Triumphrat

sweatmachine · 01-16-2008

With some inspiration and instruction from Rodburner, I decided to try my hand at fiberglass for the first time. I've wanted a new seat for a long time but just didn't want to pony up the dough and I didn't really like anything off the shelf anyway.

I removed the stock seat and covered the frame and gas tank with blue painter's tape and the rest of the bike with some old spidey sheets, then I laid down a layer of 'fiberglass cloth' and slathered it with resin:

I let it cure overnight (should have used the blow dryer) and when I got home from work yesterday I laid down a couple of layers of the mat and slathered them with resin:

sweatmachine · 01-16-2008

Then I trimmed the rough edges with some tinsnips which was a real chore. I think a bandsaw would work well, but I don't have one. I thought about using my angle grinder with a cut off wheel but I wanted to hack it up as much as possible with the tinsnips before I started slinging fibers around all over my skin etc.

You can see the blue tape that is still stuck to the underside of the pan.

It's still rough, but I need to lay down some more mat before I'm done and also reinforce the areas I have marked for mounting brackets. The nice thing about this method is that the pan sits really snug to the frame and even without mounting brackets it is solid. It gives it a nice low profile.

I haven't yet decided which way to go from here. I have a sportster tank I could use as a mold to make a seat cowl which would be cool because I would make a separate seat pan to upholster and have a big storage space under the cowl. Or, I could just pad it and cover it with a nice slim profile. I need to clean it up and take a few long hard looks at it.

This is fun stuff.

elDizzle · 01-16-2008

Nice pics and progression! Keep us posted and keep inspiring!

cafecruzin · 01-16-2008

1 vote for a cowl.
looks bloody good .I am very interested in the outcome.I may have a go myself

rodburner · 01-16-2008

Coming along good,Jeff.I taped off that "mustang" tank tonight after work and hit it with a couple layers.It needs several more layers,but I need to decide if I`m going to narrow it a bit and lower it some before making it thicker. But at least you can get an idea how they are gonna look.

One more suggestion,only use the blue tape to secure the coverings to the bike and painted surfaces.I just lay the glass right on the duct tape [its some good cloth type I get from the warehouse at work],but I`m guessing any duct tape would work.The glass piece just pops off it.

whoa · 01-16-2008

i started my seat pan with plywood after giving up on buying a used seat. I'll wrap it in fiberglass and use the Thruxton plastic cowl as a mold to make the fiberglass cowl. I've never worked with fiberglass, so haven't been fired up about getting it going.

Hows it been to work with so far?

sweatmachine · 01-16-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by whoa

Hows it been to work with so far?

fun!

I made a cowl tonight too Steve. Man, we must be on the same wavelength or something. I was trying to decide whether to make a seat with a cowl, or just a lean mean seat sans cowl. I have (had) a sportster seat in mint condition. I wanted to see how the pad fit on my new pan so I removed the cover and the pad from the sporty pan. Well, once I laid the foam on my new seatpan I thought it would be a good shape for a cowl, so I covered the foam in blue tape and laid down 1 layer of the mesh stuff, 1 layer of the mat, and another layer of the mesh. Using the blow dryer between layers I was able to do all 3 layers in under an hour, then I took it inside and stuck it in the oven on low for about 10 minutes and it cured up nicely!

here's the sportster seat foam:

Here's my "cowl" on top of it:

Now, bear with me here, they both need trimming and cleaning up and some more layers, but here are the 2 parts together:

I made the cowl really big so that I can trim it up as I need to. I will end up shortening it quite a bit and I wanted some room to play with. I think it's a great shape. I wanted to mimic something like this:

sweatmachine · 01-17-2008

Ok, after looking at those horribly rough pictures for a minute I couldn't stand it anymore and got after the cowl with the tinsnips. Using the lines in the sportster pad I made some marks on the cowl and started cutting.

My new #1 rule for working with fiberglass: Cut it before you cure it! This stuff trims easily a few minutes after it is hard enough to handle. Once it has cured it's like trying to cut sheetmetal, brittle, itchy, sheetmetal.

I think it looks a lot better now, but there is still more cutting and more layers to be added.

Here's the trimmed cowl on the seat pan:

Here's the tank's view of the seat pan, it gives a good idea of how much storage I'll have in there once it is complete. I'll have a removable pan on top of this pan that will be upholstered for the actual seat part.

And just for kicks, I slapped the sportster seat cover on my pan and laid the cowl on top of it:

More to come! This is cool stuff!

Catenaccio · 01-17-2008

Fascinating! Good on ya!

itcha · 01-17-2008

Can't wait to see the finished product.