Winter Project

For really professional uses, try "System 3" in Kent, WA.. Sixty years ago, Bondo was a single product now it's a branded name with dozens of products including the original resin matrix and powdered "glass" aggregate and the cream "hardner" No tricks to the stuff. Where dudes go wrong is putting it on more than 1/4" thick. These compounds are exothermic ie the more ya mix the faster it cooks.

None of the many products are made to go over paint. The result will be a weak bond or no bond at all.. The catalysts are part MEK and part peroxide. MEK is a great paint remover. Adds the heat factor as either epoxy or polyester resins cook off and ya might be facing a real mess.

The chemistry for the whole shootin match is similar. Controlling a skim coat of even regular old pink Bondo can be viscosity adjusted with off the shelf resin from Home Depot or a similar source.

Hand sanding "fiberglass" ain't such a hot idea unless you're into uber jock itch.

Best bet" Buy or get a book on this stuff and RTFM..

For final sanding, even after ya think ya got it smooth like a baby's buns.. (human babies since baby elephants and such are sort of rough around the edges) what is used is an indicator coat.

The procedure is EZ shoot a mist or pisscoat of a contrasting color over the sanded primer. Typical would be black over the standard gray. Auto paint suppliers even have rattle cans of the stuff.. Sand again. When the color is as it was as in "gone" you might be ready to shoot that finish coat or coats.

Did I suggest a book? Did I suggest reading it? Not much sense in being in hospital for misuse of this toxic shit when it's not necessary with the proper precautions.

 

Hopit88 I've use cut up fibers, I'll call chaff, which once mixed with resin becomes like a soaked cotton ball. I lay that in the crack first then build up with cloth from there. I sands nice. Broke thru the outside sanding. Plus I have some grindings and mix with resin (paste like) to fill the drill holes and small voids.



I've read about mixing bondo and resin together for filler. I may try that in a couple of spots on the edges where the top/bottom meet. I need to close the gap a little in few spots and don't want to use just bondo cause it will chip. Thinking my pasty stuff may work also.

As far as sanding I've pulled out all the stops. Here are most of my sanding tools. There is tons of paint, bondo and epoxy on this thing that I was able to flatten areas that need it and shape others so I may not have to do much filling/shaping later. I use a wet rag to wipe down and get a gloss on the surface to see any irregularities. I think it's coming out nice so far. But the stuff I've found, lots of skim bondo, that shouldn't even be there.



As far as paints and prmers. I'm working with the mgr at the "Paint Supply" place. They have a unique paint in a can system that they use. They will mix the paint to your color, or very close, and put it in spray cans. They have two types of can, a regular just like any other and one with a can inside that has the activator in it. Once you pop the internal can you have about 24 hours to use it. Sprays very close to a paint gun.

The nice thing about it they can put in epoxy primer for the base primer coat. Then anything else one would need. They have a black sand coat, lack of a better word, that you spray on and sand off to see high/low spots along with primer-filler paint. The dual can paint system is called "Spray MAX" from Germany. SprayMax: Spraymax

I'm thinking about using it instead of my gun. Lot less mess. So I should be able to get any paint I need in spray cans which is convenient and cost savings for the most part.

I bought the Resin kit at NAPA thinking it should have some decent stuff in it. I realize there are different "bondos" but don't know a thing about them yet. Any recommendations on what to use or not to use?

I ought to take a picture of me dressed up in my paint/grinding cotton paper suit with hood, respirator and glasses. I look like a toxic waste dump worker.ainkiller:

 

That switch looks like it was made to be there. Awesome:smile:

 

Thanks. That's the look I was looking for.

 

Well the body work is coming along. Good thing I don't do this for a living cause I'd starve. The more I get in to the fairing the more I find wrong. This thing has been crashed and trashed several times and pieces put back in, I'm guessing the first time. Which the op did a decent job but not accurate as far as exact dimensions of where the pieces should be. Off by a 1/16th here an 1/8th there kind of thing. Plus it has more coats of paint and filler than what I first thought.

Once I uncover one spot there is something underneath or I sand down to more cracks. Most of which have a solid backing and don't have to worry about them. Plus the edge where the two halves meet has been sanded down and not and even line. In order to get a straight line I put the fairing together. I first taped wax paper to the top half and then folded it over and taped it to the bottom half. This way the filler wouldn't stick to it. It actually worked real good.





I friend of mine owns a body shop just down the road. He's been giving me some pointers and offered to primer fairing as a favor along with giving me proper filler and stuff. So that's cool.


NOW FOR THE REAL NEAT STUFF

I screwed up the headlite surround! don't ask. A dumbass move. Now I've always wanted the dual headlights for the R. I think they are tits! So I go looking on ebay for a headlight surround. I thought I saw one a while back. Well I finally get to page 56 yea that's right and still had plenty to go. What do I find? An almost mint working dual headlight setup in Florida. Whooaaa I thought these were Europe only. What to do? What to do? Oh my I found hens teeth. Don't they look purrty?

Ok I bought it!! Now I've just created more work. I hope it mounts on the headlight mounting top brackets and gives me the room I need for everything I put in. I'll have to alter the wiring for dual lights but that shouldn't be that hard. Then I'm going to check the alt output to see if I can run dual 100w high beams. That should be some good night time candle power! They will also help in sealing the front where the other surround had mesh sides and will let air/water thru. So I don't have to deal with those. I'm also in the process of adapting my stock mirrors. Wait till you see what I'm using. More stock Honda stuff that could have been designed for this. Pic's later on this.

Hoppit88 the dual lights have adjusters on top. Any idea on how to get to them once the fairing is on? 360 degree pics here: 1986 VF1000R Headlight Assembly Lamp Housing Dragbike VF 1000R Light Vintage VF | eBay

It's starting to come together and I'm getting stoked!:leghump:

 

That's going to look nice. BTW, the '86's had the dual light here in the US. Still, hard to find them for that price.
You adjust the beam with the fairing off since it stays in the upper frame and not the fairing. Lets see these mirrors!!!

 

I finally got the upper half of the fairings body work finished. What a learning experience in repairing op bogus work. There are a few minute changes from a stock upper you won't notice unless they are side by side. That's fine because this is a VF750F fairing now and was designed that way.:biggrin:

The head light came in on Friday. So I took the other head light out and fabricated some brackets. I found some nut inserts I had stashed and decided those would work good for the upper mounts. No dicking around with nuts and washers. Then I fitted the full fairing to see where I was at. Surprisingly everything fits good so far. You can see where the head light adjusters stick up thru the top inlet vent. Just remove the screen and adjust your lights. Nice easy deal there. I like it. The relays still fit where I had them mounted.



So the upper goes off to the my buddies body shop Tuesday to get primered. Then we'll see how good a job I did. It may not be perfect but should look real good. I hope.

Next is the bottom half and should be a lot easier to finish, fingers crossed. I need to add some support up front in the V area to stiffen it up where I cut out for the radiator. Thinking about glassing in some stud type mounts for the screen I'm making to protect the rad.

 

Go over your glassing and filling with your fingertips. The filler/primer can be spotted in on the rough spots. Auto type primer is meant to be used as a filler as well as a primer and gets sanded back. 2-3 grits of wetNDry paper should work. None of this 1200 grit.. That's BS and for colorsanding. I start with 320. The sanding sponges are great for this too. Lots of crappy ones on the market and the same with the paper. I like 3M. Look for a wholesaler in your area, they will usually sell to walk ins.

Look up indicator coats. They work. Go over everything with your fingertips. Trusting your eyes don't work too pretty good.

Nice work!!

 

Looking fantastic Grey - keep those photos coming!!

 

The continuing saga....... I know it's been a long time and I have gotten a few things done. I got two eye/lid infections, one in each eye and only days apart. I learned the hard way never rub your eyes if your working with fiber glass even after washing your hands. One should wash their eyes out before scratching an itch. So I didn't work on the bike for a while cause I couldn't see that well.

Ok for what I've gotten done. It's close for paint. I sent the top to get urethane primed. So I built a frame for the bottom and went to work.



It basically only needed a little filler and sanding. I did reinforce the V area where I cut out for the radiator. A couple of layers of cloth/resin and I inserted three home made studs, 1 bottom 1 each side top, to hold the radiator screen on later. I had to make a dip stick door out of aluminum and make it fit the slight curve in the bottom. Made a holding clip of of HVAC tin. Which is what I made the side/vent doors out of. I figured these would be for cool weather riding.



Then I got the top half back. I knew there were a couple of areas that were so so, but after being primed they stuck out badly. So I had to fix them. One was the left side had a flat area where it should curve and the vent top portion wasn't like the right side. The right mirror area was way off. I didn't really see it until I put it on the bike. I also made a grill and a plate to go behind it and the upper grill to fill in the head light area. I want to keep the water out. I took the old square headlite surround and decided to cut it because it was trash anyways. I cut, nibbled and sanded to get it to fit. It doesn't look bad. The bike already has hints of dark red in some areas. So seeing I had a can of Testors "Candy Apple Red" (which is a perfect match for 2013 Focus "Ruby Red") I sprayed the panels to add a little color.



So this is where I'm at now The bottom and top need finish primed and sanded for paint



The wind screen doesn't fit well and I'm going to heat it with an infrared 800w hand held heater (paint stripper) and shape it to fit. I'll have to cut a little first of the front sides. This is going to be a two person stunt. I've already heated it once to get it to relax and flatten out. Not a very good after market from "Gustafsson Plastics". You cans see the primer box upper vent, your not supposed to. That's a sealing surface and it's not close right now.



I'm going to use my stock 750 mirrors at least for now.


Of course we want to use as much Original Honda parts we can. So here are the top mounting rubber stabilizers going in to the fairing. Recognize them?


I did go to the paint supply house that my friend uses and was there for at least an hour going thru paint chips trying to match the colors on my bike from 1985 Imron airplane paint. Didn't think it was going to be that hard. Some colors looked fine right on, but look at them from the side(the FLOP is the technical term) and they really changed. We did fine a very close to perfect match in both colors. The paints are PPG water base! My friend does have one of the only water base systems around. So I hope he can paint pieces OK. I haven't talked to him yet. So that's more money I didn't plan on spending. I was hoping to do it myself.

Good thing this project is a labor of love. Cause it's not very monetarily astute for an old bike. But then again that's what hot roding is all about. Now I'm off to the garage.

 

Nice recap and project! Reminds me a bit of the Pichler full fairing that was sold for the VF-1000F. Impressed with the patience and learning process, I never seem to have enough time for patience!

 

God grant me patience and grant it NOW!

 

Damn preverts!

prudence and patience - Bing Images

 

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Just because I'm old and slow doesn't mean I have patience. Besides it was winter, I couldn't ride, wanted it done right and needed something to do. Now that it's warmer and riding weather I have to hurry and get this done.:lol:

Which may be next week. I'm making the mirror mounts now and will primer tomorrow (80 degrees supposedly) and spray the inside of top/bottom black. My body guy won't spray the water base paint. He has had to much trouble with it because we are very close to lake Erie and the moister content in the air really screws with the paint. Soooo we are going to try and match the formula with solvent based paint. I do have several other places to try and match paint and one is Jerry's House of Color. Lots of custom colors for a lot of the street machines around here and another hot rod paint supply place around the corner from them. I hoping I can luck out in one of those.

So I think I'm going to primer then top coat with a black or see if I can find a dark gray primer scuff type paint for now. Then I can ride the bike to the paint shops for color matching. If I don't get the wind screen done in the next couple of days I have the one that originally came with the fairing I could use temporally. I fired the bike up yesterday and now I'm getting the urge to ride.

 

Shoot, I barely have enough patience to let resin harden after adding 10x the recommended amount of hardener! That's probably the part that I get most upset with myself, I actually do have the ability for bodywork (or drywall or painting or any other fine detail work), but I seldom allow myself the time to do it. Then I get pissed off at the outcome and then sell the project off! Props to anyone with self control....

Based on the progress, should be a more than acceptable outcome. Looking forward to seeing the completed project.

 

Probably enough in one rattlecan to do that priming. Auto primers are generally fillers as well and made to be sanded back.

Last time on this... "matching a red" is going to be next to impossible. Hopefully the dudes at these paint places will not take you to the cleaners and then when finished you find that reds are the most problematic colors to "match" .

They will come close but a perfect match? No way Jose..

 

I'm doing the rattle can filler primer I got from the paint supply house. I realize that getting an exact match is a million and one shot. Even using a different pressure will change the same color. So we'll see.

Got the mirror mounts done. Sitting on the bike the mirrors are forward compared to before. Seems like I see them just normally looking ahead. Kind of distracting now though I think I'll get used to them and like the position better cause I won't have to cock my head to see behind me.

I made the mounts like stock kind of. We'll have to wait and see if they are clear when riding. The big thing was making a 5/8" hole on both sides and getting it right.



I really like this touring wind screen. I hope it cleans up half way decent, doesn't look to bad either. Like sitting in a cocoon.

 

Wow it looks like something the factory would have put out. Very nice work!

Seems like there are a number of us looking at painting projects this year. I think I will sit back and compile everyone's comments before I start my own. I guess that is a bit selfish of me isn't it.......I will self punish later.

 

Yes you will see . About ten seconds after the new paint flashes. OK...and since you have done all this really good work, why not paint the whole bike?


With the reducers and modifiers, a quart will do the job.

Another thing to keep in mind is that reds are transparent save one automotive type that is unobtanium and a pre-mix. So if ya got any sort of substrate that is not even all over preferably in a grey tone. the dark and light areas will reflect back through the transparent red.

 

What a beautiful day it was yesterday, 80+ degrees, sunny and a little windy. Nice riding weather. I wanted to throw the bike together and go for a ride real bad. But I didn't.:frown:

I did finish the primer and it needs wet sanding.


I also took the trashish touring wind screen and tried to clean it up a little. I started with a cut-in compound and then went to Mothers Mag polish and finished with Liquid Luster. WOW it came out nice. Got all the over spay off and the majority of the scratches out. There were some gouges so I took 800 paper to it first to try and hide them. The crack is still there, though I got some special adhesive from Lexan for Lexan plastic from a friend of mine. This stuff is great. Super thin liquid that one drop will wick it's way thru the crack and glue it together. I never thought I'd get it to look this good. It only took about two hours.




I'm off today to find some dark gray or black primer top coat. Once sprayed the bike will get on the road. Then will try and match paint. I don't want ($$$) to repaint the bike. That may change later depending if I can't get a close match or not. This has been a fun project for the most part. The body work was the only part I dreaded and made a chore out of. I did learn a little about it and still confirmed I'm not the guy for that kind of work.

So hopefully I might be able to get out on the bike in the next couple of days if the weather is nice for a shake down run. With the high beams on I'm pushing the alternator past it's 300w rating a little under certain conditions. I may have to wire the high beams (200w) direct to the battery instead of drawing power from the main harness. Glad I have an extra RR in stock.