guitargeek
Been Around the Block
It's taking years, but I'm not in any big hurry really...
I've been working on a tank & seat combo. The tank is from a 1982 GPz750, the seat is a fiberglass unit from Airtech Streamlining. The tank was in really, really bad shape and took a lot of brazing and bondo.
And now... PROGRESS!
For the first time in months it's not just nut-shriveling cold, so I'm taking a short break from amplifier building to lay some glass...
I got this seat for $7 on eBay some time back:
Yes, it's a real racing seat from a real race bike that's really been raced and crashed and patched and raced and crashed and patched and raced and crashed and patched... There were 24 holes in the fiberglass, ranging from small holes drilled to allow zip ties or safety wire to hold the seat onto the frame, to rather large holes caused by crashes. I taped over these holes on the outside of the seat (six months goes by) then applied resin and fiberglass, more resin, more fiberglass, and more resin.
This is my first foray into fiberglass work, and I have to say that it gives new meaning to the phrase "god awful shitty mess". It wanted to stick to my hands a whole lot more than the seat, so it was a real challenge to get the fiberglass fabric to conform to the complex curves inside the seat.
The fumes were a real bastard, too! I was high for like six hours after this little procedure, and it turns out that my cat is a little paint huffer! I kept shooing her away from the area, but she kept coming back. I was conversing with her, of course, "Kitty, this is turrble! On par with a night in jail!"
Sometime after midnight I checked the seat and reckoned the resin had set up enough for me to be able to mess with it, so I trimmed away the excess fabric:
It actually turned out a lot better than I expected! I was worried that the resin would melt through the masking tape, but that was a non-issue and most of the holes are patched quite nicely now!
I still need to devise some clever means of attaching this seat to my motorcycle's frame, most likely by fabricating some sort of aluminum framework. I'll use a pair of round LED trailer lights, wired to function as brake/tail/turn signals, and probably some LED bolts for the tag.
Stay tuned for more on this...
I've been working on a tank & seat combo. The tank is from a 1982 GPz750, the seat is a fiberglass unit from Airtech Streamlining. The tank was in really, really bad shape and took a lot of brazing and bondo.
And now... PROGRESS!
For the first time in months it's not just nut-shriveling cold, so I'm taking a short break from amplifier building to lay some glass...
I got this seat for $7 on eBay some time back:
Yes, it's a real racing seat from a real race bike that's really been raced and crashed and patched and raced and crashed and patched and raced and crashed and patched... There were 24 holes in the fiberglass, ranging from small holes drilled to allow zip ties or safety wire to hold the seat onto the frame, to rather large holes caused by crashes. I taped over these holes on the outside of the seat (six months goes by) then applied resin and fiberglass, more resin, more fiberglass, and more resin.
This is my first foray into fiberglass work, and I have to say that it gives new meaning to the phrase "god awful shitty mess". It wanted to stick to my hands a whole lot more than the seat, so it was a real challenge to get the fiberglass fabric to conform to the complex curves inside the seat.
The fumes were a real bastard, too! I was high for like six hours after this little procedure, and it turns out that my cat is a little paint huffer! I kept shooing her away from the area, but she kept coming back. I was conversing with her, of course, "Kitty, this is turrble! On par with a night in jail!"
Sometime after midnight I checked the seat and reckoned the resin had set up enough for me to be able to mess with it, so I trimmed away the excess fabric:
It actually turned out a lot better than I expected! I was worried that the resin would melt through the masking tape, but that was a non-issue and most of the holes are patched quite nicely now!
I still need to devise some clever means of attaching this seat to my motorcycle's frame, most likely by fabricating some sort of aluminum framework. I'll use a pair of round LED trailer lights, wired to function as brake/tail/turn signals, and probably some LED bolts for the tag.
Stay tuned for more on this...
