And finally, Wookie's 82 begins !

And so here endeth another day of procrastinating, filing, sawing, grinding, drilling and welding  

  I find this stuff heavy going as I'm no fabricator (I'm too cheap to pay somebody else to do it)

Welcome to my world, champagne taste and beer money. Over thinking and Procrastination, then periods where I can't do anything because by project is 45 miles away, Thanks covid, then  trying to get remotivated each time I have to do something, never really getting a roll on, it will be finished though. Don't set a date, just roll with the punches. I ain't no stinking fabricator either but once it's all hidden under paint it'll look great....   Onward and upward !!
PS, it's looking good mate...

That frame work looks real strong !!
Keep up the great work 

wrote:

And so here endeth another day of procrastinating, filing, sawing, grinding, drilling and welding  

  I find this stuff heavy going as I'm no fabricator (I'm too cheap to pay somebody else to do it)

Welcome to my world, champagne taste and beer money. Over thinking and Procrastination, then periods where I can't do anything because by project is 45 miles away, Thanks covid, then  trying to get remotivated each time I have to do something, never really getting a roll on, it will be finished though. Don't set a date, just roll with the punches. I ain't no stinking fabricator either but once it's all hidden under paint it'll look great....

  Onward and upward !!
PS, it's looking good mate...

With the Covid situation easing will you be able to get your project closer to home, these days it's not just the distance but the fuel cost as well for a 90 mile round trip each time (we are close to £2 a litre now) I have no doubt you will get there with your project, after all it's not your "first rodeo" "stay positive" 

Time and money, its either one or the other, lock down= lots of time and no money, back to work = no time lots of money, just plough on and do what you can when you can.

My 650 project is untouched for weeks, but I told myself to use the summer months for riding, not wrenching.  It's a good excuse!

wrote:

My 650 project is untouched for weeks, but I told myself to use the summer months for riding, not wrenching.  It's a good excuse!

Winner!

wrote:

wrote:

And so here endeth another day of procrastinating, filing, sawing, grinding, drilling and welding  

  I find this stuff heavy going as I'm no fabricator (I'm too cheap to pay somebody else to do it)

Welcome to my world, champagne taste and beer money. Over thinking and Procrastination, then periods where I can't do anything because by project is 45 miles away, Thanks covid, then  trying to get remotivated each time I have to do something, never really getting a roll on, it will be finished though. Don't set a date, just roll with the punches. I ain't no stinking fabricator either but once it's all hidden under paint it'll look great....

  Onward and upward !!
PS, it's looking good mate...

With the Covid situation easing will you be able to get your project closer to home, these days it's not just the distance but the fuel cost as well for a 90 mile round trip each time (we are close to £2 a litre now) I have no doubt you will get there with your project, after all it's not your "first rodeo" "stay positive" 

Yes, fuel costs are definitely a concern, I'm down to one day a week, if that at the moment. Also I feel obliged to help my friend who's place the bikes at, he's still building race bikes at 72 years old and I end up spending a bit of time helping him manage things, That's not a complaint, just a reality. Don't worry, I'm still positive, just finding it a bit hard to get a roll on when I can't spend enough time to get a whole lot done, not to mention the fact that I'm a chronic overthinker and tend to over complicate things. I think it's age related, the older I get, the less mistakes I want to make.Anyway, there's no going back !!

Hardrockminer, I'm lucky I have my sons KZ650/710 here to ride, I can use that in the excuse pile....

Managed to get a few hours on the bike again today, more grinding and welding   still now that I have the rear tank mount sorted (I have pulled it down 90 degrees) to level it and give me some options with the seat (I only have little legs) and also notched the rear cross tube to take the seat catch. Hopefully tomorrow I can venture into the world of thermos forming plastic to adapt the seat pan I have (this is a new experience for me)

 

So recently I have had a switch of mediums from steel to plastic and fibreglass (I have some experience with fibreglass but not plastic  ) I'll start with the tailpiece as this was pretty straightforward, as many have said previously the FG tailpieces are just a Smidge tight on an "M" or a "K" around the rear hoop. I didn't want to widen the whole thing as it fits nice at the front so I decided to "pie cut" it which needed a couple of relief cuts to stop the front pinching. That's it for now as it's still a bit tacky but I do have other mods planned for the tailpiece which I will explain when the time comes.
The seat started as a catch from a Triumph trophy, when I tried to get the male part which is mounted to the seat it was not available as a separate part. Ok I thought, I'll buy a complete seat cheap and use the parts I need, It was always the plan to build a seat pan to fit the modifications. When it arrived I had a "hello" moment, the curve on the side is almost a perfect match for my side panels and I liked the width and shape (I am trying to keep the waist narrow as I only have little legs) so this is where the fun started. Initially I tried to reshape the front to fit the KZ tank but try as I might with heat and heavy weights as it cooled it just wanted to go back to it's original shape. In the end I have had to cut the front part off and graft in a new piece shaped from a flat piece of ABS plastic. There is still a lot of tidying and finishing to do but I am happy with it so far (I still need to build the back of it once the tailpiece is finished 

 

Keep flogging it Wook,
I like the progress

Another weekend spent on the fibreglass, I wanted the duck bill to look like it belongs on this later bike. My opinion is that a lot of great bikes look a little "out of sorts" when using body parts from other bikes as the designer made the components on the donor to work together. To this end I decided to use the bottom of the tank as my datum line and shape everything else around that, the top of the side panels will be on a parallel line with the tank and also I wanted the top of the duck bill to also be parallel with the tank bottom. This ended up being a complete PITA as after cutting it along it's length and lifting the front edge 25mm due to the taper on the sides. Still got there in the end, I even decided it hadn't been a big enough PITA so I decided to add a couple of vents to allow some airflow around the lithium battery that will be in the tail and to invert the front mounts to clear the seat pan. There is still plenty of work to do for my friends "Bond-O" and "San-Ding" before it is finished
 

my friends "Bond-O" and "San-Ding"

I know them well. The vents in the tail look so cool, well done!!