[Apriliarider]

Time for a few new pics:

The “spider web” of cracks:

Now, repair nearly complete. Drilled, V-grooved out, glass & epoxied, sanded, filled and primed. Still needs a tad more filler. The primer revealedsome pin holes as well as a few low spots.

The Turn Signal “housing” where it was abraded away:

The profile is now correct, more or less. It matches the template I made of the new Air Tech panel profile. Still a few low spots and pin holes to fill but it is structurally repaired.

Same spot, though the low spots I wrote about after the 1st pic are fully revealed in this shot. Another, smaller crack is visible also in the upper left corner of the turn signal hole.

A view of the profile from below. The “ledge” that the turn signal recesses into is now almost perfect. Just a few smaller cracks to deal with now, but the major repairs are done.

The lower air duct crack:

Still work to do here. The crack has been stabilized and the glass ground back to close to finish profile. Some pin holes and low spots to fill yet. The number you can see in the pic is part of the “notes” I ordered by number to keep track of the less serious cracks that still need repairs.

 

[Apriliarider]

New pics continued:
The holes cut in the left side panel have been filled correctly with glass & epoxy resin:

The white patches are where the original surface has been ground down to make room for the layer of glass & epoxy resin repair.

A shot of the backside with light coming through the repaired holes. FWIW; it took about 5 layers to actually fill the holes and 2 layers top and another 2 layers on the bottom to cover the “plugs” of glass in the holes.

I’ll get these ground down flush with the surrounding FRP, apply some filler and sand, prime and post images once I manage to get that done. More later.

 

[Apriliarider]

Didn’t get much done with the FRP panels this weekend. Off to my Mother in Law’s for Easter Sunday tomorrow. Nothing will get done, IOW.

While the major damage has been stabilized or fixed, there were another 5 cracks to repair and 3 spots that need similar repair.

Today I got out my Dremmel grinder and a rotary file bit and grooved out the cracks. Then I went back with a sanding drum bit and took the level around the cracks down enough to layer in some fiber glass and epoxy resin.

All is prepped for those repairs to be accomplished. Just have to find time to get those done. Maybe at some point in the next weeks I’ll get a warm day with no wind to actually get some paint laid down on the tank and some of the bodywork that’s ready for it……more later…with pics.

 

[Apriliarider]

Got a little done on the FRP body work for the project 900SS this weekend. Plenty of excuses why but mainly because I got a couple spare rear wheels from a member over at Ducati dot MS.

Also, it’s race weekend so I spent a good portion of the morning yesterday watching qualifying. Today is race day so I spent the morning watching the smaller classes. After taking my wife to breakfast and taking care of grocery shopping, gas and dropping food and clothes at work.

I spent yesterday cleaning up one wheel and fixing the rash it had on one lip. Seems there was a flat at some point and the wheel was ridden on for a short while on the rim. The other rim had a couple of minor curb dings. I was able to fix both with a C clamp and some wood. Will likely paint them black in the future.

After fixing the 2nd wheel this morning I sanded back some of the repairs I’d made last week. Got more to go though. Also scraped off more of the old paint. Kinda need it gone so I can sand back the OEM paint and see if there are more cracks hiding.

The pic above illustrates my point. I’d ground back the FRP for a fiber glass repair. That’s the peach colored area. Today, when I sanded back the glass & resin another crack appeared between the two repairs which was previously not visible.

I’m going to have to sand the entire thing back to see if it reveals more hidden cracks….and that’s just the front side. There is more on the back side that is visible, and requires further repairs.

more pics:

Here you can see the remaining layers of paint (I’ve already stripped off 2 layers at this point). The red to the right of the gray is the factory OEM paint. The gray boundary is the factory OEM clear coat that was wet sanded and primed. The red to the left of the gray is the second paint job, or the 3rd layer of paint I have to remove to get to where I can see any currently hidden cracks.

More later….

 

[ducatiman]

prep work bitchy, requiring the ultimate in patience and dedication. Great job so far.

 

[Apriliarider]

Thanks G. It is super fiddly. There are so many cracks, some minor some more serious….finding them is like a scavenger hunt. sigh

Didn’t get much done this past weekend. Still been super windy so trying to get some paint done is next to impossible.

Nothing got done with the FRP body work either. I worked the wheels mostly. Put them on my balancer to see what kind of runout there was and if the wheels were bent, egg shaped or flat spotted.

The one wheel with the rash is actually straight with superficial run out. IOW it’s good. I sanded it and got rid of any corrosion or scratches in the bead area and shot some primer on. Wind picked up right then so I had to squirt paint between gusts. Not ideal.

The second wheel with the 2 curbed spots is flat spotted in relation to both curbing events. IOW the lip was splayed out from hitting something but the wheel also has a flat spot further in where the tire bead seats.

Neither was really bad and could probably be fixed by a pro. We have a guy in Sacramento that does this sort of thing so maybe I’ll see what he can do.

This prompted me to get out the original front wheel and throw it on the balancer just to see how bad it was. I wasn’t disappointed. It had been curbed in multiple places, so the lip was splayed. It also had flat spots where the tire bead seats on the wheel in relation to those curbings.

Worse though, the wheel is badly twisted. The runout is excessive. It also is somewhat egg shaped as a result of one curbing event. When spun on the balancer the wheel wobbles from side to side from being twisted and appears to hop up and down from the egging. I don’t know if it could be fixed or not.

More later. This weekend is going to be spent doing an oil change on the GSXR as I’ve ridden it daily for a while since the oil change last year. I’ll get caught up on general maintenance too, clean lube and adjust chain tension. Prolly give it a good wipe down too. Sunday is race day so mostly nothing will get done.

 

[po18guy]

Are you going to gel coat or use a polyester filler over the spots with cloth exposed?

 

[Apriliarider]

Most likely I’ll epoxy over those spots and use filler as required to ensure a smooth surface.

After that…..we’ll see. Right now my plan is to try to take a mold off each side and build a reinforced TM process jig that will clamp together to make a reproduction of the OEM panels.

They may just get primed and put up in the rafters until I have more time for such an endeavor.