[skowinski]

Kudos to you sir, nice looking parts. I'm always amazed when people can do things like this themselves.

 

[ChrisCK]

Kudos to you sir, nice looking parts. I'm always amazed when people can do things like this themselves.

Ditto, ditto and ditto....

 

[Combi245]

Morning spent getting the seat mounts for the next carbon seat bagged and infused before the heat got too much for the resin. Later, having spent all day in the baking sun I managed to debag and remove the front guard from the mould. Came out pretty good.

 

[Combi245]

After waiting nearly 12 weeks for these to turn up they have finally arrived. The fuel caps and breathers for the tank.

Newton fuel caps and breathers - expensive but worth it in the long run.

Bit of work grinding out the first part of the repairs for the side fairings. Some previous repairs were also found that need a bit of rework on them.

Been waiting for a different set of legs for my puller to turn up. The Rico ones that came with the kit were too bulky to get under the edge of the gear but I found a set of lower profile Toledo ones that fitted perfectly. Finally arrived but needed to remove a small tang at the top of them to fit the puller arms. Not a job for the faint hearted that's for sure. When it came of the crank it was like a shot gun going off and flew across the section with the puller.

 

[Combi245]

So work on the tank base has been the priority this week

Positioning of the forward tank mounts.

\
Rear tank hinge mounts in place and bonded. Just working out the position of the sender unit mount and the two fuel line mounts.

Initial bonding done - these will all be tidied up in 48hrs and a layer of carbon on them to seal everything up.

The hinge mounts are causing an issue for the fitment of the fuel pump but I hope to have a resolution for that soon.

 

[Combi245]

So everything has worked out pretty well but I do have some bits to sort out for the mounting of the fuel pump and the filters to suit both fuel injected and carb spec bikes the mounts. The height of the mounts is an issue as they are right where I want to mount the pump. That's to days job.

Did pull the gear box apart for inspection - mint condition std cluster gears set.

 

[Combi245]

I have conceived an idea to use the same mounting process for both that is compatible for the plastic and metal fuel filters that are available.

I manufactured the mould to make a U section from carbon that has a small flat section attached to it and laminated both pieces yesterday.

Released today after a couple of additional hours in the sun to cure a bit more they both came out perfect.

While that is happening I have progressed with the tem seat pad mould. I completed the top mould a couple of months ago.

Bonded together they will now spend the day clamped to the table until the glue is cured enough for me to carry on.

I covered in tape with the aid of a bit of temp adhesive, I now just have to wait for the release compound to dry before applying a layer of gelcoat. The first layer of resin and glass is for tomorrow afternoon all going to plan.

 

[Combi245]

Next part of the process is to complete the mounts for the fuel pump and the filter. I have made a long section that can be cut to suit,

All sanded and ready for the next step.

Laminate ready to be place on..

All the laminate and infusion material in place.

Sucked down and ready to go.

Part way into the infusion.

All infused. Now just have to leave it until it has cured which at the moment wont take long. I have this one going off pretty quickly and the temp is pretty hot in the shed.

 

[Combi245]

Finally got around to cutting and bonding into pacve the mounts for the pump and filter. Not quite where I wanted it but it will work well.

Left over night, I will do the final bonding tomorrow with some carbon.

 

[skowinski]

You seem to be something of an expert with carbon fiber parts. Any advice on refinishing OEM fenders like these? Still nice and glossy on the engine side, rear of the fender, but exposed areas have faded and become dull.

 

[Combi245]

It really depends on how they were built but the normal give away that they have no UV resistant coating on them is that the surfaces that are in direct sunlight breakdown very badly and start to take on a yellow tinge then the resin will start to break away from the laminate. If it is too bad then there is no real easy way to restore them sand down and building the surface back up with epoxy resin then finish them to a #400 finsh before painting is a long process if you have the time. For most the best you can do is 400# wet and dry abrasive paper them to remove the UV damage and then clear coat them with a good two part clear coat.

 

[Combi245]

Small amount of progress along the way. I have wrapped the rear mounts in carbon strands in anticipation of encapsulating them at the rear and also the rubber mounts in the forward sections. Both all of them will be done the same but is is very fiddly and time consuming as I found out with the Imola tank.

 

[Combi245]

So I still have one part of the tank mould to complete. Now I have the base all done I have a couple of areas that will require a bit of extra clearance on the finished tank upper specifically around where the rear mounts and the rubber tank blocks sit. I will modify the mould once it has been completed for the first couple of tanks and produce a better mould once the first tanks have been completed. So the plug has been tidied up and is back inside the split tank mould. This will form the last piece for the tank mould - the lower lip.

 

[Combi245]

So moving onto the frame, I managed to carefully remove the mounts for the tank.

Carefully ground and sanded away the welds to form a surface for additional tube to be cut and shaped into position - thats this weeks work to be done.

Gelcoated and applied the glass using a special blend polyester resin that I had - the tooling resin that I had has expired and gone hard in the container due to moisture. I plan to make a better mould for the tank at a later date but this one will do for the moment.

Trimmed and sanded around the edges, just need to separate it now and drill some bolt holes for the flange .

All pulled apart, so will clean it up and start getting it ready for moulding this week - hope to have the first one done in the next couple of weeks.

Another project is the seat cushion to go with the seat units. I have two different seat pads to make - the original thickness one and a lower profile one. Using the original seat cushion that I have from a new, old stock seat pad set that I bought I have been able to get the correct shape and taken a mould off it. Cover it with tape and took a quick mould of it. This is the starting point for a plug to be manufactured then I will make a propper mold of that for the finished item. Still have the smaller pad to do the same way..

 

[Combi245]

Crap weather and some other small jobs out of the way. One of the projects that I started some time ago but put on the back burner was all the drawings for the various new light weight bits for the engines to be completed. This one is for the flywheel mount P/N 16010102A and 16010032A. Both are dimensionally the same but one is for the early 6 straight splined version as fitted to the early 900 and 851 engines and then the 15 involute splined version that was fitted to the 93-97 Supersports and 851/888 version engines of the same period. I had made a couple of each version for some engine builders that were sworn to secrecy about them two years ago and I have been asked to make some more. Biggest advantage of them is that they are half the weight of the originals and when combined with an aluminium flywheel you are removing over 2 kgs of weight from the original assembly - massive potential gains in acelleration/deceleration of the engine.

I have changed the design of them slightly to reduce weight over all but give better balance to the finished item onc it is all bolted up based on the lessons learnt from the original batch that got built.

Manufactured from 4340 they have the splines cut to suit before they are sent away for hardening and then have the sprag bearing face ground to the final dimensions. Work extremely well and have given the bikes that they are fitted to a real boost in performance when combined with an aluminium flywheel, normally a Nichols one (though I do have my own version ready for production as well now).

 

[ducvet]

Let me know when you sell these and how much $$ If they hold up to the starter clutch long term this could be a great addition.

 

[Combi245]

Let me know when you sell these and how much $$ If they hold up to the starter clutch long term this could be a great addition.

The ones that are currently in use are 2 years old and when I had a look at the one that has been used the longest the surface looks untouched, no marks on it. They seem to have last really well.
Price will be around the 600NZ mark but I have to confirm the cost of the last three steps in the manufacturing process with the 2 different companies that will be carrying them out.

 

[Combi245]

With the weather playing the game I have managed to get the new gelcoat applied to the single seat mould ready for infusion of the new Epoxy/eglass seat units. This has been a battle to get the correct materials for this as as number of suppliers either sent wrong product, stopped dealing with small time clients or just did not listen to what was been asked. Even now I have been sent the wrong materials which i am sorting out with the new suppliers as they have just been bought out and are now suppling a different manufacturers product which they know very little about. That been said It has been sprayed with a red gelcoat and I just need to leave it a couple of days to fully cure before laying up the laminate. Not sure I f I am going to go all eglasds and epoxy on the bike or full carbon and modify the crap out of it but for the moment I will be starting all the composite stuff from scratch from here on out.
Bit of running around this week to be done dependant on the weather but now I have a clear path to get these single seat units done I will go full steam with them until I run out of materials again. I have dropped off a couple of components to get repaired now I have seen what can be done locally. One of the crank cases needs to be welded up and I found someone who can laser weld the repair for me. I have also pulled out the cylinder heads that I got machined and ported in Auckland by Harris Performance for my own bike. Seeing how they were done and taking some measurements off them I will get them assembled and see if I can get some flow readings, compare them against a set of originals. Once that is done I will port the spare heads myself and see what the differences are.

My heads on and in the box, original heads on the left.

Shortened valve stems from AV&V with Beryllium valve seats.

Lightweight custom titanium valves - these cost me a Kidney to get done but are half the weight of the originals. If I was going to do it again I would have had them manufactured a bit differently.

 

[Combi245]

So I am looking at getting some pistons made in the future so before I removed the valve guides I took a casting of the combustion chamber with the valves fitted.

This is going to be sent with the matching piston so that they can scan and use the data to design a suitable piston.

Valve guides and studs removed. A lot of surface corrosion on the gasket face and in the combustion chamber of the horizontal cylinder. Now that they are out I just have to get the correct profile rotary burs to suit .

Quick look at what needs to be removed from the exhaust side. I will taper the ports out to match the gasket on these heads.

I removed the end off a failed section of a 45mm exhaust pipe that I made a couple of years ago. I did have some spare stubs that I made specifically for this work but could not find them.

Placed in the head this will serve as a guide/holder for the gasket during the porting procedure when I get around to it.

 

[Combi245]

While I wait for some Burrs to arrive I have been looking at the crank shafts that i have. I have two at the moment and both have the dreaded loose crank plug

Crank on the left is off the CR and the one on the right is off the SS

CR one was right out to the edge of the machined face and loose. I removed it easily with out tools.

SS one was in a lot further but was as loose as the other one.