Triton

Took forever blocking that resin down, but it's an even thickness all around - actually no thicker than it was before and it's come out very nice indeed. No way I would ever do this again, due to my patience being tested to its limit, but it's really transformed the finish on the inside.

Shot three coats of 2k high build primer on it yesterday and blocked it back again today after dusting a little Matt black to highlight any flatting marks or pin holes. I used 600 grit paper (wet) on a hand block and this really helped shape it without any grooves from fingers.

I should be painting it with base and clear coat this weekend then I can apply decals and number backgrounds before applying additional lacquer on top.
 

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I'm off work this week, so should manage to get base coat and clear on it. Also painting oval number backgrounds and sticking on a few period decals from the 60's, so a couple of nice Castrol & Champion spark plug logos before lacquering over it again.

I'll take some more pictures along the way.

Lot more work to do on the fairing yet, but the worst job is definitely over.......big sigh
 
Man, that looks like the engine room of my boat! I must be as crazy as you are - maybe worse - the two boat engines would never fit inside that bitty fairing, but I can sure appreciate the work involved. Maybe a good idea to consider limber holes or a drain - looks like you could contain a lot of fuel or oil if you had a leak. Are you leaving the inside white or painting to match?
 
It's actually designed to contain oil in case of engine failure on a race track, so it can't have any drains drilled into it. The bike will only ever be an occasional use road bike, but I will fit some low density black foam in the bottom of the fairing which will also stop rubbing on the lower frame sections.

I'm painting the fairing, inside and out in 2k clear over base black and will sand it back with superfine paper and then compound polish it similar to that of my new tank. I want the same finish on the inside and that's what led me to spending so much time on prep work.

Doesn't make it go any faster, but I'll probably be looking at it more than riding the thing and it would forever niggle me if I'd left it with the carbon Matt finish on the inside. That's the downside with race fairings on road bikes as they look great until you get up close and start being picky.
 
Thought I'd just fit the front screen and drill that before painting. It came with plastic number plate type screws and nuts, but I picked some better quality fixings up about a year ago.

Bits are hanging up now ready for some black paint, which they`re getting in the morning.
 

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I made a polythene 'booth' a few months ago to paint my tank and it's still intact, so I hung the parts up in there and hosed the walls and floor off.

The basecoat I used is a really dark black if that makes sense. I used an accelerator in the activator for the clear as its only around 13 degrees today, but this also meant I could overthin it and lay it on really wet.

Four hours later and it's just about touch dry and almost zero shit in the paint. I'll leave it to fully cure before I block it down and polish it.
 

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Here's the inside of the upper fairing from this morning. Once it's fully cured I'll scotch it down and mask up for white number backgrounds which I'll paint in basecoat followed by another couple of coats of lacquer.

Bottom picture is what it looked like before.
 

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Does anyone on here know who originally produced the `Kirby` Fairing?

I assume it refers to Tom Kirby, but I could be wrong and I also wondered who made them
 
UK Mark said:
Does anyone on here know who originally produced the `Kirby` Fairing?

I assume it refers to Tom Kirby, but I could be wrong and I also wondered who made them

Yes - all the GRP was made by a guy on the Southend Arterial - bit of memory fade, but his name was Bill ?????? I can check it out as an old pal of mine from the day has just got in touch with me via another forum - and he will definitely know. I seem to remember he had a smallholding - and a Manx over his mantlepiece ! His place was less than 5 miles from where I lived at the time.

I used to get all my "part worn" sidecar race tyres from Tom and had a load of T90 parts from his aborted T90 TT project. I had several fairings from him, until I found out where they were made !

I suspect that there was more than one source - the GRP industry is very incestuous !
 
Small world isn't it! I was curious as they're made all over the world and labelled as a 'Kirby' fairing, yet little information exists about Tom Kirby on the net.

Any info you can bring would be of interest Beachcomber.
 
beachcomber said:
Yes - all the GRP was made by a guy on the Southend Arterial - bit of memory fade, but his name was Bill ?????? I can check it out as an old pal of mine from the day has just got in touch with me via another forum - and he will definitely know. I seem to remember he had a smallholding - and a Manx over his mantlepiece ! His place was less than 5 miles from where I lived at the time.

I used to get all my "part worn" sidecar race tyres from Tom and had a load of T90 parts from his aborted T90 TT project. I had several fairings from him, until I found out where they were made !

I suspect that there was more than one source - the GRP industry is very incestuous !

If your talking about Bill Roberts, he still has a place in Wickford. I've bought quite a few bits, and pieces from him over the last 5 years, in fact I picked up a 900ss fairing/seat from him only last month.
 
I'll double check with my pal - he used to do alot of business with the GRP guy. That name does sound familiar though.

IF it is Bill Roberts, then he'd be in his 70's early 80's.

Check if your man had a Manx over his fireplace !!!

I used to spend a lot of time at Tom's Roneo Corner [ Romford ] shop - he was a very hands on guy - I seem to remember he was an aircraft engineer / technician before getting into bikes?

One of the attractions of going to Tom's was the never ending stream of well known riders - not only his own team riders, but others more generally. I think that was as much to do with the location of the shop as anything - pretty well on the way to the Dartford tunnel en route for Brands Hatch.

I remember a day when Bill Ivy turned up in his newly acquired Corvette Stingray and proceeded to leave 2 enormous black tyre lines as he left the shop !

Tom had a chief mechanic [ name fade ] who only had one arm - he rode a modified Ariel Arrow. Didn't seem to affect him too much - riding or in the workshop.
 
As glossy as that fairing looked, I blocked it down with 1200 wet and dry (only use it wet) and grey scotched it so I can paint white number backgrounds.

Minimum sizes for these on the sides is 260mm wide by 220mm height. There's a really easy way to mark an oval shape out and to save me trying to explain, take a look at this cheesy link. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hp7AxUVX714

Drawing it out slightly oversize to allow for the width of fine line tape then gives a good template to help mark it out on the fairing. Once I have it positioned where I need it, I fold the paper over on the rear edges of the fairing and the crease helps as a reference point when lining up the other side. I didn't have any large paper, other than this gift wrap stuff, which also has grids on the back, but this helps to make sure you get it level. The right hand side of my fairing would make it really awkward to stick vinyl on, and this will just look so much nicer.

I'll try to learn how to insert pictures in between text, but the quickest way of masking a fairing up for this is use a plastic bin liner and cut out the area you need to paint. You get no paint where it shouldn't be then. I dropped on 3 coats of solvent basecoat and after it dried, which Doesn't take very long, gave it a light sand with 1500 grit wet paper to lose any edge.

I'll take a few more pictures tomorrow, but I'll be lacquering the whole thing again and you won't be able to feel any edge or step in paint from the number background. I took pictures on my iPad, which I hate, so if they're upside down, I'll fix them on my laptop!
 

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Hung it up again and dropped some more 2k lacquer on. Other than a flat and polish, this is finally done.
 

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Thanks Miffa. I'm chuffed to bits with how it came out. Im going to block it down with 1500 grit paper and start buffing it tonight.

It's nice to think that once I've waxed it, it can be put away all ready for when the bikes being properly assembled. Better to do the time consuming tedious jobs first I reckon. If I left this till Spring and was at the point of my bike being a runner, I'd probably rush it.
 
paintwork stuff is now completely finished after I de-nibbed and blocked down with 1500 wet paper. Managed to get most of it with a machine polisher, which makes life easier but all the nooks and crannies needed buffing by hand.

Any swirls or compound marks disappeared after hand glazing and it's now had a good buff with resin wax. Was really cold in the barn today and I had to light my little stove, but it's taken probably a day and half to detail polish good enough for them to be 'finished'.

I've wrapped all these parts up and put them away safe and it's nice knowing they are done and all ready for bolting on in a few months.
 

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