DuckHunterJon
Active Member
Wow, it's been a while since I updated this. I wish I could say I finished the bike and was to busy working on it to update, but no. Work, family, garden, everything seems to get in the way of bike building. Anyway, I have made a bit more progress. Last time I checked in, I had welded up a subframe and was posting for opinions on it. I finished up the subframe, welded in more gussets, put on a pan to mount electronics/seat. I also picked up a taillight/lisence plate mount off ebay and welded a mount for it:
Next thing was to suck it up and start on the seat. It's been years since I've worked on fiberglass, and I have been dreading this part. I finally figured I would just try one and see how it comes out. I can always ditch it and start over. First was the mold.
Little bit of fiberglass. Side note, I had some fabric on hand, but I saw most on DTT used matt. I went and got some matt - man that sucks to work with. I ended up using both - matt in the flat sections, and woven fabric on the corners. This is after 3 layers of each:
At that point I pulled the seat off the mold. It didn't want to come at first, but a bit of persuasion and it was off. Bad news, it was still quite flexible. Worse news, I was out of fiberglass and had too many beers to run to the store. Solution: I have a ton of carbon fiber woven fabric left over from car stero days years ago. Two more layers of CF and it looks pretty good. Well, no, it actually looks like shit, but it's sturdy, and ready for smoothing. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture at this point. Next came a ton of filler and even more sanding. If/when I redo this, I'm planning on building a wood mold, and vacuum bagging over the top of it. This should cut out much of the filler. As I stated above, this first one is a test to see if I like the shape/size.
Next thing was to suck it up and start on the seat. It's been years since I've worked on fiberglass, and I have been dreading this part. I finally figured I would just try one and see how it comes out. I can always ditch it and start over. First was the mold.
Little bit of fiberglass. Side note, I had some fabric on hand, but I saw most on DTT used matt. I went and got some matt - man that sucks to work with. I ended up using both - matt in the flat sections, and woven fabric on the corners. This is after 3 layers of each:
At that point I pulled the seat off the mold. It didn't want to come at first, but a bit of persuasion and it was off. Bad news, it was still quite flexible. Worse news, I was out of fiberglass and had too many beers to run to the store. Solution: I have a ton of carbon fiber woven fabric left over from car stero days years ago. Two more layers of CF and it looks pretty good. Well, no, it actually looks like shit, but it's sturdy, and ready for smoothing. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture at this point. Next came a ton of filler and even more sanding. If/when I redo this, I'm planning on building a wood mold, and vacuum bagging over the top of it. This should cut out much of the filler. As I stated above, this first one is a test to see if I like the shape/size.