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tips and tricks about fiberglassing

  • Thread starter Thread starter andtex24m
  • Start date Start date
What exactly do you want to do?

If you go to youtube.com there is some great info there about how different projects are done, how to make molds etc.

This will at least get you in the right direction for your specific project.
 
Id like to make a fiberglass fuel tank to replace the pillion, carve one out of foam? dunno....can the foam be disolved and removed without affecting the fiberglass afterwards or does it have to be cut in half??
 
Airtech

Airtech

makes fiberglass gas tanks for racing, but they are NOT recommended for street. In a crash , fiberglass will crack not bend and gas will go every where and could ignite. :eek:
 
posplayr said:
makes fiberglass gas tanks for racing, but they are NOT recommended for street. In a crash , fiberglass will crack not bend and gas will go every where and could ignite. :eek:
Click to expand...
This is true, and that is their "disclaimer" I forever thought that 'glass tanks were illegal for street use, but have found that is not true. Not recommended for sure, but in a wreck, your alloy or steel tank will leak just the same thru the cap...
 
any one know who makes custom seat/rear faring for gs 750 1979????
 
Have a look at this thread from the XS 650 forums. I have written up on this epoxy/glass over foam a couple of times. It is the easiest and cheapest way of custom building seat pans and such. You can also build gas tanks this way. Form the shape in pink foam, encapsulate it in fiberglass and epoxy resin ( must be epoxy so as not to melt the foam as would happen with standard polyester resin). Once the form has cured drill a hole and pour in acetone which will melt the foam. Pour out the gunk.Line with Kreeme or POR15 or the like for extra peace of mind.

Have a read :http://xs650temp.proboards29.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=Frames&thread=10944&page=1

Pm me if I can help further.
Cheers,
Spyug.
 
My biggest tip:

Wear gloves, and don't touch your face. Seriously. Don't.
 
posplayr said:
makes fiberglass gas tanks for racing, but they are NOT recommended for street. In a crash , fiberglass will crack not bend and gas will go every where and could ignite. :eek:
Click to expand...
The least of my worries...I'm not going to crash anyways. Don't racers crash?
 
You could always go with a race fuel cell and just make a fiberglass cover as sleek as you want.

This way you are safe in an accident and you still have a great looking custom fiberglass tank. ( the v-rod and i think honda did this where the tank is just a cover for electrics and the fuel tank is lower down for better weight distrubution. )

Lotus did have the inner fender wells as fiberglass gas tanks on the Elise, over time they did leak but this was back in the 60's. Make it thick enough and with the right resins and glass and you should be fine.(unless you crash then the tank is toast. Unless you make it out of Kevlar........hmmmm now there's a thought! )
 
Last edited:
andtex24m said:
any one know who makes custom seat/rear faring for gs 750 1979????
Click to expand...
The seat and rear cowl you see on the cafe bike in my signature is one I made myself. If you have a particular design in mind, give me some drawings, and I can see what I can do. I have a 77, 78 and 79 750 from which to draw measurements from, so dont necessarily worry about that. I am not great with 'glass, but i have a good freind who does the 'glass body parts for the Miss Budweiser Jet boat, and he and I have some things in the works, mostly reproductions of stock body panels and seat pans and what not for UJMs, but I would like to expand into some custom work for 'rods and cafes... Cant promise it will be cheap, but it will be awesome and exactly what YOU are looking for.
 
GQROD said:
You could always go with a race fuel cell and just make a fiberglass cover as sleek as you want.

This way you are safe in an accident and you still have a great looking custom fiberglass tank. ( the v-rod and i think honda did this where the tank is just a cover for electrics and the fuel tank is lower down for better weight distrubution. )

Lotus did have the inner fender wells as fiberglass gas tanks on the Elise, over time they did leak but this was back in the 60's. Make it thick enough and with the right resins and glass and you should be fine.(unless you crash then the tank is toast. Unless you make it out of Kevlar........hmmmm now there's a thought! )
Click to expand...
Or carbon fiber...
 
An important FYI; E10 will dissolve conventional fiberglass tanks. It's been a huge problem with fiberglass marine fuel tanks. The polyester or vinylester resin resin dissolves, and can cause carb or FI clogs, as well as other gremlins when it runs through your engine. I don't know if using epoxy for layup will keep this from happening.
 
thats a goodtip to know btw dose any one know of any websites that sell f/glass tanks?
 
andtex24m said:
thats a goodtip to know btw dose any one know of any websites that sell f/glass tanks?
Click to expand...
www.airtech-streamlining.com

Heres the thing with 'glass tanks tho

One: They are expensive.
Two: they are dangerous
Three: They dont like pump gas, so you'll have to get the inside treated with POR15 or Kreem or the like, and then pray to god you got it right.
Four: they dont "mount right up" You'll need to take EXTENSIVE measurements to see if the design you like will fit the shoulders of our fairly wide framed bikes (compared to the bikes that are usually used for cafe projects, and what most of the tanks are made for) and down the "tunnel" Then you have to do some fabrication of brackets to get it to mount, and likely use "straps" to hold it on.

Frankly, I found it easier, and more fun to pound your "knee inserts" into a stock tank and modify it yourself. Just my two cents.
 
andtex24m said:
any quick tips on pounding the knee inserts?
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Sure,

Take your tank, and drain it obviously. Remove the petcock as not to damage it during the mod.

Put the tank back on the bike, and sit on the bike, and then decide where your knees usually are. With a sharpie, draw a rough outline of where they fall on one side. Then take the tank back off, and with a peice of tag board or something, make a template of exactly what you want your indents to look like. Then trace that template on to the tank on both sides, so the both match. Dont try to eyeball it, as there are things that will throw your eye, such as the fact that the Suzuki emblems arent equal on both sides.

Once you have your lines the way you like em, use a fairly heavy deadblow or ball peen hammer ( i suggest the deadblow, as it will leave less rough spots to bondo over, unlike the peen) and start about a half inch inside your line along the top of the pattern. Smack it fairly firmly, and run alont the top edge of your pattern, keeping just about that 1/2 inch inside it. You'll get the feel for how much the metal will bend with each blow pretty quickly. When you get to the front of your pattern where it starts to round out, stop, and then move back to the back of the tank but along the bottom of the pattern. Here you'll want to only be about 1/4 inch or so from your line, as the seams in the bottom of the tank make the metal a little stiffer, so it wont want to bend as easily as the top did, so you may have to smack it a little harder as well. Move along the bottom edge there till you are about in the same spot as the top. Then moving from front to back, up and down, start hitting across the middle section of your pattern. Take care here as the metal will bend a little easier. Also, take care not to get one section dramaticly lower than anywhere else, or you will start having problems with the metal pinching, and its a pain to flatten that out once it starts. The back side of the patter should be beaten in fairly shallow, and as you move to the front, start hitting in a radial pattern along where your indents are supposed to curve in front. Keep away from the edge of your line about 1/4 inch here, and let your hits draw the line edge in. You'll see that it pretty much does what you want it to as long as you dont hit right up on the edge. the front section should be deeper than the back, and you can decide how extreme you want them to be, but be aware that the more extreme you go, the more bondo work its going to take to make it transition smoothly. Also on the petcock side, if you beat it in too far, you wont have room for your petcock filter screen....

Once you have both sides beaten in the way you like, you'll need to bust out the body filler and smooth things out, making your transitions smooth. The nice thing about the Deadblow is that it keeps things in the "valley" relatively flat and smooth, so you really only need to skimcoat things there. IN the curves its a bit tougher as the compound curves make spreading the bondo without drawing lines thru it rather tough.

I have some pretty good pics of a couple different tanks ive done if you're interested in seeing...

TCK
 
Hammering your tank is pretty easy, after you swing that first blow (just tell yourself, replacement tanks aren't that expensive).

CafeKid's advice is pretty spot on. If I can make one addition: cut a wood spacer that fits snuggly in between the two front mounts. When I did mine, I didn't do this. I was flying blind, there are a couple of us that have done this and posted about it since. The tunnel in my tank ended up a little narrower than it was before I started. The difference is fractional, but it has made getting the tank on the rubber plugs a lot harder. I think a simple spacer would have prevented it, either that or hammering it on the frame.

Also, and this isn't meant to worry you, but when a buddy of mine did this to his tank, he got a little bossy with the hammer on the bottom edge and cracked his seam. Nothing 5 minutes with a welder didn't fix, and I didn't experience anything close to it, so don't give it any more thought than it's worth.
 
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