Work In Progress: Custom Motorcycle (Supermoto) Bodywork

General Composites Discussions Showcase
#1

Hi folks,

I have been working on some custom bodywork for a project bike I’ve got going at the moment. I had planned to do a full writeup here when it was all finished, but I figure that I may as well post it up now as I’m going so that people can follow along and maybe I can get some tips as well if anyone sees a way to do things better…

First up I’ve got to say what a fantastic resource this forum has been… so many knowledgeable and willing people here who go out of their way to share their hard-earned experience and information. Thank you to everyone who shares their knowledge here, just browsing the forum and spending some time learning gave me a lot of confidence to take on this project for myself.

I wanted to try and give something back, so hopefully this thread can give a bit of inspiration to someone who is thinking of doing a small project themselves as well. One thing that I want to show is that you don’t need very much in the way of equipment or tools to get started. This is really the very first composites project I’ve done (I’ve done one piece before which was an attempt at a pillion seat cowl for my Gixxer that was abandoned half way through.) I don’t have a big budget at all, so you’re going to see how far that can take you.

Now let’s get to the details…

For anyone interested in the bike itself - it’s a 1999 KTM 380EXC. I picked it up for a fairly good price, the idea is to build a mega-raging big bore 2 stroke supermoto. There needed to be some work converting it from a dirt bike to supermoto anyway, and for a few years I’ve wanted to do a composites project for one of my bikes - so this was the perfect chance.

Here’s what I started with:


KTM 380 SM 001 by mugget, on Flickr

The bodywork looks a bit old fashioned (well, it is) so I knew I wanted to make something that had a sharper, more modern look. So this was the mockup that I settled on:


KTM 380 SM - Final Body Style by mugget, on Flickr

Not necessarily that colour bodywork… but you get the idea of the shape. My final plan is to have one set of bodywork with visible carbon fibre (yes, that’s purely for the bling factor. Haha.) But before that I’ll do one or two sets of fibreglass bodywork that will be painted (so I have some spares, and don’t risk scratching up the CF panels if I ever take the bike offroad).

The next step was to get a template that I could use to mark out the same shape on both rear side panels. Then I started shaping it up with clay:


Mockup Shape by mugget, on Flickr

The clay kept alright overnight as long as I kept spraying it with a bit of water then covered it. This is basically what it looked like before I put some fibreglass down to start off the plug:


Clay Mockup by mugget, on Flickr

Cutting out CSM and peel ply:


Cutting Peel Ply by mugget, on Flickr

The first side laid up:


Start of Plug by mugget, on Flickr

And yes, that’s peel ply on the top. This was actually a neat trick that someone at the local composite supply shop told me about - if you put peel ply on top it leaves a nice, evenly textured surface that is ready to take body filler etc. And it worked a treat! Just pulled off the peel ply and there was a nice smooth surface, ready to get straight on with the rest of the shaping.

Next up I got to working on the headlight. You’ll notice that the card I used in the side panel mockups was just plain card… which is a bit of a mistake. It absorbs the moisture from the clay and deformed the shape a little bit. So for this I taped up the entire mockup to avoid that problem:


Headlight Mockup by mugget, on Flickr


Headlight - Clay Mockup by mugget, on Flickr

#2

Moving right along I got into the clay mockup of the rear fender. Using the stock fender as a base I just made some adjustments to create a sharper look:


Rear Fender Mockup by mugget, on Flickr

Next up I covered the clay in fibreglass, but this is a much more complex piece than the side panels, so I wanted to keep the dimensions more accurate. So the part I took off the clay mockup was really just a mould, so I had to make another part out of that to get back to the original size of the clay mockup. Parts started to multiply quickly!


Rear Fender Plug by mugget, on Flickr

A note about this stage - for the side panels I didn’t bother covering the clay before I layed up the CSM, I just put it right on top. This was mostly fine because I didn’t care what the rear of the plug looks like. However it seemed like the moisture stopped the job from curing properly, but it was fine after I removed the clay and brushed a bit of fresh resin over the back of the plug. But for the fender I couldn’t have that, so I just covered the clay mockup (and the rest of the stock part that wasn’t covered in clay) in Glad Wrap (plastic cling wrap) before putting down the fibreglass. This went mostly okay, aside from some wrinkles. It caused a bit more work when it came to finishing the plug… I would do it differently next time. Probably I would try PVA on the clay with a mix of wax & PVA on the exposed aras of the stock part. But at the time I wasn’t too confident of that, and I still needed that stock part.

By this stage I purchased my first batch of carbon fibre and epoxy resin, corecell and Innegra. My previous experience only covered polyester resin and CSM, so I wanted to do a few small test pieces. Not only to see what it was like to work with those materials, but also to try and get an idea of what layup I will need to use in the final parts to get the strength and stiffness I want.

I was thinking of a quick way to make a shaped part, I figured that I wasn’t making flat sheets, so there was no point in making test pieces in a flat shape. The solution I came up with was kind of funny… I went into the kitchen and made up a batch of Play Doh. :smiley: Then I masked up a piece of perspex and pressed out a bunch of shapes that I could use for some test layups.


Setup for test layups by mugget, on Flickr

I also tested a bunch of different release treatments - regular release wax, wax + PVA, and also wax + hair spray. Yep, you read it right - hair spray! I read about that somewhere while I was looking into different composites techniques, and apparently it worked fairly well for someone else, so why not give it a try. This is why testing is so important, you get a chance to try all these different ideas and get a real good understanding of what is going to work with the exact materials you have.

Here’s part way through the test layups:


Corecell Test by mugget, on Flickr

And the final pieces:


First Carbon Fibre by mugget, on Flickr

Not a bad result at all for a first time working with CF and a visible surface layer! No pinhole bubbles in a wet layup… very pleased with that. :cool: The Play Doh leaves a certain texture, but that doesn’t matter - the important thing was to learn about the inherent strength in a shaped part, and how different CF/fibreglass layups work. (My plan is for just one surface layer of CF, the rest will be fibreglass with one layer of Innegra.) The pieces with corecell are amazing… I had no idea you could get that kind of strength just by adding a simple piece of foam…! This is good, because my plan is to use the corecell in the rear fender, since it has to support tail lights and a license plate.

#3

Mugget,
very,very sweet do.
jumped into the forum for a quick look & BAM!
excellent creative process.
look forward to the entire story as you move along.
thanks for posting

#4

Looks good… You gave me a couple ideas for making a plug of a car spoiler.

#5

Cheers archimedes. I have a bit of posting to catch up to my current progress… I started on this back at the start of December last year. This post covers progress up to 6th December.

Very glad to hear you got a couple of ideas Extreme! :smiley:

Moving back to the rear side panels the Play Doh came in handy again. I cut away too much and had to add some back in. I shaped a simple mould using the Play Doh and mixed up a runny batch of body filler so It would just flow in a bit easier.


Body Filling by mugget, on Flickr

So far I’ve been making my own body filler for this whole project. All body filler is made from is basically cheap polyester resin and talc, so I just used the poly resin I had, got my hands on a bit of talc and mixed it up just how I wanted.

I tried baby powder (supermarket talc) but that kind of didn’t work as well… made the whole place smell better though! Haha. (Polyester resin stinks bad - careful where/how/when you use it, neighbours can complain to the council. “Nuisance smell” is the technical term.) I managed to find somewhere I could buy 500g of plain talc. Then I went through that and found another place I could buy a 1kg lot (I didn’t quite need the 20kg bags that my local composite supply stocked!) It’s much cheaper than buying body filler, and I like that it can be mixed to the consistency you want.

The strips you can see in the panel are just bits of cardboard box that I cut up and laminated in to give some reinforcement - extremely cheap core material. There’s no rules in plug making - anything goes! Although this turned out to be a bit overkill… but there’s bound to be a lot of learning when you start out on a project like this. There’s also some air voids around the card edges, but no big deal on these parts.

The card made the panel too bulky in some areas so I had to cut it out in places, but that’s no problem. A Dremel is an amazingly handy tool!

I was wondering how to keep the panels positioned while I am working on them, so I thought I would make some positioning lugs. These sit where the seat bolts would normally be and give a reliable position so the plugs are in the same spot every time I put them on the bike to check shape and fitment.


Creating Positioning Lugs by mugget, on Flickr

With the Play Doh removed this was easily sanded and filed to shape.


Positioning Lug by mugget, on Flickr

This is how the rear side panels were starting to shape up:


Right Side Progress by mugget, on Flickr


Left Side Progress by mugget, on Flickr

#6

I had a bit of a break from this project in the new year… I got a bit overwhelmed when I started to think of everything that I had just got myself into. I’ve got to be honest that it was a bit daunting to take this on as a first project.

By the start of February this year I got myself motivated again, no reason to sit around thinking about all the work I’ve still got to do! The only thing to do is just keep working away at it one task at a time!

I wanted to get the plugs for all the bodywork started (just so I could reach that milestone and start to see a bit of progress). So next up was the radiator shrouds (front side panels). I just cleaned up the plastics a bit, then put two coats of mould release wax. Then seeing as I just wanted to get things moving along quickly I decided to give the hair spray a try on an actual part. I think I prefer the smell of poly resin to hair spray. Made my messy, dirty man-cave smell like a hair salon! Yuk! :stuck_out_tongue:

Next up I mixed a small batch of filler so I could get all the mounting tabs and recessed areas in the mould. Mixing this myself came in handy again because I made it runny and it just flowed in nicely with no voids. I just taped up the back of the mounting holes so it wouldn’t run right through.

By this stage I had used the 4kg poly resin that I had left over from my initial failed attempt at composite work and had picked up another 4kg tin. Bonus with this one was that it didn’t smell half as bad as what I was using before! That ought to keep the neighbours happy a bit…

But I was worried after filling the mounting tabs because it still hadn’t set after some hours. I thought the catalyst ratio might not have been the same as I was used to. Lesson there is you should always do a test on new materials you’re not familiar with… but thankfully it did eventually cure, just took a while!

Then I got to laying some 'glass down. Hard to get good drapability over sharp angles, but holding a tricky piece while it cures will do the job. This required more improvisation as I went… clothes pegs to the rescue!

I was excited to demould the first somewhat complex part, and it was a success!! It separated very easily thanks to the hair spray. I give it a 10/10 rating for ease of use. It leaves a fairly good surface finish as well.

I tried out some woven fibreglass on these parts. This worked much better than the more solid CSM construction of the rear side panels. Having a bit of flex is good, and it keeps the weight down so it’s much easier to work with.

The stock fork sliders look really ratty, so I’m planning to make a new set of those as well. Not sure how I will attach them exactly, but I have some ideas… anyway I can worry about that later! One thing I will try is a low-friction graphite surface coat on the final sliders. I did a couple of my CF test pieces with a graphite surface coat, haven’t tried any friction tests on them yet, but I can get a good surface finish at least, so it looks promising.

These have just been sitting around since they were made, it’s a low priority part.

For some reason I don’t seem to have pictures of laying up the splash mould for the front fender, but this piece has some fairly sharp angles in it. After seeing how difficult it can be to get CSM to conform to sharp edges I wanted to play it safe here. So I mixed a batch of body filler and covered in all the sharp edges to make sure I moulded the entire shape without voids. To try and get an even better finish the first layers I put down over the filler were woven fibreglass, then just CSM for the rest. I laid this part in a couple of steps to try and avoid shrinkage/exotherm which would probably happen if I just slapped it all down in one session.

Parts started to multiply quickly again… Next I could lay up the actual plug. I used the same method of covering the sharp edges with body filler, then woven and CSM.

I didn’t layup right to the front edge because this is going to be much shorter than the original anyway.

#7

That’s interesting about the hairspray. I had read about it being used to hold fabric in place but not as a release.

#8

For the 2nd rad shroud I used more woven glass (200g) for the first layer of the plug, then a layer of 300g CSM and some 450g CSM for extra reinforcement around the recessed areas and edges/curves. This one turned out better than the first one which used much less woven glass.

Progress for one of the rad shrouds. From left to right: stock panel, splash mould, plug.

I got some holes around the the recessed areas, but no problem - I just re-waxed and put some more hair spray on the mould and put the piece back on, patched these up with filler.

For the final part I’ll have to do this really carefully… at least it’s not a highly visible area, I know I can always put it back on the mould and patch it with filler if I get holes like this.

And the rear fender trimmed down and test fitted.

The original front fender must have been from another bike because it had been rubbing on the frame downtube. Easy solution though, just cut it & shut it:

After spending a bit of time looking at the part against the bike, I made a guess of how much I’d have to remove to make the rear of the fender sit at the proper angle (the cross hatch marked area) and it turned out pretty good.

All joined up, just needed to smooth it over and fill the gaps:

To the front edge of the front fender - I drew a curve I was happy with (right side in the below picture) and used a rough template to transfer it to the other side.

#9

The stock rear fender was quite complex, on the left side it had an area that completely slid over the subframe tube to help keep it positioned on the bike (it’s only attached by a few screws otherwise). It also has a part that attaches to the end of the airbox, and without that I’d effectively be reducing the airbox size (not something that I wanted to mess with).

So I decided to go ahead and add that part to the plug. I taped up the airbox join area with electrical tape and used some trimmed down plastic bags to protect the rest of the bodywork (poly resin won’t stick to either of those kinds of plastic which is very handy!) I put down filler along the masked airbox edge, then just let some CSM/woven glass hang down from the plug to meet the filler.

I am thinking that I will just close off the area between the side panel and the area below the subframe with some foam. Or I could attach a flange to the back side of the final side panel that will seal off the rear end of this new airbox attachment. But I think it’s safe to say that I can’t add much more to the plug without making something that is going to be too complicated when I come to create the final mould and parts.

I rushed a bit on the rad shroud that I used mostly CSM on, ended up with some voids on the surface. Lesson - don’t rush, and also using a first layer of woven glass is good insurance.

I had been trying to fix it with filler, but that didn’t seem to be going so well, it’s like the holes were too small and pressure would kind of force the filler out of the hole on one side. So I thought I’d try just filling the holes directly with resin to try and get it to flow into the holes better.

It seemed to go okay, just that the resin is much harder to sand than the filler.

This is all work completed up to 19 March. The week after I finally decided to buy an orbital sander, don’t know what it took me this long! Best $58 I have spent on the entire project! (Everything posted so far had been worked by hand, either plain sanding paper, or a sanding block + paper, or a hand file.) Progress has been much more rapid after I got that orbital sander involved…

I just need to take some current progress photos and that will bring this thread right up to date. Stay tuned!

#10

Great work so far! I’ve really enjoyed reading this thread and can’t wait for more. I’m curious, what kind of clay did you use for your plugs?

#11

Cheers timskee,

Glad you’ve enjoyed following along so far, I should have the next update sometime during this week.

The clay is a fine stoneware clay. I just went to a local pottery supply shop and told them what I was doing, they recommended this clay. I was just expecting the regular brown stuff, this stoneware clay cost a bit more (but that’s relative, clay is pretty cheap!) and it is very nice to work with. I could have got the finish much nicer and closer to the final plug shape, but I was getting a bit keen to lay some glass down. Also it was getting tricky to work with as the days went on. I was trying my best to keep the moisture in the clay (misting the surface and covering with plastic when I’d finished working) but this was in the middle of the Aussie summer and it was getting fairly hot in the garage.

Scot at my local composite supply shop (CG Composites in Brisbane, Australia in case there’s any locals reading - these guys have been super-helpful and very generous with their advice. Highly recommended!) actually said that you could even dig up some clay from your backyard and use that! He personally has used bricks, covered in clay to make sidecar fairings. The idea is just go build up the shape any way you can (cheap is usually better), the final finishing is likely to happen on the actual plug. You can get the clay fairly close though.

#12

Well it looks like this update will be short on photos, installed a custom ROM on my phone and it seems to have corrupted the SD card. Not to worry - it wasn’t anything too exciting.

Progress over the last week has just been to change the rear fender a bit so it has a more snug fit with the back end of the seat. The weather has been a bit strange as well, a relatively cold snap came earlier last week, the filler was still a bit tacky next day and I could scoop it off with a putty blade. So I spent maybe an hour or two scraping off the non-cured filler and re-did it, standing for about 15-20mins with the heat gun on the new filler just to make sure it set properly.

Well of course a couple of days later I happened to look at the mixing cup from that original batch and of course it was cured, just took longer. What a goose I felt like! Should have just left it to cure longer… anyway, I won’t be making that mistake again.

Apart from that I’m still just fixing little pinholes & voids in the plugs, but getting very very close to having the surface done on all of them. On this subject - I had been using my regular consistency filler mix for any little holes, but they had a tendancy to fall/sand out when I was levelling those parts. I changed to using a much runnier mix, maybe 1/2 has much talc as usual (or less) and it seems to be working a treat. Still sands fairly easily (much easier than straight resin) and the higher resin content seems to bond better in the holes. My process for applying any filler or extra glass to the plugs has just been to wipe it down with methylated spirits. It’s quick, cheap and works well. Not sure if it has any reaction with the plugs though, it does seem to leave the surface ever so slightly tacky but that’s fine since I’m putting filler on anyway.

I’ve just started shaping the edges last night and will continue that tonight, so everything is going to start taking shape quickly now. Aiming to have all the plug edges finished and surfaces done by this weekend, hopefully I can take a photo with the plugs all mocked up on the bike!

#13

Ok - looks like all my photos didn’t get deleted after all!

I finally bought an orbital sander 3 months into the project! Everything before this had been done by hand. This sped things up so much, best $58 I spend on the project yet (Dremel would have to be the #1 most used tool so far, but I already had that). Wish I had bought this sander right at the start…


Power Tool!!! by mugget, on Flickr

I also figured I should add on the little retaining tabs like the stock bodywork has (on the rear side panels). Needs something to help hold it onto the airbox.


Side Panels - Adding Tabs by mugget, on Flickr


Side Panels - Tabs Added! by mugget, on Flickr

One side panel had a dodgy positining pin, I had whittled it down to about the thickness of a nail (the hardware kind) and it finally snapped off when I bumped it on the subframe. Not to matter, now both side panels have the same chunky positioning lugs, much more reliable now as these lugs on both panels sit flush on the top of the subframe near the seat bolt mounts. Easy to get the position the same each time after removing the panels to make adjustments. Also back-filled this one because a fair bit of material needed to be removed to get it back to flush with the rear fender shown below.


Side Panel - Positioning Lug #2 by mugget, on Flickr

Test fit for side & fender alignment… bit out on this one! I took an angle grinder to this part and both sides are pretty much flush with the rear fender now. Anything with an angle grinder is automatically designated as an outside job, makes one hell of a mess…


RH Side Panel Test Fit by mugget, on Flickr

I thought I’d better check the seat/fender fitment. Good thing, found this big gap under the rear of the seat - can’t have any of that!


under seat gap by mugget, on Flickr

Extending the sides ready for some filling:

preparation for fill by mugget, on Flickr

Initial fill:

under seat fill area by mugget, on Flickr

Some more fill:

fill by mugget, on Flickr

It’s these kind of things that take the time… still not finished yet and by the time it’s done I will probably have filled it 5-6 times, sanding & filing in between to get the shape & fitment right.

#14

On most pieces I get a nice curve or shape only on one side of the plug, trying to keep the symmetry is probably the hardest bit. But a ghetto template always helps:


pattern for symmetey by mugget, on Flickr

Also doing some ghetto measurements for the cutouts on the rear side panels.


measuring for symmetry by mugget, on Flickr

And a mockup with the panels on the bike today:


380 bodywork mockup. by mugget, on Flickr

I still need to get on with the headlight, and I pretty much decided I will do frame protectors/heel guards, and also the side stand (if I can work out the mounting point). Mine doesn’t have a side stand, gotta find some reference pics or check the manual to figure that out.

Hopefully next update will be sooner than a month, or at least a lot more progress within the next month…

#15

I got some new parts started over the last week or so. Chain guard and frame/heel protectors.


heel & chain guard by mugget, on Flickr

The only thing left to start on is the headlight. Well, the 2nd attempt at the headlight… after finding out with the rear fender how difficult it is to keep symmetry if doing everything by hand, I’ll make a template for the headlight out of MDF. I have plans for some pretty trick integrated LED lighting (if it all comes off as I plan) so I want to get the headlight spot on.

#16

Great thread, following with interest :slight_smile:

My f800gs is looking at me longingly for some new side panels . . .

#17

Progress is slowing down a bit now… I have made a couple of quick rad shroud panels from the splash moulds I made earlier - now I just have to paint them so I can test that the polyester gel coat won’t react with the paint, and then to test that the epoxy resin I’ll be using in the final parts won’t react with the gel coat.

Bought all the paint last Friday, all 2k - that stuff ain’t cheap!! Anyway it’s going to look good… (I didn’t buy any paint especially for the plugs, I’m just using the same colours as I’ll be using on the bike.) Maybe it will be overkill for the plugs since I’ll be using basecoat + clear (could have just use a 2k solid & be done with it) but I figure that I need the practice spraying since I’ve never done it before. Rather learn & make mistakes on these test panels.

I had a second attempt at the headlight. I didn’t want to start all over with clay, I figured it would be much easier to get close to a symmetrical shape if I just used card. Then I had the idea to use waxed card, super easy! I had this box sitting around home from the last trip to the markets. You can probably find similar waxed boxes at fruit shops, this one happened to be a lettuce box before I got to it.


2nd headlight attempt by mugget, on Flickr

Dead easy to remove the glass, actually the trickiest bits were where the tape was (which is still 10x easier than removing a piece from an actual mould). I just laid up a layer of 200g and 300g woven glass, I’ll add some CSM to the back for stiffness but I wanted to keep the front as close to the shape of the card as possible.

I don’t think I’ve shown this before because it’s pretty lame :stuck_out_tongue: but here is the first headlight attempt for comparison:


1st headlight attempt by mugget, on Flickr

For that first one I made a card base and then put clay over it, but things kinda got out of control… didn’t look anything like the original mockup drawings. I was thinking about getting into it with the grinder, but sometimes you’ve just gotta junk it and start over.

I also developed an ideal bodywork technique for a rat bike:


LED lighting test by mugget, on Flickr

Just kidding.

This was just one of the quick & dirty test panels (wanted to keep some surface defects so I can see how good the hi-build primer is), but this was also a test for an idea of integrated LED lights that I’ve been thinking of. That one clear strip is just 200 & 300g woven glass, the LED shines through bright enough, but the problem is that the clear strip stands out a lot as well… maybe it’s more trouble than it’s worth…

#18

Predictably I didn’t get the test paint all done as soon as I wanted - bad weather blew in this week and I didn’t want to deal with high humidity, it’s hard enough trying to learn to paint with all the variables there already are!

I broke out the real camera to capture some detail of the test paint. This is after the first batch of primer (high build). Around 4 coats, but I forgot to do 50% overlap until the very end. Still, this stuff went down thick! Also I didn’t add thinner in this first batch, I though you would only use that if you have any problems, didn’t realise that it helps reduce the orange peel look.


Test Paint - Primer 1 by mugget, on Flickr

Oh yeah, part of the splash mould broke off and is stuck in the holes. No biggie since these are the test pieces and I didn’t need those old moulds anyway. But a good reminder to make sure I’m waxing thoroughly. I’m sure I did 4 new coats of wax, maybe it was already weakened from previous release. That part of the splash mould was only made with resin & talc mixed into a filler, then glass placed over the top. Maybe I waited too long before adding the glass on top, since it shouldn’t have left the pattern of the glass on the broken edge. Anyway good to discover this now, will rethink this when I come to make the final mould.

Seeing that there were still some areas to fill I used some blade putty. I should have used this stuff for the small holes on the plugs all along, oh well. It’s pretty good - just squeeze it out of the tube and spread it on, no mixing and it dries fairly quick (20-30mins).


Test Paint - Primer 2 by mugget, on Flickr

Sprayed the 2nd batch of primer to cover the putty:


Test Paint - Primer 3 by mugget, on Flickr

Used 5% thinner in that, seemed to go better, but primer seems easy to spray anyway. Now the test panels have been 800 wet sanded and are ready for the basecoat and clear which will be the real test… that ought to happen mid-late next week. The area I sectioned off for spraying has nowhere near enough light, so I’m going to build a few LED lights to solve that problem.

Since I can’t go ahead with painting started looking at the front fender. It looked a bit weird, not very much like the mockup drawing. So what do you do if your plug is finished & ready for paint, but doesn’t look right? Nothing for it but to chop it up!


bodywork progress by mugget, on Flickr

I left those lower sections to keep that lip around the edge, spent more than a few hours getting that right…

I was going to use blue modelling foam, but that’s not compatible with polyester resin (the resin would just dissolve it). So I decided to use the old 2-part polyurethane foam that I wanted to avoid because of the mess it makes. But the whole place is covered in dust from all the sanding anyway so what the heck.

I taped in some plastic across the bottom of the fender, and also wanted to tape the surface so foam wouldn’t stick on it. The front of the fender is also pulled in by tape to narrow it a bit & get the proportions right.


bodywork progress by mugget, on Flickr

Then I just poured the foam in. This is what 55ml expands to - it would have expanded even more if I had the temperatures right.

Next pour was 75ml.


bodywork progress by mugget, on Flickr

That ought to do it. Now to start shaping and I’ll finish it off with body filler.

#19

I love that you went to the urethane foam. I was about to suggest it to you, then I saw your last post. If you have a chitty box fan or any type of fan for that matter, it really helps throw all the crap away from you as your shaping the foam. And all of your “ghetto tools” need chrome bump guard all the way around before they are official ghetto licensed material sir. All joking aside, the progress is looking good. Keep it up. Oh and to cure your problem of having the clear area around your LED backlight show, tape off the area where the light is. Paint the panel the color you want. Untape the light area. Tape off the unpainted area. Add a little of the base color to your clear cote. Paint the LED area that you taped with the tinted clear and then untape everything. Blend/feather sand it all back flat. Clear cote the whole thing and TA DAAA!

#20

Yeah… I had used urethane foam before, maybe I just used some cheap & nasty stuff before - but this time it didn’t seem to make nearly as much mess. Then again I cut most of it with a razor and only had to sand a small amount. No point worrying about mess at this stage anyway! With all the sanding & cutting I’ve already done there is dust on anything that isn’t covered, some small foam pieces would hardly be noticed!

Haha ghetto tools… I’ll have to take a photo of my work area to guarantee my ghetto credentials. Hahaha :laugh:

Cheers for the tip on the paint! I’ll keep that in mind!

Update on the fender: it’s come along much more quickly than I thought it would - maybe I’m actually starting to get the hang of this stuff!


Fender Progress by mugget, on Flickr

May need one more round of sanding and filler, then I can go to final finishing with blade putty.

One of the downsides of mixing my own talc and resin to make filler is that it takes a fair while to cure, especially in this colder weather (it’s been as low as 17ºC during the day). Body filler could be sanded sooner, only a problem now that most of my time has been spent on the fender. No problem earlier because I had so many different parts in progress, I could just let a couple cure while I keep working on others.

Turns out that the rad shrouds needed just a bit of levelling & final finishing as well!


Rad Shrouds Blade Filled by mugget, on Flickr

Started on the recess area for the seat bolts on the rear side panels.


Bolt Recess - Rear Side Panels by mugget, on Flickr

Bit of a side project - I made a few 2 watt LED worklights. Aside from waiting for the rain to go away, I needed more light (especially side lighting) before I went ahead and spray the basecoat and clear on the test pieces, which can now go ahead this weekend (hopefully!).


2 Watt LED Worklights by mugget, on Flickr

Battery powered because I didn’t want to spend a couple of hundred dollars getting an electrician to install them to mains. Seriously strict regulations on electrical work here in Australia.