playing with carbon fiber- honda 919

[icyuod2]

a friend of mine resently decided his bike would look better lying on its side. he dropped it a few times, on a steep driveway. (dropped it and as he picked it up, it rolled away from him a few times)

what makes the story alittle funny, it was shortly after trying to pin another small ding in his tank on me. (told a friend i scratched it while repairing his lights, but we both saw him drop the screwdriver. ) thats karma fo ya.

the only real damage was to the tail section, alittle scuffed but otherwise no worse for wear. anyhoo, it didn't sit well with jody, and somehow i got roped in to covering the entire bike with carbon fiber.

never worked with it before. but this was totally cosmetic. i just ruffed up the plastic's with 30 grit paper and coated them with epoxy.(foam roller) i allowed it to tack up for a couple hours, then laid the carbon fiber over top like wall paper. i recoated it with epoxy, then it recieved about 10 coats of clear.

i'm dam impressed with the results and thought this simple technique might have some applications here on rrb.

heres the end results.

 

[icyuod2]

well i guess that was a complete waste of time. the bike was stolen last night. musta liked the carbon fiber.
with any luck it will be back today. the bike has a handy little secret device for just such an event.

 

[jimw1960]

Hey that looks pretty cool. Where can you buy the carbon fiber and epoxy at a decent price?

 

[Walker]

a carbon fiber tank would be cool.

 

[icyuod2]

i'm up her in canada.

i bought both the epoxy (lee valley tools) and carbon fiber (herritage marine) locally.
after the fact, i spoke with a local canoe company that said they had large cut offs they'd sell cheap.

i'd check your local yellow pages (marine,automotive,fabricators) and see is ya can't purchase large scrap's cheap.

heres the epoxy i used.
very low odur, non flammable http://www.ippnet.com/EN/main/products/ ... /1102.html

 

[Rat Rod]

Looks incredible....was the clear sprayed on?

Too bad about it getting stolen.

 

[icyuod2]

Looks incredible....was the clear sprayed on?

Too bad about it getting stolen.

th epoxy was put on with a dollar store foam roller.then sherwin williams performance clear coat (ultra system) sprayed with a gun in a booth. it required alittle wet sanding also.

i used that epoxy in my sun room right next to the heater (-2c outside) as far as epoxy goes, its real nice to work with.

heres the parts before the clear coat, right after epoxy.

once the epoxy hardened i just trimmed the fat with a dremel sanding drum.

then the clear.

 

[thatismytruck]

one could lay that over some bike fenders, or a tank, or a seat, or a .......

me likey.

Hope your bud gets his bike back soon.

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

I hope the bike is found in decent shape, and ya, that looks incredible.

 

[icyuod2]

forgot to mention

i layed out the tail section in 2 pieces. its the reason for the seam down the back. (let gravity do all the work)

carbon fiber is hard to cut straight. i mean you can cut it with a pair of scissors or exact-o, but it likes to fall apart real easy. to combat this, i used extra and trimmed it up later.

to get the nice straight strip to hide the seam, here's what i did.

picked up a teflon looking cutting board/place matt (thin tranlucent white plastic matt- 1/16" thick ) i got it from the dollar store.
they called it a cutting board but it looks like a place matt.

i laid a piece of cf on top and covered it with a thin layer of epoxy.
allowed it to cure, then cut the strip (plastic place matt and carbon fiber at the same time)

stuck it down with the same epoxy.

the carbon fiber was easy to remove from the place matt (peeled like a sticker)

i thought the same thing after this project was finished. what can i use the scrapes for? tanks, fenders, seats...
oh the possiblities!
best part is, i got to experiment on somebody else's nickle, and i got to keep the left overs.

 

[icyuod2]

the bike was found (in one piece i might add) i guess there was alittle damage to the front disk. (had a brake lock on it)
by the sounds of it, they tried grinding it off and and this is how the damage was caused (wondering grinder)

that being said, he's not sure when the bike will be returned to him. (still with the police)

 

[Quanah]

I saw this thread back when it was new, thought I had replied, great job! I just gave someone else the credit, due you, sorry.