Re: 1979 CB750K Cafe Build - First Time Builder
HD, oh man! I didn't mean to throw you under the bus. To expand on HD's clarification, I sent him a PM asking him if my idea seemed completely insane before I tried it out with the rest of the DTT crew. I mentioned the two part expanding foam I had seen on the TV show and he mentioned the Great Stuff foam as an alternative. I did some research and as usual, HD was correct. It was way cheaper and so much easier to work with. No mixing, super dangerous fumes, etc. His response to my question was much like notlob "sounds interesting".
Terry, I actually live right down the street from a store and they were having one of their famous tent sales. I also had one of the 20% off coupons you can find in most automotive/motorcycle magazines. Going to the store is always better, but if there are no locations in New Zealand, I think you'll still get a great deal if you call 1-805-388-3000 for international orders. I didn't try calling, but I would venture to guess that would be a good starting point for you. They do say that they'll ship anywhere! BTW, got a link to your build? There's a lot of us DOHC'ers on here now who'd love to see what you're working on.
Back to business. After completing the bottom, I moved onto building up some side panels. Apologies for the terrible pics as usual, crap phone and poorly lit garage.
Here's the full mold with all sides. I used a poster board to follow the curve on my hoop.
Then, I started spraying in the Good Stuff. Came out a lot like shaving cream.
After 3 cans of the stuff (at only $3.50 USD a bottle, cheap).
The next morning, I was a bit worried as it was kind of "squishy" and not as hard as I hoped. After a couple more days of curing, I decided to remove it from the frame. Well, as some of you may have thought, that blue tape basically fused at a genetic level with the foam. Also, the foam expands and expands and expands for as long as it feels like. This was a double edged sword in that it fit the mold perfect, but it really wedged it into the frame rails. After some wresting on my work bench, then on the ground, she popped out. Most of the tape didn't come off, so I had to slowly peel of little pieces. I tried sanding some off and that did work, just takes some elbow grease. So, the seat is out of the mold, still curing as there are still spots on the bottom where the foam is "squishing" out in little bubbles. Here it is on my work bench with tape stuck all over it. Next step is carving. Haven't started that yet.
The cool thing about this foam is it still has some give and is forgiving. I can wedge it right back in between my frame rails perfect. The other cool thing is I can always add foam back, so if I make a big error I can just spritz some on to build it back up. I will post some more once I start carving, sanding, etc. as I do have some questions.
