How should I make this mold?

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#1

I want to make a female mold of the fairings on my bike, by using the original fairings as the male and then laying the fiberglass over top. How would I go about this to prevent any damage to the original fairings? How would I get that nice and smooth surface on the finished glass mold?

I intend to use the mold at a much later date for some carbon parts (once I get comfortable enough to work with carbon but in the mean time making this mold out of glass will probably be good practice) I have thought of using a vacuum bag over the original fairings (with vacuum to get a perfect form) and then just laying the glass on top the bags, good or bad idea? Thanks.

AS you can see there are some intricate curves in the front fairing but I have time and I’m up to the challenge.:smiley:

#2

Wouldnt it be a lot easier to get some cheap race GRP for your bike, and make that into a usable plug to take a mould from?

If you use your existing fairing its going to be an awful lot of work, unless you want to remove all the decals and ensure you have a perfectly flat surface before you start.

#3

indeed,a very challenging mold for a first attempt!!

#4

I’m not too worried about the flatness or smoothness of the mold, I will be totally reworking all the parts, I have a few designs in mind that are substantially different from stock, but I need the shape and mount points. As I said I have a lot of time to play with this.

#5

If you are not worried if your mould is flat or smooth, then thats even more reason to use a cheap set of race plastics as a plug!

#6

if you have any info about how it could be done or any tips that would be appreciated.

#7

Get a cheap set of race plastics, repair any imperfections/damage, then get the surface as smooth as you possibly can, and then paint it with something that can be buffed to a high gloss finish.

You then need to make some sort of framework to go inside the fairing to duplicate the exact position of mounting points on your bike chassis, so the fairing will be pretty close to the shape of the original part, when you use it as plug to take a mould from.

Looking at your fairing, you are probably going to need a 2 piece mould to make the lower part, and another 2 piece mould for the upper half. Certainly not the sort of thing for a beginner to attempt, and not a good idea to be thinking of using carbon to make a fairing anyway.

#8

Thank you.

#9

…and you don’t need to make the mold from CF either. PER and fiberglass works just fine!

#10

what about the shrinkage from the PER, I don’t have first hand experience with this phenomena but is it an appreciable amount compared to epoxy?

#11

Im sure there are better ways of bracing, but here is a pic of a belly pan plug Im working on for an idea. I took the measurments and used a hot glue gun and paint sticks to hold everything in position. It’s working o.k. so far.

#12

That method works fine, and is what I will be using when I am making some moulds over the next few weeks.

#13

looks good I appreciate the pic. My bike does not have a single lower, it has 2 individual sides, so i don’t think it would be necessary to do it quite like you have. But I imagine that bracing would still be necessary or at least beneficla. Nice stuff none the less, keep posted on your progress.

#14

RC51…you really dont want to do that.

The bodywork on your bike is a fortune to replace and youre going to find that its not going to mold well unless you prime it and polish it.

Id get the race skins and do what FZ1 did…thats how everyone in the motorcycle part industry does it.

You will find that one lower cost you what a set of race skinz from say CHEETAH JEREMY aka Cheetah racing bodies cost you.

I hate to be the one that pisses in your cheerios but going into the motorcycle industry is a door to being broke with the quickness.

Do stuff for fun, dont plan on making any money with what you want to try. I know the cat with the german RC stuff…via emails and he has so many hours into each part its not really feasible to recover the money. He will tell you himself, its not any way to make money…its strictly for the love of it.

Again, out of sheer respect for the task youre taking on…do it with some race skins. You can add and modify them and then mold them directly for way cheaper.

Adding a duct or changing angles on fiberglass is much easier than ABS

#15

there is no way in hell i’d consider selling stuff, I want to do this stuff to make the bike how I’d like it. Thanks for the inputs folks. if you have any ideas keep em comin