Seat build...XS 360 / 400 (official seat build thread now)...

[hurricane7]

UPS delivered some goodies today!...

...and wouldn't you know it...it's supposed to snow here Friday. At least I can start cutting cloth and prepping for the mold making. Shouldn't be too long now before the first seats are popping out of the mold! ;D

Cheers,
-Jeff

 

[DreadRock]

Almost there i see man cant wait to see how it comes out !

 

[b5iveS4]

Mark me down for one

 

[USMCRIDER]

Don't forget the pics, FOR THE LOVE OF CHICKEN, don't forget the pics!

 

[hurricane7]

Bryson,
I've got you down for one. I'll PM you when it's ready.

Rodney,
I will not forget to post pics. The garage was in a sad state, so I spent some time last weekend straightening things out in there. Ended up building some drawers under the workbench for storing some of my power tools and hardware that was seamingly strewn everywhere! Better I get things sorted now, before I make another mess!

Cheers,
-Jeff

 

[hurricane7]

Just a short update:

I made patterns and cut the cloth, mat and Coremat (never worked with Coremat before) the other day.

Got the master sanded 800/1200/2000 and all waxed up last night. Sprayed the mold release on (for the 2nd time...more on this later) this morning before work. If it's warm enough in the garage tonight, I'll start laying up the mold.

More, including pics of all later...

Cheers,
-Jeff

 

[hurricane7]

OK, it got way too cold last night, so I waited until this morning to gelcoat. Here's some pics to catch up...

Made multiple patterns out of butcher paper for the cloth, Coremat and mat pieces. I cut out many pieces of material. These pics don't show all the patterns or pieces of material, but you'll get the idea...

 

[hurricane7]

Next, I sanded the master with 800, 1200 and 2000 grit wet...

 

[hurricane7]

Then, I mounted the master to the base, sealing the gap with a bead of silicone...

Dixie cups work great for scooping up the excess silicone...

 

[hurricane7]

Next, I did my best impression of the Karate Kid! Wax on...wax off. Repeat. 3 - 4 coats are recommended for a new mold...

Nice and shiny...

 

[hurricane7]

Here's where this project became a bit of a learning experience. This was my first time using the spray-able mold release (Partall #10). It is recommended to be sprayed at 80 - 90 psi.

My first attempt went on way too thick. It had heavy orange peeling and it actually puddled up on the pan area from running down the bum stop. I ended up peeling it off as soon as it dried...

Turns out, this stuff goes on a lot like automotive clear coats. It takes quite a while to dry, so a nice thin first coat followed by a medium second and third coat ended up working much better than one thick coat.

2nd time around...

 

[hurricane7]

Finally, gelcoat! And this is where it's at now...

I expect another cold night tonight, so I may not start laying up until Friday.

Cheers,
-Jeff

 

[hurricane7]

A bit more progress today. It was warm enough this morning to get the first few layers of glass laid up.

1st layer of 8oz cloth went on in two parts...

2nd layer was 13oz. cloth in just the "flats"...

3rd layer of 10oz. cloth. again in two parts, and added some scrap material around the bottom "flange"...

Next up is some smoothing of a few sharp edges and rough spots before layers of mat/cloth/Coremat/cloth. That should be enough for the mold.

Until then...Cheers,
-Jeff

 

[mathil]

Looks good!

Bummer you didn't glass all the way along the bottom of the plug, you could have built in a nice flange for the future if you wanted to play around with infusion.

 

[hurricane7]

Looks good!

Bummer you didn't glass all the way along the bottom of the plug, you could have built in a nice flange for the future if you wanted to play around with infusion.

Thanks man. Never really thought about it. This was always going to be a short run. It will have about 2" of flange when the mold is done. I added another layer of 13oz. cloth followed by mat this morning. I'll probably do two more layers before demolding. I suppose I could rig some sort of vac bag. All the suppies for a silicone "bag" are way out of the budget for this project though! I do have an evacuator from when I did some slot car body casting.

Cheers,
-Jeff

 

[hurricane7]

Here's the latest...

I popped the mold off of the master plug last night. In hindsight, there are a couple of things I would do differently. The main thing would be a second coat of gelcoat. It's a bit thin, but there is only one spot I can see that may need some "work", so it shouldn't effect anything. The other would be to possibly not use the Partall mold release on the master, and just use a releasewax only. The mold did come off really easily though, so I can't complain. Overall, everything looks good.

Here's some pics to bring the thread up to date...

Since the last pics, I added another layer of 13oz. cloth...

...followed by a layer of mat...

...cured, sanded "sharpies" and scuffed...

...added one more layer of cloth (not pictured) and a final layer of Coremat...

This was my first time working with Coremat. It sucks up a lot of resin, but adds good strength at a relitively light weight. It doesn't like sharp contours though. I may lay some up in a seat at some point.


Here's the mold, all trimmed up and ready to produce the first seat...

The plan is to make one seat as it is, and see if the mold needs any cleaning up. There is only one small void that I can see needs work right now. It can be sanded off once the seat is made. Should have another update later this week.

Cheers,
-Jeff

 

[hurricane7]

Here's the latest...


I popped the first seat from the mold a couple of weeks ago. Looks OK...right?...

...until you see the other side...

The epoxy resin separated from the poly gelcoat. First seat is a write off!


The rest, I am pretty happy with. There is only a few spots that need cleaning up after de-molding. This is the worst of them...

So, the second seat was laid up without gelcoat. I'll be spraying with epoxy sealer/primer anyway. Here's the seat ready for trimming. Tracing paper and scotch tape makes a good pattern...

...Turn it inside out and trace for the other side...

Some pics of it roughed out. I'll trim of about another 1/16 - 1/8"...

Starting up on the frame work next. I'll be trying an all poly seat next, with gelcoat.

Cheers,
-Jeff

 

[DreadRock]

Dude looks great ! when u had it off the bike was thinking it had a odd shape to it.dont know if its just the pic or the angle but man it looks killer on the bike and flows with the tank . do you know why the one side broke off ? anyways Great Work hurricane !

 

[hurricane7]

Dude looks great ! when u had it off the bike was thinking it had a odd shape to it.dont know if its just the pic or the angle but man it looks killer on the bike and flows with the tank . do you know why the one side broke off ? anyways Great Work hurricane !

Thanks Dread. Gelcoat and resin were not compatible. I had read conflicting reviews on weather the epoxy resin would stick to the poly gelcoat. I let the gelcoat cure, then sanded it to promote adhesion, but still ended up with what you see in the pic. I'm going to give it one more try with the gelcoat and poly resin this time. Problem is, the poly resin has a nasty smell to it, though I don't mind it NEARLY as much as my wife does!

 

[USMCRIDER]

WWW.MICROSKIFF.COM

I KNOW I KNOW! Why am I posting a link to a boat site you ask?

There are a few dudes on this site that have a lot of knowledge on fiberglassing. They know a lot about what will vs. what won't work when it comes to gelcoats, epoxy's, and resins. Some of them already made the mistakes for others to learn from.

The shape turned out looking pretty good. Looks good on the ole XS!