed, but it will help prevent time consuming errors. The first 2 passes with the adhesive I DID NOT do this, and I got some of it on the inside of my tank. I'll probably have to sand it off becasue acetone will just take the primer off with it. Lesson learned :blush:

The flange for the tank base mold completed

Next I'll remove the adhesive , cover the paper flange with packaging tape, fillet the tank to flange joint with modeling clay and then spray it all with PVA. Then we get to start having some fun making the mold! :woohoo:

this is gonna be cool!

leon

531blackbanshee wrote:

this is gonna be cool!

leon

Lets hope so Leon :ohmy:

So the spray on adhesive was far more durable than I anticipated.

I ended up sanding the paint off around the adhesive splatter while trying to sand it off, then scrubbing it off with acetone In the end, I did get it, but I had to work for it.

After the adhesive issue was resolved, I covered the paper flange with clear packaging tape (time consuming). Then I filled the step along the edge of the tank with a modeling clay fillet. Once that was done (time consuming also) I sprayed on the PVA. I gotta say, I layed the PVA down perfectly :laugh:

go go go go go ! ! ! ! !

this is exciting stuff,

leon