Cruiser fiberglass work!

[oze_8ball]

Well, my cruiser bike, it's going to left the original aspect. I'm makin a fiberglass tank, when i finish i will paint it in flat brown and the wheels in red, i hope you like it. Sorry if i make mistakes writing.

Working on foam:

Appling the putty on the holes to have good results with the fiberglass:

Ready to fiberglass!!:

I will be posting photos when i paint it, bye!

 

[skyrider]

That looks great,definitely want to see more pics of the progress.

 

[Markm]

Cool!!! I like that its "vintage-y" and not "lowrider-y" :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[michaelscycles]

Looks great. I may have to try something like that

 

[rgallen]

Now you've gone and started something. With all the how to photos and great shots of step by steps. It really is looking great. Sometimes great looks require more work than a rattle can finish and a new set of shoes. Keep it up.

 

[Galtbacken]

Looks good so far, and paint will make it look even better so you'll end up with a sweet looking cruiser!

 

[bikeriderx]

Looks great! What kind of foam did you use and what kind of putty?

 

[iRide Custom Bicycles]

Wow, turned out awesome!

 

[rick74304]

I'd also like to know what putty is used before the fiberglass, everything I tried made the foam melt until I epoxied the foam first;
http://ratrodbikes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=6132
This tank is still hanging around unfinished because of how much I was spending on epoxy! lol
Rick

 

[icyuod2]

a friend of mine has a pattern shop. they use a wierd orange paint, so you can fiberglass/paint etc without destroying the white foam.
i'll try and find out what it is.

 

[oze_8ball]

ok, the bike is finished!!!!i finished it yesterday, so, here are the photos of the bike finished!! The name of the bike is Gangsta Brownie.

 

[ratrodman39]

what type of foam did you use ??????

 

[michaelscycles]

After seeing this when you started it, I said I was going to have to try it. I did, and I hated doing it, but it did turn out good.

Thanks for the inspiration!

For mine, I used green floral foam. If I had to do another one, I would use the blue construction foam, much cheaper. I was concerned about the resin melting the foam. So instead of taking a chance, I had some foil tape and covered the tank with it first. What surprised me is the fiberglass really forms to whatever you put it on, so any wrinkles in the tape showed through. That made it take a little longer to get everything smooth. It would have been better to take a little longer and being more careful applying the tape.

The other thing I wasn't sure about was how many layers of mat to use. I ended up with three, but with the overlaps, it is more like 4-5 on everything.

Oh and I understand why you stopped for awhile and said the resin was costing a lot. I still can't believe how much I have in the tank alone. I bet I have close to $40.00 in it.

 

[ratrodman39]

hey sorry if this is a dumb question but where can you get the blue construction foam????

 

[Markm]

hey sorry if this is a dumb question but where can you get the blue construction foam????

construction site dumpster... :wink:

 

[ratrodman39]

not a bad idea

 

[oze_8ball]

i used polyurethane for the tank, when it comes solid, you have to make a polygnal piece and fit it in the hole of the frame, then you have to work to make the final look.
michaelscycles, your chopper look so good with this tank and this fork, i'm happy that my work was an inspiration for you.
Sorry if i make mistakes writting in english.
See you!!

 

[Gdcast]

Great looking bike!!! Your results with the tank are really good.

I have some little experience working with fibber glass, couple of tanks and some other stuff.



Blue foam, and of course the foam used to build surf boards works just great, regular foam covered with several coats of carpenter´s glue holds up fine too.

I built a tank using regular foam, covered it with a paste made with glue and news paper, waited for it to dry, cut it in half and used the interior part as a mould. The result:






Another good and cheap way to do it is to replace the foam with a frame built with wire mesh. And it is better to use the same type of fibber glass that surf board shapers use, costs the same and is a LOT better:


Really hope this stuff to be useful for someone!!