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SV Carbon Tank project for Zoran

Will do! Thanks, Dan.

BTW, I saw you at the IMS show, but there was a huge crowd around you and I couldn't get close to say hi. Next time, please leave my name with the bouncers/entourage. :)
 
HellFyre said:
I want to start playing around with this stuff, too, with a little bit of trial and error. Where do you pick up the cloth (both fiberglass and CF) and the rest of the chemicals?
Click to expand...

You can get most everything at TAP but I like West Systems epoxies better. It's available at West Marine (Oakland, Vallejo, Santa Rosa, other locations, too.)
And stay away from the poly and vinyl ester resins - go with epoxy.

But unless I'm facing a time crunch, I've taken to buying most supplies on line. Delivered right to the door and I can access a wider variety of goodies. I had great service from:

http://www.fibreglast.com

Speedy delivery, great selection. But be careful, it's like a candy store for composite freaks...! Be sure to check out their selection of training materials - books, DVDs, etc. All good stuff.
 
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Don't forget Santa Cruz.

The advantage of living in a surf town is that I have about 1/2 a
dozen good fiberglass and composite supply houses within two
miles of my home. FSC, Fiberglass Hawaii, etc... And given the
saturated free enterprise market around here, things tend to be
suprisingly inexpensive. You'll shit the first time you see what
Fiberglass Hawaii is selling stuff for compared to say West Marine
or other local 'quality' shops.

-Mike-
 
GetaGripGreg said:
Watching your steps so far, I think I would have just made a splash of the tank base, then built a box on top of it to pour the foam into, sized to allow you to shape the tank without any additional filler. :thumbup
Click to expand...

Certainly another way to go, but by using the top piece from the splash mold, I only have to shape the part of the tank that I want changed rather than having to shape an entire tank, worry about symmetry, etc. The tank is going on a race bike and we're not after an ultra cool new design (extra time) - I'm happy to take advantage of the shape of the stock tank and the near ready-to-go finish of the top piece.
Plus, having never shaped foam, I no idea what I'd end up with!
:wow
At least this way, we'll get something close to an SV shaped tank.
I picked up the foam today and expect to have some 'next step' pictures by the weekend.
Cover me...I'm goin' in!
 
Foam is so fun and easy to work with, and if you follow a few basic steps, symmetry isnt too hard to get, either.
 
Thought I'd try out the foam this morning.
I mixed up a small batch and poured it into the plug top, focusing on the area I want to narrow.
All I want to do is have something to serve as a base as I start to reduce the width of the tank.
The foam didn't flow out to the edges as far as I wanted so I did a 2nd pour to get a bit more surface area.
Having never worked with foam, I was guessing as to the result I'd get but it turned out pretty much as I hoped!
Here's the top plug ready to be reshaped.

2209067-pc310001.jpg
 
Next, I went after narrowing the tank. This was total guess work on my part. Essentially, I want to remove the 'shoulders' that end up dented when SVs get horizontal.
The nice part is that since the tank we pulled the mold from was dented in just this area on both sides, I could tell what I wanted to remove.
A little head scratching to determine where to cut and a few minutes with a small air-powered body working saw and I have exactly what I want!
I'm very happy with how this worked out. The foam performed just as I'd hoped and will serve as a nice backup to the body filler I'll need to get to final shape.

One narrowed SV tank, ready for bodywork!

2209074-pc310002.jpg
 
I was hoping to get a dramatic shot that showed the difference in width. It looks pretty different to me. The shape is certainly going to be recognizable as an SV but it should be narrow enough to aviod being thumped if, heaven forbid, Zoran falls.
For the next few days, just call me 'BondoBoy'...I'll also get the underside bonded in and go after the top/underside joint redesign.
A safe and Happy New Year to you!

2209076-pc310003.jpg
 
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I fitted the underside by bonding the lip of it to the lip of the topside. This is all well and good but creates the very issue I now need to resolve - I now have a 3/8" vertical wall sticking up around the underside of the tank. This is not the nice flat surfaceI need...
So I set about creating a mating surface that will be suitable when bonding the final top and underside.
If you look back a few pics, you'll see the plug from my SV/MV tank. It's got a nice wide surface that gets used when making the mold for both the top and underside. So, I've decided to remove the stock tank's lip, flatten and/or create a bit of the same thing on this plug.
Sounds great, right? But wait a second, isn't that lip the very thing that is holding the underside and top together? :confused
Hmmmm, what to do?
Expanding foam to the rescue!
I noticed that the foam sticks pretty well to the fiberglass (and just about everything else it touches...!) so I figured what if I just filled the tank with foam? That should allow me to remove the lip but still hold the top and underside together. And what do you know? It worked. Here's the underside with the lip removed. If you look closely, you can see areas between the edge of the top and underside where the foam is exposed.

2210577-p1010003.jpg
 
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Now it's a 'simple' matter of creating the flat surface I want. It needs to run around the entire edge of the tank underside.
I talked with Zoran about his application, expected clearance needs, etc. and since this is going on a race bike with flatslides, we don't need to worry about clearance for the airbox, etc. so I have a bit of luxury in terms of taking up some of the undertank space. A bit of Bondo to build up the surface I want and...
I've got a bit more finish work to do but this give you a good idea of what I'm after - a nice top/underside interface.
Time invested to date: ~ 20 hours.

2210584-p1010004.jpg
 
Tygaboy
this thread is awsome I am in Awwww watching you build this tank. Thats awsome work you do for a hobby.
Thnks for the step by step process its Awsome, cant wait to see the finished product.

Dan
 
I've decided to complete the underside, pull the mold and make the final production underside and go after the top section after that. Why?
OK, I'll be honest, after all this 'glass work, I'm itching to lay up some carbon fiber! I'm going to do this tank in a 2x2 twill weave rather than the plain weave of my SV/MV tank and I've only made some small pieces in the twill - a exhaust hanger and undertail for my '03 SV track bike - and I can't wait to work with it on a bigger part.
So, yesterday and this afternoon it was:
Sand, sand, sand, bondo, bondo, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, bondo, bondo, sand, sand, sand,sand, sand, sand, bondo, bondo, sand, sand, sand, and finally paint.
I'm using a scratch filling rattle can primer that works great. I'll hit it with finer and finer sand paper and finish with a 2000 wet/dry then polish it. After that, it's time to make the production mold. Until then, here's the result - ready to be wet sanded. Turned out nice, don't you think?

2211728-p1020005.jpg
 
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