[K-woppa]

Of the two items, I'm more intrigued by the clutch cover. That looks superb. I'm guessing he made the insert? If so he's got a great artistic eye.

 

[Apriliarider]

I couldn't find where he wrote about that in his posts on Ducati MS. I know he had the insert water jet cut somewhere local to him. IIRC, it was supposed to mimic the wheel design. The clutch cover he used hydrographic dip on too. I think it was the stock cover and used his mill to cut out the face of it and machine a lip into it for the insert he had made. That's all from memory though. If you pop on to Ducati MS just search for posts by buzzer. That's his forum name there.......sean

 

[Apriliarider]

Got a few things done on the PSS today. Removed and disassembled the instrument binnacle so I can clean it up and get it ready to reinstall. Once done, I'll start on installing the wiring harness. I ordered a new "film" cover for the idiot light pod. The old one was in bad shape and had a hole in it.

The intrusion of water into the pod resulted in some green corrosion forming on the copper trails of the circuit board inside. Would not be that big a deal but the sockets for the wedge bulbs contact the trails for power.

This past week I fabricated the brackets that have to be glassed into the solo tail section to support the rear of it. Once I fabbed them up, I bolted the brackets that hold the pads to the brackets and set them on the frame tubes. With the tail section installed, I was able to trace the bracket outline onto the fiberglass so I had a good indication where to glass the brackets in.

Today I made some minor modifications to the brackets, drilling small holes for the purpose of allowing the epoxy resin through. This is to aid in adhesion to keep the brackets in place under weight. Once completed, I placed them one at a time on the marks, and started with application of epoxy.

After a coat of epoxy, I applied fiberglass in strips to anchor the brackets.

 

[Apriliarider]

Assembled the tail end today. Here's what it looks like underneath so you get an idea of what those brackets were actually for:

It really stiffens up the fiberglass tail. With all the bolts installed and those supports in place, you wouldn't think it possible but you can literally push the bike from the tail it's that much more rigid. That's not even all the bracket/support structure. There's more that bolts to the seat and supports the front where the rider's weight is centered..

More later on. But first I wanna share this:

That's the back of my Surface computer. We got a Cricut machine a little while back and I've been experimenting with the old Cagiva era Ducati script. My nostaligic favorite of all the Ducati logos and scripts. Came out pretty good in gold carbon vinyl. I've since made some in black carbon and in red. Seems the smaller 6" ones are not nearly as easy to work with as the larger 12" ones like the one above.

Next I'm going to try the old Ducati "elefant" logo to go with the script above. I'll post more on that here when I get it done in some manner of presentability. Also, I ordered a heat press that is capable of doing t-shirts as well as hats, mugs and pint glasses. That's still a month out from delivery but once I get that, I'm thinking EX-500 dot com t-shirts. If there is any interest in that I'm sure we can work out the details with admin. Not looking to make money off them, but not looking to lose it either.

Already got a sublimation kit for making transfers too. Just waiting on the "pens" to be able to make iron on type transfers that last essentially forever. Think bicycle jersey permanence and you'd have the right idea. More on all of that later, once I get the press and figure out how to work things to a level I am happy with......sean

 

[Apriliarider]

Got busy yesterday with cleaning up the binnacle and getting it ready for reassembly. However, I found that like everything else on this project bike, it was not as straight forward as all that.

Turns out, the binnacle had been painted at some point (rather poorly at that) and what looked like just needing a cleaning up, actually had to be scraped off. That added an extra couple of hours to the task.

Once I did manage to get it all cleaned up, I discovered some cracks in a tube where the idiot light pod screws into. Seen above as the upper of the two holes in the waffle like grid on the right.

I wound up filling that with some JB Weld. Probably should have gone with the marine grade epoxy I've been using to repair and/or reinforce fiberglass. It sets up in just a few minutes where the JB Weld takes hours.

The pod itself had some minor corrosion issues. The wedge bulb holders twist lock onto the circuit board which has soldered copper trails where the twist lock makes electrical contact.

These had turned green with corrosion. I sanded that off and applied some "No-Krode" which is an aviation grade corrosion preventative.

Once I got all that cleaned up, I swapped out the majority of the bulbs for LED bulbs. All but the fuel level warning light and the turn signal indicator light. Just due to the way the system works, neither should be replaced with an LED due to how the incandescent bulb functions as part of each of those circuits.

A long while back I ordered a new "film" to replace the old nasty original. The new film is more like a proper lens than the thin plastic film it replaces. I'll be installing that on the pod later today.

I'm planning on using epoxy (the same marine grade stuff) to secure it. It comes with an adhesive backing but I don't feel like that will be substantial enough to hold it permanently. Not given how much surface area there is to bond to.

More later..........sean

 

[Apriliarider]

More on the binnacle. Here's a close up of the cracked tube:

The side opposite of this one, has a crack also, and it's worse. Hence the need for the epoxy.

Here is the "film" I wrote about in my last post:

That's it for now.....Once all the epoxies cure, I'll drill the tube out so it can accept the proper size screw, in stainless of course.

 

[Apriliarider]

Spent a bit of time in the garage today. Got a bit done. Also got a few parts in from Ducati Omaha so I was able to finish up the seat/solo tail assembly. Now, I gotta take it all apart and get it ready to paint.

Got the left side fairing drilled today. I also sprayed some high build primer on the upper and spent a great deal of my day wet sanding the upper. Still needs another coat or two of primer and several more hours wet sanding. I mocked it all up so I could show what it will sort of look like:

Starting to look like complete motorcycle again.


I also took apart the tach and painted the needle, as well as sanding and painting the old weathered. bezel. I managed to completely wreck the paint upon crimping the bezel back on. I'd already done the speedo some months ago, and as my last posts showed, I'd already replaced the idiot light "film". Other than drilling out the epoxied cracked tube, it is ready for installation:

Spent some time working on the old OEM fairings today. I've got a plan to paint them black and make it so I can swap out body work....or use it to build another SS at some point. To that end, I finished stripping off the remaining old nasty paint. In doing so, I discovered that at some point body work was done over the old finish, clear coat and all. More on that in my next post.

 

[Apriliarider]

I worked primarily on the right side fairing as it is the most damaged and will take the longest to repair. It already had some pretty shoddy repairs made to it that I will have to remove prior to making any further repairs. There is a protrusion above the turn signal that was filled with uncured plastic filler. I was able to scoop some of it out with a razor blade.

The OEM paint was professionally painted over at some point. The body work was done over this second paint job. Shoddily at that. All the work I've uncovered that appears to be done after that is all complete crap. Nothing was prepped correctly, custom candy apple paint was laid on over the clear coat of the previous paint job, and then another coat of red, and finally a 1 mm thick coat of polyurethane.

At the top of this pic, you can see a sample of the different layers of paint as well as the clear coat that was left on and painted over.

 

[Apriliarider]

More pics. Some of the poorly repaired damage:

 

[Apriliarider]

Spent a little time in the garage today. Got the fairing put together for fitment check. I have some adjustments to make yet. Got more primer on the tank. Assembled my instrument binnacle and installed it on the bike.

On the binnacle, I'd attempted to assemble it yesterday but the Tach studs were spinning when I tried to install the lock nuts. To repair this, I drilled divots in both the stud base and the back of the tach housing.

I mixed up some JB weld and filled the gap and the divots. Today, the JB weld was cured and set, and the lock nuts went on easily. I installed the Tach into the binnacle and tightened the lock nuts down to just snug.

Tomorrow, I plan to pedal in the AM before it gets stupid hot out.(forecast is 100. it was like 50 a week and a half ago) After my pedal, it's time to get started on installing the wiring harness. Not something I've looked forward to. I'll update again once I make more progress.........sean

 

[Apriliarider]

Got started on the wiring harness. I’ve not been excited about getting started on this phase of the project.

A previous owner hacked up the harness to install a HID set up. Poorly executed is not descriptive enough.

First I had to un-f*ck that mess so I could splice in a proper head lamp connector for an H4 bulb.

Got that done today, and it came out pretty Pro if I may critique my own work.

Also, the ignition connector looked like this:

Rather than try to replace this mess with the proper OEM style connector I decided to go a different route. I bought a Deutsch connector kit and used one to replace both sides of the connector.

I used Deutsh connectors professionally on the heavy equipment I spent so many years working on. They're sealed and as weather tite as can be found.

I've literally got decades of experience using these so I'm really comfortable using them for critical wiring connectors.

I find them more robust than GM's weather pak and "Metri-pak" connectors.

More later....made little other progress on the PSS as I spent most of yesterday and quite a bit today working on the 996...sean

 

[Apriliarider]

Approaching the 2 year point on this project. Sometimes I think, this is taking FOREVER, but that's because well....it IS.

Not much is gonna get done for a little bit. Off to the Ducati MS West Coast Meet here in a week. Meaning this weekend is all gonna be getting ready to go.

More a bit later on in June.........sean