Bending Steel on a Carry Rack - Heat or no Heat?

[pete]

Brief rant first... Supercheap annoy the crap out of me! Went to pick up some more of the 3M satin black acrylic on the way home, but no, once again they've decided to change brands and no longer stock 3M stuff, so had to get Septone instead. It's supposed to be good but we'll see, haven't used that one before. Got the wax and grease remover as well.



I finished the sanding off when I got home, took all of about 5 minutes.

Then tonight I sprayed it all down with the wax and grease remover and got it all cleaned up and hung up ready for primer:



And two coats of etch primer on:



Fingers crossed it works on the chrome as advertised and gives a good base for the satin black.

[john82q]

Professional build, bollocks! my thumb still hurts!

I see a MIG welder in your future Pete, You were quite taken with it till the wire ran out....

[pete]

Professional build, bollocks! my thumb still hurts!

I see a MIG welder in your future Pete, You were quite taken with it till the wire ran out....

Hahaha yeah sorry 'bout that John... do someone a favour and burn ya' thumb... that's about how it goes right?

Yeah I like the MIG, I can see myself using one of those a little more successfully than waving a rod around everywhere but where the weld needs to go...

Oh, I see an auto darkening helmet joining that MIG too...

[musicman]

Bravo! Looks really nice!

[pete]

Bravo! Looks really nice!

Thanks mate, and hopefully it's about to look nicer...

[pete]

Got the Septone satin black on tonight, 4 coats as per the can with 5 minutes between.

With the 3M I was able to go 6 coats so I'm not sure if this is because the paint is better or what... we'll see once it's had time to cure.



Gotta leave it at least 24 hours, but I expect I won't really do anything with it except move it inside until probably Sunday avo or night when I should hopefully have some time to mount it up.

[spyug]

Oh, I see an auto darkening helmet joining that MIG too...

A definite plus 1 on that Pete. My welding with the mig went up 100% when I got mine. I was able to get the bead right where I want it off the get go. Another tip, get a couple of halogen work lamps and focus them on your work piece. Even in broad daylight it helps to give a much clearer view of things.

I've been following this project eversince I came across the old rack I took off my XS650. I'm thinking about mounting it on the 750 for a bit of extra luggage carrying capability as its hard to carry a box of brew on the bike

Looking good my friend.

Spyug

[pete]

A definite plus 1 on that Pete. My welding with the mig went up 100% when I got mine. I was able to get the bead right where I want it off the get go. Another tip, get a couple of halogen work lamps and focus them on your work piece. Even in broad daylight it helps to give a much clearer view of things.

I've been following this project eversince I came across the old rack I took off my XS650. I'm thinking about mounting it on the 750 for a bit of extra luggage carrying capability as its hard to carry a box of brew on the bike

Looking good my friend.

Spyug

Yeah I was watching John and it just looked so much easier with the MIG compared to the waving of the stick (in my case anyway).

Thanks for the compliment, it seems to be turning out as I hoped which is very cool...

[pete]

Had to do some touch up tonight. Had a look out in the natural light when I got home and noticed some bits that hadn't really got coverage due to the way I had it hanging.

Not sure if you can tell from the pic's but the bars going across have a strip where it almost fades into the primer:



Gave it a light sand with 600 grit and you can see how easy it was going to be to have the paint in those areas come off with the first use of the rack:



So I cleaned it up with wax and grease remover and a tack cloth again and gave just the top side another three coats:



Fingers crossed that does it and it'll still be cured enough to mount on Sunday if it's good to go...

[pete]

And there we go:









You can see in the third picture it's not perfectly centred but it's close enough for me and should do the trick I reckon.

I can easily fit the key into the seat lock with it in place, and yeah... the bike is filthy after the rain on Friday on the way home, needs a big bath!

[oldrookie]

Looks good, Pete. May have to try something similar. Not many aftermarket parts around for a one-rear bike.

[pete]

Looks good, Pete. May have to try something similar. Not many aftermarket parts around for a one-rear bike.

Thanks mate, I've yet to use it in anger but it looks like it should do the job.