Just a little sprocketing

I mentioned some time ago that my Dad is rebuilding a Suzuki RE5.  The frame is set up to use later Suzuki Katana wheels.  Things like this are rarely a direct swap.  In this case, aside from basic wheel fitment issues, the Katana is made to use a 520 size chain, while the RE5 uses a 530 chain.  Swapping the RE5 to a 520 chain is pretty straight forward, but you need to buy a matching front sprocket and a chain.  It was decided that it would be easier to just adapt the RE5 rear sprocket to the Katana hub. 

The first thing I did was drill the new bolt holes.  In stead of doing the math to figure out where to put the new holes, I just drew up the bolt patterns in Solidworks.  From that, it was very easy to measure how far from center in X and Y the new holes had to be.  After center finding the hub hole, I drilled all the new holes.

Here you can see the new holes.  One new hole overlaps one of the old holes.  With a 5 hole pattern(RE5) and a 6 hole pattern(Katana) so close in diameter, you will always have an overlapping hole somewhere in the pattern.  On something like this, it doesn't make much difference.  Even a modern high power 2L sportbike doesn't have anywhere near enough torque to shear off the bolts. 

Then I set about enlarging the hub hole, it needed to be opened up by about 1/4".  The easiest way to do this on a manual mill is with a boring bar.  I had a whole long explanation of how these things work and how to use them, but it was just boring...

That's really all there is to it.  I don't have a pic of the RE5 sprocket on the Katana hub, but it fit like a glove. 

H1 , Chapter 6.

The next chapter of my H1 build has lots of nifty stuff in it.  At this point, I'd gotten most of my engine back together, and have most of the shiny bits bolted back on. While I was at it, I put some stiffer clutch springs in. Fortunately, it seems as though the clutch it's self was replaced not to many miles before I bought the bike, so it didn't need to worry about that.

With most of the bike it's self down to painting and bolting stuff on, the rear fender is the last big "fabrication required" project. A plain smooth fender like I've got is fine for a race bike, but this one will be street ridden. That means it's going to need blinkers and a tail/brake light. I started planning them as soon as I started planning the fender. I didn't want them to look like tacked on afterthoughts like you see on so many customs, and even a lot of factory bikes. I explored lots of options. What I decided on is very custom, very visible, and most importantly don't stick out like sore thumbs.

The blinkers are made out of 1/2" Lexan. I cut 1/2" off the bottom of the fender, 'glassed on some tabs, bolted the Lexan down and sanded to shape. I then ground out the back sides for some LED strips. I've got 21 LED's shining out through the Lexan. More on the blinkers later, but here's a rough pic so you get the general idea:

Next up is the tail/brake light. This one took some finesse to get looking how I wanted. It's a straight forward process, but involves a lot of fitting. Like the blinkers, this lens is going to sit flush with the fender so it doesn't interrupt the lines.

I'm using the oven method of plexiglass forming. I'd like to use Lexan, but it's not as forgiving as plexiglass when baking it in the oven. First thing I did was make a plaster cast of the back of the fender. I just used some modeling clay to make the walls after I'd figured out what size and where I wanted the lens.  Mixing in some plain white Elmers glue will greatly increase the strength of the plaster.  You don't need much, around 5%-10% of the water added to the plaster mix works well.

I let the plaster cure/dry out for about a week. It can take awhile for all the water to finally evaporate out of the plaster.  warming it in teh oven can help too, as long as you don't heat it up too fast(or it could crack).  Then I cut a piece of plexiglass, set it and the plaster mold in the oven and baked it at 300*F for 10 mins or so. It gets soft enough that, with some gloves on, you can smoosh the plexiglass into the plaster buck. It took a few re-heats to get the shape just right. Also, you can see the pencil on the plaster, that's about where the lens is on the fender. I found that if you draw it straight on the fender, the pencil line will transfer nicely to the plaster.

With some rough trimming, you can see how well it conforms to the fender.

The next part take a lot of grind, check, grind. Took me about a day of messing around to get it perfect. Once the hole is cut in the fender, the lens can be cut, ground, filed, and sanded to fit just right. When you're done, you've got a custom flush fit lens that perfectly matches the contours of the fender.

Then I dyed the lens. It's pretty easy, but it took a few test pieces to get the time & temperature right. Plexiglass can be easily dyed any color you want with Rit fabric dye. The secret is to heat it up. If the dye is to cold it won't take, if it's too hot the plexiglass can get soft and warp. Just under boiling seems to work best. I've had the best results with the dye heated on the stove to about 190*F, and a cook time of around an hour. More or less depending on how dark you want it, and a meat thermometer works great for watching the temp. The same process works for dying the clear fuel line the color of your choice.

If you want to use Lexan(polycarbonate) instead of plexiglass, there are a couple things to note.  First, Lexan absorbs moisture like a sponge.  If you just try to heat it to it's forming temp, you will end up with plastic full of bubbles.  This is caused by steam forming in the plastic and having nowhere to go.  You MUST pre-dry Lexan before forming it.  The general rule of thumb is to bake it at 250°F for one hour per .010" of thickness, so 1/8" Lexan should be baked for 12.5 hours.  Second, Lexan forms at a much higher temp than plexiglass.  It needs to be heated to around 375°F to be moldable.  Third, You cannot dye Lexan, it just won't work.  If you want some color other than clear, you either need to start with that color plastic, or use one of the few paints on the market that will stick to polycarbonate(regular spray paint won't stick well).  The paints made for RC car bodies(NOT standard model paint) are made for polycarbonate and are available in translucent colors.





Now, back to the blinkers.  The first thing I did was get one of THESE $10(shipped!!!) 40 LED 3rd brake lights(and if you don't shop DealExtreme, you should. They have all kinds of nifty stuff at dirt cheap prices. Shipping is sloooooow, but it's free.  The price you see is the price you actually pay, no extra shipping or handling. Stuff is so cheap, you can't afford not to buy it :D  http://www.dx.com/p/40-led-third-brake-tail-light-for-vehicles-12v-10524#.Vf97V5cqvXw

Then I opened it up, and cut the circuit board in half, giving me two 20 LED strips. I got out the Dremel and ground a slot in the back of the Lexan for the LED strips to sit in. Unfortunately, Lexan(polycarbonate) doesn't dye like Plexiglass does. The dye just doesn't take. I tried some other things, but couldn't get consistent results. That means I had to paint it. I used white, then black on the top(the white base coat helps reflect any stray light). I used SEM Color Coat, which sticks to Lexan fantastically.  The edge and bottom are painted with Duplicolor's Metalcast red. It's basically a red tinted clear in a spray can, made to give chrome an anodized look.  It also sticks to the Lexan like a champ.
http://www.duplicolor.com/products/metalCast/

Here's how it looks. It's just taped together for now, the final pieces will be siliconed together to weatherproof the circuit board. It lights up nice and bright, and reasonably evenly. The dark strip is one of the bolt holes through the Lexan. You can't really tell in the pic, but unlit, the lens is a nice deep red.  Off:

On:

Just for kicks, here's what the blinkers look like lit up when they're installed.

That's all for this chapter.  The end is approaching... :)

Just some quick tips

Just some quick tips about working with fiberglass for today.  The first tip I have to share is to wear latex gloves when working with it.  When I started the Viper's bodywork, I called it "The long and itchy road." As anyone who's ever actually worked with fiberglass will tell you, it can be a very itchy process.  Fiberglass is called fiberGLASS because the cloth is literally microscopic strands of glass woven together.  Your car or boat is literally made from the same material as the windows in your living room.  While most people tend to thing of glass as solid, it's not.  When you get it thin enough, it becomes very flexible which is why fiberglass cloth doesn't just shatter when you bend it.  When you work with it, particularly when grinding, the air is filled with tiny glass shards that can get embedded in your skin.  It doesn't cause any harm, but can itch like crazy.  Gloves will help cut down on the itching a ton.  Additionally, you don't want to breathe too much of it.  Just like doing the occasional brake job won't give you mesothelioma, occasional fiberglass work and breathing in small quantities won't cause permanent damage, but you still want to avoid breathing it when you can.  For heavy grinding or sanding, a dust mask is a good idea.  It's also a good idea to have some "fiberglass working clothes" that you can take off immediately after you get in the house.  You don't want to track itchy dust all over the place.

Speaking of dust, fiberglass and bodywork work tend to make a lot of it.  Ideally, you want yo do your grinding and sanding outside on a breezy day so you're not working in a cloud of dust.  Outside on a breezy day isn't always an option though.  Either the weather won't cooperate or, like with my current project, I can't physically get the hood out of the garage by myself.  This is where being popular helps.  I always put my biggest fan right next to where I'm working.  It'll blow the dust away from where I'm working, and (mostly) out of the garage.

Next is the matter of Post Curing.  People think of fiberglass as an immovable solid, but it's not.  Fiberglass can, and will, move all over the place, particularly as it's curing.  Left on it's own, fiberglass can take weeks, or even months to fully cure and settle down to it's final shape.  Even "fully cured" fiberglass will move a bit more on it's first day in the hot sun.  This is where post curing comes in.  While it's not so important on the bottom of a hood, on exterior panels, it's critical.  Since we don't have the time to wait, we can speed things along in helping the 'glass take it's final set.  The idea is to raise the temperature of the 'glass to speed up any remaining curing.  Ideally, you want the glass to get up to 140°F, and stay at that temperature for a few hours.  The sun works great, but isn't always available.  Infrared heaters are the next best thing, but most people don't have access to those either.  What a lot of people do have is halogen lights.  Just set up your halogen light shining on the panel.  If the light is too far away, the panel won't heat up enough.  If it's too close, the panel will overheat.  Find the best distance for your light to heat and hold the panel at 140°F.  Since these lights are generally small, and the panel shape is complex, you should move it around every few hours so all the new glass gets baked.

Incidentally, this is the reason so many kit cars have such low quality panels.  Even if the mold is straight, the parts are demolded too soon after laying up, and then are shipped out without post curing.  This leads to very friendly panels that wave at everything.  It's also why so many fiberglass cars with fresh bodywork look great this year, but terrible next year.  When I was building kit cars for a living, we would let new parts sit in the mold for at least a week, usually longer, and then spend another week post curing them.

The last tip I have is of "don't burn your house down" importance.  First off, always test your mixture before actually starting the repair.  Mix up a batch of resin, and make sure it cures.  Liquid fiberglass hardener in particular goes bad quickly after it's been opened, so I ALWAYS use a fresh tube of hardener if mine has been open more than a few days.  Trust me, you don't want to have to peel off and re-do partially set fiberglass because your hardener failed and it won't fully cure.

Second, all compounds where you mix part A with part B to cause curing are exothermic.  That means that they give off heat as they start to cure.  Fiberglass, bondo, JB Weld, 5 min epoxy, etc, all produce heat as they cure.  The amount of heat is determined by how fast they cure, and how thick the mass(thicker means more heat).  If over catalyzed, fiberglass resin and epoxy especially can get tremendously hot as they cure.  I tend to mix my resin a little "hot"(with too much hardener) to make sure it kicks off OK.  I have, a time or two, mixed resin so hot that it's started smoking.  It won't get that hot on the panel because the resin layer is relatively thin, but it will get that hot in the mixing cup.  NEVER NEVER NEVER throw away mixed resin until it's cured and back to room temperature.  It could start your garbage can on fire.  Always set the cup on something non-flammable and non-meltable because that too can cause issues.  Here's an example from this project.  The bottom of this cup was flat when the resin was mixed.  As it cured, it got hot enough to warp and melt the bottom of the cup.

H1, Chapter 5

More work on the H1.  The pic doesn't really show, but the fins aren't just sanded clean, but fully polished. The paint and sand the fins trick works nice and is pretty quick, but having to actually fully polish the edges of the fins turned out to be really time consuming.

More shiny bits.  I still have some final buffing to do, but I ran out of polishing compound.  I also left the big gouges and scrapes. There's not enough metal left in some of them to sand out. And they character and are a nod to the bike's previous life(but mostly I'm just lazy).

You'll remember I flipped the headlight ears upside down to get the headlight lower. The point of that was to get the gauges mounted lower. I finally got that part done. The pod still uses the same mounts, it's just on the other side of the top triple clamp. I had to cut off then drill out the factory studs on the bottom of the pod. Those studs are cast in so the won't come out, and they're harder than @#$%(for no apparent reason). Took me 2 hours and many drill bit resharpenings to get the holes drilled through. Then it was just a matter of trimming the center cover to clear the triple clamp. I'll seal it up when I do the final assembly. I'm still using the stock rubber mounts, and some stainless bolts that I'll polish nice and shiny. The ignition key still works just fine, and the pod sits like it was made to be mounted there.

The gauge pod was the last of the major "before it comes apart" fabrication.  With that done, I stripped the bike down as far as I'm going to. Once I get everything cleaned, I'll paint the frame, swingarm, and engine case.  Just pulling the forks off really transformed it from "most of a motorcycle" to "a pile of parts" haha.

Got my frame cleaned and painted(and yes, I took the rear wheel off before I did it).  Most of the factory paint was still in very good condition, so I only painted the parts that are visible when the bike is assembled.  It also saved me the trouble of having to strip off the wiring harness.  I've seen lots of black cylinders on H1s and H2s, but I don't know that I'd ever seen an engine with black cases. Since I've got a black and shiny theme going on, I decided the cases should be black too. I also put a fresh polish on the rear brake drum while I had the wheel off.

H1, Chapter 4

Let's start this one with a quick pic. The trimmed part in the pic is actually the first mold I made(you can see the shiny inside). It's trimmed the way it is so that when you lay a part up in it, it leaves a very distinct line to follow when trimming the actual part. Having a guide saves a lot of time down the road. You can also trim the part while it's still in the mold, using the trimmed mold as a guide. That's what I would have done here, but I wanted to be sure this part was going to come out of the mold.  The part it's self gets trimmed with a cutoff wheel in the 4 1/2" grinder.  It gets rough trimmed, then the edges are sanded to their final shape.

Got'er trimmed and sittin' on the bike. I fit on it exactly where I wanted to, nice and comfortable, and not so upright.  You can see as well that the rear mounting tab of the tank actually sits on it. That's part of the plan, makes the tank sit where I want it as well as provides a front attaching point for the seat/fender.

Truth be told, I barely got the fender out of the mold.  I had to fight like heck with the thing to get it out of the mold.  Since the whole point of the mold was to have an easily reproducible part, I wanted something better.  So, I used my newly molded fender as a buck to make another new mold.  Like the original mold, the fender gets bodyworked, recoated in resin, and polished to help keep the new fiberglass from sticking.  In order to get the parts out of the mold easier, I decided a two piece mold was the way to go.  It's actually not a whole lot more involved than a one piece mold.  A piece of particle board gets hot glued to the buck where you want the seam to be, then you cover half the buck with fiberglass:

Once it's set, you pull the particle board off and you're left with half a mold and a flange:

Then you prep the other half of the mold and lay it up against the flange.  Before pulling the mold halves apart, it's a good idea to drill some bolt holes through the flange so they're in prefect alignment.  While I was at it, I also made molds for the seat pan, and fender undertray.  For the seat pan mold, I used modeling clay to create a gap on the seat pan lip so there's room to wrap the upholstery around the fiberglass.  I also used clay to fill the rear tank mount to lay up the seat pan mold.

Here are the three molds all ready to go:

With all 3 molds made, I could finally make part #1.

I got it trimmed and fit to the bike. I trimmed the seat area out, bonded in the under tail piece. I also glassed in some steel tube that will serve as a support for the front seat/fender mount. The same hole also serves as the rear tank mount. The rear fender mount uses stock tailpiece mount holes, and the stock splash guard still fits with some minor trimming.

The COOLEST part of this whole project is that unlike ALL the other cafe style fenders available on the market, the stock seat hinge and seat latch STILL WORK. The storage area in the tail is specifically sized to hold a can of starting fluid or quart of two stroke oil. Even the helmet hook still works :)

Got the fender primed and rough blocked, and moved on to other stuff. I did some minor porting on the cylinders. I also made myself some UFO's.  If you've never heard of UFOs, they are little plastic pieces that fill in the bottom of the slide on slide type carburetors.  They are worth a few percent HP gain on 4 strokes and are generally not worth it.  On a two stroke though, they can often add 10% more power and you generally get better low and midrange throttle response. They are commercially available, but of course they don't make them for my specific carburetors.  So, I made my own.

I got a chunk of UHMW from e-bay and went to carving with the dremel. Took some time to get the shape right so the slides would close all the way, but after the first one, it went quickly. You can't really see it because of the white plastic, but the shape is really quite swoopy. With the stock and UFO'd slide next to each other, you can really see how it helps airflow through the carb, especially at lower throttle positions.

Then I moved my headlight and gauges. I never liked how high the gauges stuck up above the handle bars.  It was even more noticeable with the drag bars. The gauges sticking up interrupted the flow of the lines of the bike. So, I decided to move everything down.  This turned out to be a super easy mod. 1: flip the headlight ears upside down and swap side to side. 2: cut off gauge pod studs and drill out gauge pod for bolts. The gauges nest perfectly on top of the headlight, and will use the stock rubber mounts with some through bolts. It brings the gauge pod down to the level of the tank, much more gooder...er better, much more better...  If you compare it to my original profile pics, you'll see how big the difference is. I'm not quite done, that's as far as I've gotten with it, you're all caught up through today.

H1, Chapter 3

I spent my weeknights trying to get that one stuck cylinder off. I got it up about an inch and now it's really stuck. More on that later.  This weeks progress, I'm still sanding foam. Good thing I live by myself, I'm making a huge mess of my basement.  I screwed up when I did my mockup. I forgot to take into account the width of the seat hinges and latch in the fender templates. Since I want to be able to use the stock hinges and latch, the fender/seat frame needs to be wider than i originally planned. I used 1" blue foam for all this stuff.

One of my other hobbies is RC airplanes so I know my way around blocks of foam and a hot glue gun.  I started by shaping the side skirts, notching around the shocks and seat hardware. Then I glued foam to the fender hump to reshape the curve. I think I'm done with the foaming. My shape is close enough, now I've got to get a gallon of bondo to get my final shape down.

Yay for Bondo!  Actually, Bondo brand bondo is one of the worst fillers on the market. It cracks to easily, it sands like concrete, and it sucks up moisture like a sponge. But, it's all I had available. I'll use a higher quality filler for the final bodywork. Little known fact: bondo eats styrofoam, but very slowly. As a result, if you bondo over styrofoam, it will eat it's way in and once it's set it grips the foam fantastically and makes a good base for further bodywork.

That's where I am. I'm basically spackling the foam with the bondo. Then I'll sand it to where I want it to use as the buck for mold #1. I hope to have the mold layed up by the end of the day tomorrow. Real actual spackle would work just as well and sand easier, but the bondo sets faster and grips the foam better. Closer and closer..

On the H1, I got my buck final sanded. For future reference: hand sanding that much Bondo with arms so sore they barely move from working out is...uh...fun...yeah, that's what it is...fun... I did learn that if I keep the shop vac near by and suck up the dust instead of blow it off, the basement stays remarkably clean. I would have had it 'glassed too, but my SuperSecret™ mold release didn't dry fast enough, it's rather cold in the basement these days...  I should have the buck glassed for mold #1 in a few days.

Since I used to work with street rods and kit cars for a living, I know my way around fiberglass. I got the buck glassed for my first mold. It's almost as simple as putting the glass on the foam/bondo, but not quite. The problem is that polyester fiberglass resin will rapidly attack foam dissolving it to nothing.

I have a SuperSecret™ and very low cost solution to that. Elmers Glue. Yup, plain old regular Elmers glue. It provides a barrier that the resin's solvents will not penetrate. I brushed 2 heavy coats onto my buck and let it dry a few days.

I used 2 full bags of the Bondo fiberglass packets they sell everywhere(24 sq/ft total), and just under 2 quarts of resin. Unlike the Bondo brand body filler, the Bondo resin is perfectly fine. For the most part, polyester resin is polyester resin. The Bondo stuff is also really just repackaged 3M resin. MAKE SURE YOU USE FRESH HARDENER. I made the mistake of not using fresh stuff once. No Bueno, it never fully set and I had to start over again. When ever you do 'glass work, it's always best to plan where you're going to put the cloth and in what order. Things get sticky quick, and trying to cut cloth at that point sucks. Here you can see all the different pieces that went into my mold. I used 12 sq/ft of woven cloth for the first layer, then 12 sq/ft of the mat for the second layer. The cloth goes around corners better, and the mat offers more build thickness.

Here's what I ended up with. You'll note the excessive use of garbage bags over the bike, and plywood to keep the floor clean. Fiberglass work of any kind tends to make a sticky mess.  I mixed the resin a little cold(slightly under catalyzed), and it's fairly cool in my basement. I wanted to make sure I'd have enough time to play with the glass to get it layed how I wanted, and to work the bubbles out. Too much catalyst will generate too much heat as it cures and melt the foam too. 

I let it sit like this for about 5 days. I want to make sure it's good and cured before I de-mold it. You don't generally think of fiberglass as something that will sag and flex, but it can, and does(especually when it gets hot). If it's demolded to quickly, it could twist or warp(that's why you NEVER buy a cheap kit car).

After all that, I seem to have miscalculated... On ALL my tests, Elmers glue made a great mold release/solvent barrier and the glass peeled right off the foam. Doesn't seem to be the case now.  My guess is that the extra long cure time is at fault, all my tests were mixed considerably hotter. So now I'm scraping foam, and I'll soon be sanding Bondo. Good thing this is only a temporary mold to make the part to make the mold...

I had to scrape the bondo out of my mold with a putty knife and a heat gun, then sand it smooth. Then I put another coat of straight resin on it. Once it set, I buffed the heck out of it with my buffer and some rubbing compound so the surface was nice and shiny. Followed that with 3 coats of wax, then 2 coats of Elmers Glue, then another thick coat of wax that I did NOT buff off.

With the mold prepped, I layed in about the same amount of glass I used for the mold, and another quart or so of resin. Let it set up for a few hours. On the advise of a coworker, the "body" guy at work, I pulled the part while it was still green(only a few hours in the mold).

Once it was set, with minimal effort the thing came right out. I think it was the wax that did it(forgot that the first time). The Elmers Glue layer peeled right off like it was supposed to. I made a part! I'm super excited 'cause I actually did something, and it worked 100% like I planned.  You know why?  Cause I'm awesome.  But seriously, when you've forgotten to eat, and are...um...uh...er...less than 100% coherent...because you've been working around styrene fumes all afternoon in a basement with inadequate ventilation, you probably shouldn't post on the internet...haha... And I forgot my camera at work, so no pics of this step.