1984 Katana 7/11

[pete]

Cheers Larry! Watched an awesome race last night... can't see me getting to it tonight due to circumstances but tomorrow night with any luck should see me doing the final prep for the coating I hope.

[pete]

Got back into it last night and I'm now happy enough with it to start coating it finally.

And yep Larry, the 40 grit worked a charm! So much quicker...

[pete]

First coat done.



I'll go a bit easier on the MEKP next coat, says 15mL per 1KG so I went 3mL and 200gm which was pretty much spot on the right amount, but it was starting to cure as I was getting the last bits on.

Everything I've read says four coats, but mostly that's talking about boat hulls... so I'll see how it's looking after the second and third coats.

[pete]

Third and final coat done!



However with the humidity yesterday it was nearly two hours before it had hardened enough for me to be comfortable putting the PVA on top, hopefully I've got the timing right though.



The way the weather's been with the rain overnight I'm not touching it today. Got some work to do tomorrow night so I'll probably check it out properly Tuesday night and wash the PVA off to see how it looks.

In theory a rub back with some 240 or so grit paper should be all it needs to be ready to wax and use.

[pete]

Made up the fasteners for the seat yesterday. A bit ugly as you'd expect from my welding but should do the trick.

I forgot to get a can of cold gal during the week but I got that yesterday avo' so I can spray them at some point this week.

I drilled some random holes so I can embed them between layers of matting and the resin can run through to give them a solid foundation.



Main thing is they fit the mounting hardware so all should be good.

[pete]

Checked on the mould last night, and it seems it's cured a bit tacky so I must've left it too long before the PVA went on.

However, I started rubbing it back and that's removing the tackiness, so that's a promising sign!

Looks like I let the coats get a bit thin on the back corners though, so probably worth while doing a fourth coat once I give the whole seat a rub back.

I couldn't do it last night after being up for 22 hours on Monday after an all-hell-broke-loose night of work.



I did however take on a tip I got and made some improvements to the hardware.

I filed a chamfer on the top edge of the metal plate to discourage the matting from popping up over it too much, and filed some V's in the outside edges to let the resin embed them even more.

[Fjbj40]

If you are worried about adhesion then do yourself a favour and use epoxy instead or polyester resin to bond on your fasteners.

Epoxy is 10x better than polyester resin when it comes to adhering to cured polyester resin.

[pete]

Well, not particularly worried about it. At the end of the day the metal plate is just there to stop the nuts and bolts turning when the tongue and seat latch are attached, it's not a structural component as such. As long as enough resin gets in to hold it still all will be well. It won't be adhering to cured resin, I'll be embedding those fasteners as I'm laying the matting down. Two layers down first, then the fasteners, then the other two layers.

I got it all rubbed back last night, found a couple more thin spots so it definitely needs a final coat.

I need to get the coat on at a time where I can hang around and get the PVA on as soon as it starts going off.

They're predicting showers and a possible storm late this avo or this evening so might have to wait until the weekend yet.

[pete]

Surely this is the final coat!

Although I have a bad feeling I left it too long before the PVA went on again... it still seemed wet when I checked, so I waited, still wet, waited, oh no I think I waited too long... find out tomorrow I guess... at least it wasn't humid or raining!

[pete]

Nothing particularly exciting just yet, but on the right track.

After an astute observation by John that my welds looked a bit cold, I checked the fasteners out again and yeah, not good! A few solid taps with a hammer had the bolts and one of the nuts coming away from the plate...

Cleaned them all up, welded again with the wire speed turned up, and coated with two coats of cold gal.

This time the welds are solid for sure.



I left the seat mould alone on Sunday due to the on/off rain and checked it last night instead.

Not tacky!!!

Looks like a relatively light rub back with some 120 grit should be enough to prepare it for waxing and use.

Fingers crossed I have that pillion area right and can hopefully have the first pan done by the weekend!

[pete]

Day off to get pest control done yesterday, and I managed a bit of time on the mould.

The photo's probably a bit pointless as you can't really see what I've done, but got the mould rubbed back and cleaned up, then four liberal coats of release wax applied and buffed.

Given it's a fresh mould I'll probably give it another wax coat yet just to be sure, and given the not-so-smooth surface I'll use PVA release agent as well.

All I need to do now is work out the shapes to cut out of the matting for the best fit on the mould then I can get to work on the first pan. Can't wait!

[pete]

Haven't had the time I wanted this week but I did get another couple of coats of wax on, the templates cut out of cardboard, and most of the matting cut. There's still a few pieces to go.

I was hoping to be prying the first pan off the mould this weekend but at this rate I'll be lucky to have started it, see how things work out.

[pete]

I ended up with some unexpected time in the shed yesterday, so I'm back on track and should be able to see how the first pan looks today I hope!

First two layers down and hardware installed:



Top two layers down. Not sure why so many white bits are there, it looked pretty good to me when I took the photo, have to see how it is today. Obviously need some cleaning up around the seat latch area too.



Big test later today... will it separate from the mould?

I'll add some reinforcing underneath around the seat latch area and where the vinyl will wrap under at the rear of the seat also.

[pete]

Didn't have a lot of time yesterday after painting the ceilings, but I did manage to get the pan separated from the mould.

Ended up with a few issues... if you look closely you can see a crack in the mould at the front of the pillion area, must've been a weak spot there. I can probably use it as is again or I can sand that area back, reinforce it, and gelcoat it again.

I also had a feeling I hadn't done a particularly good job of attaching the seat latch area to the rest of the pan but I hoped it would hold on long enough to stay in one piece until I could add reinforcing underneath... no such luck.

There are also some patches where the resin was definitely a bit light on, but I think I can get away with adding a bit when I do the repairs and it'll be fine.



And on the right side of the pan where the pillion hump and rider's seat meet there's a weak spot which tore when removing it from the mould. That can be fixed and I know why that happened. My template has a join there, I need to add a joining strip in if I'm making another pan and that will solve that problem.



The seat latch area will attach again quite well, but of course I neglected to put any release agent on the threads so I need to remove the matting and resin from them as well.



Need to open up the holes for the nuts at the front too.



Overall I'm pretty happy, comparing it with the seat it looks good and while I need to trim it down and clean it up before a proper test fit, it looks like it should sit nicely on the frame.

Fingers crossed I'll get the time to finish it up real soon and can organise to get it to the upholsterer.

[nvr2old]

Boy, that's a lot of work, Pete. It's looking good though. I'm anxious to see the end results.