Deacon's KZ650 Cafe Seat Build

WOW that's really really impressive!!! I have a 1978 KZ650 that I just picked up last year with a spare motor and I'm loving it!
;D
 
So in the first picture is that just tape over the frame, and is it also below the florist foam? How are the blocks glued together? Any special glue? And lastly if you didn't use the expanding foam for the edges/sides what would you have used?

Looks great! I think I may try this. I love the smell of fiberglass resin. I am an old school huffer so I love that kind of stuff. ???
 
3M Super 77 works great on all kinds of foam. I did my thesis sculpture work with high density styrofoam (the 2" thick stuff you buy for insulation). I cut that stuff down to whatever size I wanted, glued layers together with Super 77 and then carved my forms out of that. If you go that route you probably wouldn't need to use any expanding foam because the seams will be tight. Just spray that 77 on both sides of every joint and weight it all down with some heavy books to dry for an hour or so.
 
clt750 said:
So in the first picture is that just tape over the frame, and is it also below the florist foam? How are the blocks glued together? Any special glue? And lastly if you didn't use the expanding foam for the edges/sides what would you have used?

Looks great! I think I may try this. I love the smell of fiberglass resin. I am an old school huffer so I love that kind of stuff. ???

Yeah, I taped up the frame and then covered the lower part of the bike with plastic so nothing would drip on it. Like anarki said I used the 3M glue, worked really well. The reason why I used the expanding foam in the first place is because there is a raised bracket going between the two frame rails and also the fender liner came up into this region. So it was a weird shape and wasn't perfectly flat. I thought it would be easier to use the expanding foam to fill in any gaps. It was definitely quicker to go this way but if I had my time back I would have taken the extra time to just use the bricks. The reason being you could then use the bricks to aid you in getting the symmetry right. The way I did it I really had to rely on just eying it. If I had the bricks glued together I could have perfectly centered the center seam between the bricks and then worked off that to get everything symmetrical. By the time I realized this I was too far into the process to go back. I'm going to make a 2-up seat next winter, so I'll do it that way then.

I too love the smell of fibreglass, but for some reason my better half doesn't :D It stayed the house for days, as she constantly reminded me.
 
Deacon, from what I can tell by your photos... your mold had the seat pan indentions on the flat surface when you first layed the fiberglass (prior to any bondo) did you just fill those in with pure bondo? how did that effect the overall weight? just curious, seems like a really clean method, i may be using your write up as my guide when it comes time. thanks!
 
904cafe said:
Deacon, from what I can tell by your photos... your mold had the seat pan indentions on the flat surface when you first layed the fiberglass (prior to any bondo) did you just fill those in with pure bondo? how did that effect the overall weight? just curious, seems like a really clean method, i may be using your write up as my guide when it comes time. thanks!

904, the indentations that you see in the earlier pics are a combination of curves to add strength, flat section to make room for the battery below the seat, and the glass resting directly on the cross rail of the frame. This is my first load bearing fibreglass project so I wanted to be sure it was as strong as I could get it. After I have this glassed up like this I was about to make the pan for the seat cushion and thought it would be easier to work with if the main seat was flat instead of all the nooks and crannies. I then added some expanding foam to the cavities and glassed over the top of it to make it semi-smooth. I didn't actually put much bondo on the portion of the seat where the cushion will be, just made it flat with the fibreglass, sanded it smooth and put a layer of the milkshake on it. It may not have been the best way to go about it but I wanted to make sure it was strong enough.

I'm not sure if this answers you question. Let me know if it didn't.
 
Re: Deacon's KZ650 Cafe Seat Build - Glove Box, Seat Foam and Paint

Finally getting around to updating the seat build. Still not completely finished but have done a few things since the last update.

I wanted to have a small place on the bike to enable me to carry some tools, camera, lunch, etc, so I made a small glove box in the tail. I showed the glass being applied to the bottom of the tail in the last update. I have since cut the hole and removed the foam to expose the area. It was a bit rough inside due to the fibreglass, so I used a dremel to remove the sharp edges. I didn't make it totally smooth, just cleaned it up so I don't get any more fibreglass splinters in my hands. These are painful, way worse than wood.

gloveBox2pg.jpg


gloveBox1-1.jpg
 
Re: Deacon's KZ650 Cafe Seat Build - Glove Box, Seat Foam and Paint

I then moved on to putting the foam on the seat pan. For the foam I'm using a large kneeling pad I picked up at Princess Auto. It seems dense enough and is comfortable, but I won't really know how it is until I actually ride the bike. If it's not suitable I'll find something else.

I decided to cut two separate pieces; one for the horizontal part of the seat and one for the seat back. I used 3M Hi-Strength 90 Spray Adhesive to stick the foam to the pan and it worked great. I don't have many pics of the process but here is one where I have the foam glued to the pan.

seatFoam1.jpg


In the pic is my tool of choice to shape the foam after it's all glued on: an angle grinder with a sanding disc.

Here are a couple more showing the two pieces glued on and a rough shape cut out.

seatFoam3.jpg


seatFoam2.jpg
 
Re: Deacon's KZ650 Cafe Seat Build - Glove Box, Seat Foam and Paint

After a lot sanding with the grinder (and a HUGE mess of black dust in the garage) I got a final shape that I was happy with. Here's a pic of the uncovered pan on the bike.

seatCushion.jpg


I haven't gotten around to covering it yet. Just picked up some vinyl this weekend and I'm hoping to get it done some time this week.
 
Re: Deacon's KZ650 Cafe Seat Build - Glove Box, Seat Foam and Paint

Since I had the cushion part of the seat straightened away and wouldn't have to be doing any more test fittings I moved on to painting. I started by laying a base coat of Dupli-Color Dark Shadow Gray (T299). This is my first time using Dupli-Color for finish type work. I've used their high temp stuff for some of the exhaust pipes on my car before but never where a good finish was required. I normally like using Tremclad but I couldn't get the colours that I wanted. I must say, so far I'm please with the Dupli-Color. It sprays on nice and drys pretty fast. Here are a couple of pics of the base colour:

seat6-1.jpg


seat7.jpg
 
Re: Deacon's KZ650 Cafe Seat Build - Glove Box, Seat Foam and Paint

Next up was strips. This being my first time with stripes I wasn't sure how they would turn out. I got some good advise from some of you on getting them straight and symmetrical, thanks for the tips. They came out pretty decent, not perfect, but I'm please especially for my first time. These pics show the stripes but I still need to wetsand and apply the clear coat. I should get this done sometime this week. I also put the tail light lense on to see how it looked.

stripe3.jpg


stripe4.jpg


stripe2.jpg
 
What kind of taillight is that? Do you have any pictures of it on its own? I'd be interested to know how it mounts inside the seat.
 
Scratch said:
What kind of taillight is that? Do you have any pictures of it on its own? I'd be interested to know how it mounts inside the seat.

The taillight is a LED trailer light from Princess Auto. It came with a license plate light as well. I didn't use the housing it came in, so the lens sits on the outside of the tail and the LED board on the inside. Screws go through the lens, through two holes in the tail and through the LED board. Nuts on the ends secure everything. I haven't actually mounted it all together yet so I don't have pics of how its done underneath the tail. If you want one just let me know and I'll snap a few. The pics above just have the lens mounted to get an idea of the look. Here are a few pics of the actual light.

tailLight2.jpg


tailLight.jpg


Taken apart:
tailLightApart.jpg


and a pic of the licence plate light mounted on the plate braket.
licencePlateBracketAndLight.jpg
 
I think you need different signal lights. Something less pointy to go with that beautifully rounded seat/tail light.
 
Its going to look great. I am going to do the same with my tail light. I also bought a trailer light but not an LED.
 
That's a great job man.
Can't wait to see this thing in person / go for a ride.
 
I should switch mine to a LED, it looks like it would be a lot easier to mount. Do you have to do anything different as far as wiring goes to put an LED on?
 
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