Quad Bike Build

[Son of Kradus]

So a bloke at work has seen the video's of my bikes n the trike,. And asked if I could build him a drift quad. Sure I said and set about some simple rules, I said I have one at home on the stand ready in wait, I'll modify it over a few weeks and at the end if you think its good enough it'll cost ya $1k......Showed him a pic of the mini quad and he said sweet!... looks sick as !

The motor and rear axle came out easy, theres no rust on this machine, the quad has a 100kg load rating, the guy buying it is about 5'11-90kg with a six pack... he's a huge bodybuilder dude! so I better not stuff this up LOL
theres gonna be some small support gussets here n there all over and under! im ordering a new 20mm / 610mm solid axle with mounts and sprocket n disc too, it also comes with hub's , wheels and sleeve's i'll rob the brake system off the hot wheels drifter and the 7hp motor as well will be robbed of it, no drama here,that motor is still new with about 90 minutes use! this is why I said i'll make this anyway and if ya dont really want it or ya pull out i'll just keep it or flog it off to someone else, in the end it will be worth every dollar in the $1k, the hot wheels drifter will be refitted with a 10hp and a new brake! no loss there only fun to be had!
If need be and the 7HP dosnt fit....Im gonna make it fit LOL ill chop the bottom section out and extend it a bit deeper to accomodate! in any case the fuel tank comes off the 7hp and i'll use the original/ maybe even buy a bigger one on top of the quad, the exhaust comes off and so does the air cleaner as these can be replaced with after market items that have the plumbing aleady done to move the exhaust and air filter for extra room! it may fit with these things taken off!

I was quite suprised at the motor, this quad cost $25, the motor had no air filter, there was dirt n grease and oil all over the motor and the fuel line had an inbuilt filter that I bet is chokers full! it wasnt running at all so it was bought with the intention of throwing this motor away and placing the honda clone 7HP in there!
ive not the knowledge to rebuild a small motor like this but im guessing the spark plug may be stuffed as it was the only rusty thing on this!
A look inside the exhaust port revealed a great looking piston with 2 good rings still intact, some good looking oil is present too! I say good looking coz its at least there and not dry as a bone.

and even the top of the piston had a familiar look, as in not too bad and been in use not too long ago!....maybe 1yr (just a guess)

But the biggest surprise was the carby, once pulled apart it was quite clean on the inside, you can see the used a red oil, the fuels evaporated away leaving the oil that was mixed with it! impressed as this tells me the motor had lubrication at its time of Death. maybe its just the ignition module or the spark plug...maybe both and the needle in the carby LOL.... in any case I have a senaky suspicion this motor may very well fire again one day, for now its shelved in bags etc!

so the first thing is to replace this spring, its flogged out this one and really is just a puppy spring, I have a few MTB springs with adjusters so one of those will replace this red spring!.
Note the flogged out bush's, looks like they continually rode in the same direction on an oval track maybe.. all leaning to one side! and heres one for ya... this machine was built and bought brand new by qualified people. Take a look at some of the welds on it! no better than some of my monster horror show welds! I feel great now LOL

And heres the removed axle and motor ready to be stored, im eyeing off that axle set up for a pedal trike later in the year, we'll see how I go!
Tomorrow im gonn remove the motor from hot wheels and maybe somehow stuff it in the quad! dosnt that motor look to be in a sad state!

 

[Son of Kradus]

so, ive taken the fuel tank ,exhaust and air box off the clone motor, there is some serious design modifications to be done here!
upon looking at things and pondering ive discovered the whole frame has a twist, maybe this thing has taken a tumble off the truck, or maybe some big person has been jumping it and landed wrong, I went inside and grabbed my glass's and got down n dirty with this frame, even the original fabrication work from new is a horror story! just put together crooked in parts.
So I plan to drop the floor of the frame down to about where the foot rest frame is, i'll probably incorporate the foot rest into the frame bringing me down 2-3" , then i'll reshape the rear of the frame and move it back 3" , this will give me space for that OHV cover on the head! the remainder of the air box gets removed when the after market gear turns up! and the exhaust wraps around and under the seat!
ive put a new 550kg spring on the rear, and am even thinking of something even more radical to replace this already!
This is gonna be a wild machine!

Even the swing arm has a twist, this things taken a real thump or its been ridden super hard and wrong!
in any case im enthusiastic about building a new one, theres gonna be a solid axle running through go kart bearings, pretty much the exact same deal as the hot wheels, basicly a motor with a chain driving a go kart axle n wheels. only this ones 20mm/ 610mm where as hot wheels was 25mm/ 815mm
after that its just seating and cabled smalls , brake's etc but the basis is just a motor driving an axle!

 

[Ulu]

Ha! Those little Kiddie bikes are just the absolute worst!

I’ve picked up several now and I haven’t looked at one yet that has good welding on the frame. They always put the rookie welders on the kiddy bike lines lol.

The ones I have were not jigged up very straight either. When I compare them to something like the Tange Centurion it just makes me cringe.

Looking at how the swingarm mounts with tabs welded onto the side of steel tube, I expect he’s gonna crack the tubing right there at those little tab welds and they’re gonna to come loose. The tabs (& the swingarm) are possibly OK, but the way they’re welded to the tube is just weak.

Anyhow if you just blame it on the (fat) customer you can get some repeat welding work to do the repairs.

 

[Son of Kradus]

So I've had a good think and decided to simply build a strong floor frame and motor mounts and attach a new swing arm assembly to it, then ill just lower the whole quad frame on top and weld the two parts together.
This would be the safest route and easiest, the quad frame itself still needs gussets and support all over it, in fact there's almost a day in fabrication for that job alone.
All thats different here from the hot wheels trike is im attaching a quad frame and steering to the front, the general principle here remains the same, a motor turning an axle,. I could put a skate board on the front and steer if ya really wanted...hmmmmmmm

 

[Son of Kradus]

Didn't have much time today so only got to make the pivot joint from bottom sled to motor frame
Just 2 MTB Pivot joints welded together, this makes for quite a strong pivoting joint, about 5X stronger than the original swing arm mounts, was careful not to damage the plastic spacers in the joints themselves by only welding 10mm, then cool in the bucket , repeat but on the other joint, this kept the heat down enough that they didn't suffer too bad at all,
Ive ended up with a tight joint thats gonna be overkill for the job.
I've only welded a piece of scrap over the 2 piece's of 30mm/3mm round bar, that fit snuggly into the tops of the joined mtb joints, this keeps them together while welding it all together.

 

[Son of Kradus]

another mock assembly, you can see everything is just sitting there, I have welded the joint to the heavy angle iron ive used to solidify the front of the quad, theres still a few other small gussets still required in that front section but just looking at things for now,
So thats not the real spring for the front, ive got a few others way stronger and its only there to assist the rear gas lift shockie from an office chair, so im planning for adjustable height etc and the front spring is there to cop its fair share of the load! the rear shock itself was going to be a twin unit, 2 welded together for extra support but I was inspired by the "John Britten Story" and wanted some form of the suspension up front, extra weight I know, unpractical yes but inventive none the less! I rekon its gonna be a real nice surprise if it works....if it dosnt well back to the drawing board!
I also plan to weld stronger rails and support into the seating area, theres a lot to be done but will try to use old bike top tubes n stuff to keep the weight down in that area.
theres an aspect of..."Dropping on its guts" when parked and not in use, thats why ive gone for the gas lift office chair shockie!
Remember... this is a Drifter designed for road and concrete use, its not an off road machine even though my mate will probably try against my advice so the aspect of a solid running power sled suits the purpose hence the pivot joint in front of the motor! (Thanks mr Britten)
Please if anyone wants to give input , good or bad, fire away, everything taken on board and considered!

when I finally attach the bottom rails to the pivot joint i'll simply cut into the joint wall and insert the inside of one of the rails into it and the outer wall will slide over the outside of the joint wall , then weld it all together!

 

[Son of Kradus]

Axle n wheels turned up today!, already have the sprocket and disc supplied, sleeve's and wheels,

So now the alignment process begins, it wasnt worth rigging a jig for this machine, the things crooked from the factory, at best ive lined up two bottom chassis rails to go right through to the rear, i'll then build the axle mounts onto those , I had to wait for the axle so I can be sure exactly where everything sits as in the sprocket, disc brake, in conjunction with worrying about the rear shock and how thats going to fit along with of all things the motor its self, the clutch tends to have the drive sprocket sticking out quite far and then you also want the motor to be centrally housed and not off set as it can be in some drifter trike's and go karts, this is a Quad bike so just a bit more attention has to be paid in motor alignment! not too much of an issue but i'd be silly to take that point for granted.
You can see that ive tried in vain to make room for the disc by off setting the right rail and its pushed out to the right, but still its in the way! I even tried to space out the distance on the axle itself which worked well on the left but????? more mods here!
JUst look at the rear seat frame, wonky as bro!! and the factory welds..."Sheesh"

To top it all off i've made the thing too short!, more mods here and a couple ideas too!
Nevermind, its all in good fun and its still heading towards the vision I have in my head for this particular machine!

 

[Son of Kradus]

Finally finished the sled! axle holes drilled and everything aligned with the steering column and I managed the exact same measurement of 855mm from front axle end to the rear axle end on both side's, the things so straight it's showed the 2mm offset mistake when I welded the joint to the heavy angle iron up front! An error that isnt worth fixing because its too much work to go back, and to add its not really an issue only a cosmetic blemish you'll see if you have beers and sit n look at this thing for 2 hrs....which he may LOL ..... im learning every day ha ha ha .
So you can see where ive left the chassis rails there but kinked the right side in for disc clearance, I then joined the rear via an unused set of MTB bars cut down to fit. I then attached those bars to the chassis rails coming through the middle.
its made it pretty rigid and strong with a tiny bit of styling from the curve in those bars!
The motor holes are an off set pattern, like an out of shape rectangle, thats why the theres a cross member that looks crooked, it was made that way. and the design changed 3 times while fabricating so theres another excuse for those wonky lines on the right .

I also managed to attach the front spring, it came with a crucial error too!

I forgot that the sump plug on this motor is right at the front and I gave myself 0 clearance to remove it later for an oil change, you would of had to move the motor to change or drop the oil, not really a fun thing LOL, as it is I cut away a part of the support for the front spring and fabbed a small heavy angle iron tab to still give great strength and move the post away a bit more, I also cut down the sump plug a tiny bit,
So now its still a nightmare to drop the oil as its really fiddly to get in there and put the plug back in... but nowhere near impossible, just a pain!
Motors not bolted in either so I may still gain 5-10mm of room.

Just like that we have a roller,
The rear shock and motor are only sitting in there, there is a different wheel combination coming, those small kiddie wheels are gone!
My mate has his own special BMX bars he wants on it so i'll use an old set from here for now.
So this 1st pick is sorta what it looks like when at full height.

And this is dropped to its lowest, still ridable too. about 1.5 inch from the ground,

So now I begin the seating frame, its gotta be strong but not heavy, im gonna use top n bottom tubes etc off bikes to keep the weight down, its basicly building a seat to take the weight, the seats housed right over the rear shock so torsion strength is shared through the whole seat and not like a lever being held from the front with no rear support, im confident and upbeat about attacking this! as said earlier with the new wheel combo its gonna be a sick n wild looking thing!

 

[Son of Kradus]

Officially on holidays now so spent all day yesterday making the seat frame! as said I used old bike parts to keep the weight down, that long piece is off an old Futon couch from aldi, it was quite thin and light but still steel so I backed myself to use it somewhere. the seat and chain stay assemblies will be used to tie the frame at each end! the big box tube off an old MTB will be used to fuse the top frame to the front end!

I used 2 pieces of rectangular 2.5mm box cut to shape and used them to raise the very rear and they also double as support bracketing for the rear shock that has come up and between the seat rails and get housed inside it all ...some how!~

And would you believe the fuel tank and seat stay were a match made in heaven....almost, Im looking at side panels (plastic or glass) to wrap under the tank and maybe hide those sharp corners popping out! the hole to secure the tank to machine is perfectly lined up with the mud guard hole in the seat stay, I still to this day have not got used to the idea of cleaning away paint from areas to be welded, this is the splattering effect, it cleans up easy but look horrid, to date this is some of my best welding work, while still looking horrid everything fused together well, the futon was incredibly soft and I had to come down to 50-60 amps and still would blow a hole if not careful, to prove my honesty all welds in the pics are undressed, only a wire brush is used, the longest welds were about 15-20mm long, to keep heat and warping down, all other welds were stiched or pulse welding, just spotting it ,the metal is too soft and thin for a newbie to do a continuous long weld, for this you need a TIG welder for fine delicate welds. its all good ,I have a TIG but its the older style strike arc type and ive still to unbox it LOL. I could see the penetration on the inside of the tubes and box, it looked like another weld done on the inside too .
So for today...(Good Friday) will be spent attaching this seat frame to the front end....we almost there!

 

[Son of Kradus]

Uh OH!!! catastrophic design change! turned out the foot pan was hitting the rectangle box that was connecting the side rails to axle. I also was constantly bugged by the fact this was gonna be a cramped ride.. So I moved the axle back 4 inchs by cutting the whole sub frame off and moving it back AND AND...correct the alignment issue I found on easter saturday, after a few beers I was standing there again just looking and planning the machine when I noticed it was crabbing ever so slightly, once noticed it became an obsession to correct it, I had to move the entire axle 10mm to one side! so this is where I took the opportunity to lengthen and change the rectangle box for some 3mm/30mm heavy pipe, Not only is it a bit stronger and a fraction lighter it came out looking great! I still have to bung up a gap at the very rear support join but its solid as a .... Lovin the use of them MTB bars as a link for the rear frame! just looks trick!

I then became annoyed by my slap happy effort to make the seat frame, it bugged me for a bit so I found this mongoose downhill 1.5... it has the most beautiful seat n chain stays on it, yep they became the new parts for the seat and front support to frame.

came out way better than anticipated. the old mongoose's were a tad heavier than the best but they were all built pretty tough and strong, these stays were the thickest I come across for a while, and ive been using stays for almost anything these days as they usually come with great symmetry for use on other applications for now the foot pan is just clamped in place ready to be attached today.

Im really chuffed at how this machine is developing, ive magicly given it racy type lines, everything looks to flow and point towards coolness!
ive intentionally made this overkill in strength, nowhere on this bike to me feels weak and, I still have a few small supports to add to the front mini quad assembly and really thats all that remains of the original bike, just the steering and front suspension, everything else is custom built. Now the attention turns to the front wheels. you can see ive mounted one already but it came with lots of pondering and machining.

The stud pattern was wider than go kart rims so I turned to YOU TUBE and found a bloke who had done it, put go kart rims on a mini quad hub. And this is his method!
the rims come as a 2 piece, all alloy and too wide to fit inside the Go kart rim, you can see ive already machined out the new holes and those wider out small holes are the originals. they also have a disc attachment on the inside , this caused drama as I run a nut and bolt right through to hold the wheel on, there was no room on either side for an 8mm allen bolt n nut, I had to make room.
I hunted Ebay and couldnt find a replacment hub for a go kart to fit on and still have a disc attachment in the correct size shape etc etc so I really had to do this. it was the only way this can work without spending another $100 on a pair of something that I still would of needed to modify anyway.
You can see the rim with the extra holes drilled out, this was a rear rim and a practice run... just as well coz one hole was 2mm out LOL,

So after drilling I the cut away the outer rim and only leave the star pattern in the middle, this was a tedious job as I dont have a lathe so it was manual cutting with a grinder. A lathe would of allowed me to spin it and cut away easily. in the pic ive left the disc off so you can see inside the rim, it does look a bit wonky and awful but the next one will be better , I am gonna fab up some longer bolts and ill use nylex nuts with a spring washer too.

 

[Son of Kradus]

Well im almost at the end and yet another unforeseen hiccup, Custom building does this from time to time.
I got all the wheels on and rolled her out on the grass, I still have to attach the rear shock but I just wanted a looksie. To my amazment the front end is way too soft, with my weight I still have almost 50kgs to add to this machine before it will be at the fully grossed weight (with rider) which will be almost 160kgs of rolling sliding motorized metal...the hot wheels power trike weighed in at 132kgs with me, the trike weighed 50kgs, this quad drifter will come in at 60-65 kgs maybe! all depends on how much I have to modify the front suspension!
In this first pic im replacing the factory springs with 750Lb mtb adjustable's, the ones im using are the same weight rating but are off different colored bikes so they are only there for testing purposes, a new set is already ordered and cost about $35.
heres the old and new, note the thickness in spring size and the look at the old bush mount on the old spring, all flogged out... and i found out why too!

so I begin mounting the test springs only to find that while the exact same length as the old ones, one was difficult to install and the 2nd was impossible.
At first when I started the project I assumed this had been thrashed, then crashed then ridden more but as ive progressed and had feedback from a couple on here ive found its just been put together by a blind man... or similar!
the brackets to attach the bottom end of the springs are welded in different places, only5-10mm out but it equates to one new spring being 20mm out at the top! if we remember the 1st pic of the flogged out bush on the old spring then this is why! just made by dummies, I fear when im finished this project all that remains of the original quad bike will be the steering column and the riser's, maybe a handful of cut off brackets too.

 

[Son of Kradus]

So a bit of chopping and I found a top n bottom tube off the daughters un-used "Dunlop wanderer"and improved the front support bars leading to the front of the bike. I then ran a 6mm flat bar (cut n welded to shape) and drilled 2 large holes for the 75x12mm bolt n nylex nut. I used an old seat tube to secure the adjustable top to the lower part of the frame and "you guessed it" a chopped down chain stay for the underside attachment of the front spring assembley
The top brackets that hold the springs in place were welded to those 75x12mm bolts, so now when I unlock the bolts we can change the height of the spring which now rises the A arm up or lowers to your satisfaction. For the record, wheels camber facing inwards is for drifting as this creates a bit of resistance and then you can wind em back down and do the speed runs...(thats the real fun bit)
all in all I absolutely over the moon with how this is progressing!

I then noticed I didnt have the angle quite right, the travel of the torsion through the spring wasnt where I wanted, in a straight line, I didnt want any sideways pressure on these spring assemblies so I used the gas bottle and heated the brackets up and bent them a wee bit, now they fit well and look the goods. Also the New springs turned up as I was working on the front end...well at last things flow in the right direction with ebay and deliveries!!
The last pic is with wheels fully cranked up and steering rods adjusted to point the wheels straight when you fold those wheels inwards. all fully adjustable....hang on except where you may want to raise the height and leave the camber straight, thats a fully customised independant front suspension, might take that on in the next project! Im still chuffed and excited about this machine and its progression.
Also the new springs are a whopping 1500lb each, there will be no or little movement in the font end, in fact you could say theres no need for a front suspension at all on this craft but how cool and different will this be!

 

[Son of Kradus]

I then spent most of easter break fluffing about making brackets for the rear brakes, once again i'll use a foot brake caliper n slave unit but run a pushbike lever n cable to a small linkage I made which activates the rear disc brake.
I wanted to be different and cut up some old MTB front disc's, layered them in sets of 3 and welded together, this allowed the use of the holes on the discs for bolts to hold stuff!
The muffler arrived this week and has been installed, I wanted to use a flexi exhaust but found the Flexible steam pipe was just a bit too restrictive so I ran the exhaust off the sled only, I used the original set of bars off this quad for the exhaust pipe, it had the right amount of curves and didnt require bending anything!
theres a bad weld at the caliper end of the exahust bracket, had drama finding the setting to weld the disc's steel to mild. i'll fix all that on the final weld inspection before undercoating.

From this side everything looks great!... notice im running a tensioner on this one!

Also the new steering rods turned up today, big difference and I was expecting to have to drill out the mounts to accommodate the 10mm bolts but everything just whammed together!..Great! previous size was 8mm and were flogged out!, these cost $40 for the pair.

 

[Son of Kradus]

OK, late Mock up and systems check!
WOW... this thing looks really sick n cool! as I wanted it drops right down on its guts...... that air box gets removed and the seat n tank are only sitting there but look as if made to fit in heaven.

From the back its got the fattest most intimidating rear end, Notice Im running the exhaust off the chassis and not up n under the seat where it was supposed to be, the flexi exhaust pipe was ..... welll not flexi enough ha ha ! so ive ran the exhaust straight off the chassis n motor.

UH....OH..... OH deary me!!!!! we've had an error in application of the design...
ive made this thing way too low!
when I sat on it at medium height the thing was touching the ground, I had to straighten the wheels and raise the seat to move it around the yard,
i'd started the alignment at medium height thinking in the middle ground i'll be good....wow so wrong!

So I didnt really want to do this but the front end got the ...."CHOP A ROONEY!!!!"
If I wanted this right I had no choice to give up a day and re-do this front end....
Didnt take long

So now ive dropped the front suspension and steering 2 inchs, this has also brought the front forward about 15mm.... not very much but its actually made it look meaner and way more ratty and hot roddish!! (is hot "roddish" even a word)
So the last 2 days have been spent on this , its almost done now.
only waiting on twin brake lever with throttle to be delivered and also the tank and seat have to be done, then test, then strip n undercoat!

 

[Son of Kradus]

Frame came up good, ive used what I call a Topunder coat, that's a top coat paint used as an undercoat, just a testing phase paint job and only a single rattler spray can layer.
I chose silver for the chassis and black for the upper frame. This weekend will be spent on the seat and tank, then testing
Note the use of old disc's for brackets, they have great holes all over them to add stuff and they look trick n Cool, ive doubled them up and the exhaust bracket was a triple layer welded together, shaped then welded on.

 

[Son of Kradus]

I started with the steering column and side covers, I used the original nose cone off the quad, trimmed off the wings and shaped it a bit different, rubbed it back a wee bit and then threw a couple of layers of Carbon Fiber over it all, let it cure overnight, rubbed back with 1200 wet n dry then another really thick layer of resin, overnight cure then another 1200 rub and a 2nd extra coat of resin and left overnight! to get it to hole drilling stage takes a few days but the results are standout awesome!
The two small side covers were cut out of the rear plastic from the office chair of which I cut the height adjustable spring out of. they had the slightest curve and will fit their parts well! same as the nose cone a 3 day event to get it to drilling and fitting...but soooo different its just plain cool. the carbon fiber sheets are left over form my rod repairing days, I used to make the stripper guide off my surf rods, because I mainly salt water beach fish they only last a year and would rust out and break. so I made my own from carbon fibre! they worked great and are still on the rods some 8 yrs later!
NOrmally when glassing.... (even carbon fiber work is considered fiber glassing work) you would let it cure between applications and sand, maybe even bog here n there then do your final resin layers then painting procedure , but in this case I wanted the actual carbon sheets to be visible ,so thats why I use wet n dry to get a key down for the resin to stick to and when you add the resin layer all the fine scratch marks vanish and your back to premium shine status! thats why you can see a blemish here n there but it will go as before I put the clear coats over it gets another light key in sand, then stickers or pin stripes, numbers etc etc can go on before you chuck 3-4 maybe more layers of clear coat!
These things are sooo damm hard and strong, if you put a sharp edge on the side covers they can be used as a knife LOL and if you hit some one with that nose cone they gonna....... ill stop there!!

 

[Son of Kradus]

Sorry I lied... it was only 5 yrs ago I was doing the stripper guides on the surf rods.
But i thought I'd quickly share how I made them.
spent time in photo shop this morning to make this as painless on everyone as I can.
The first pic shows how I made the round tube of carbon, just wrapped glad wrap around the 60mm plastic stormwater pipe (so the resin dont stick to it) and make it thick and let it cure overnight untill you get this shabby looking roll of solid carbon fiber.
then I tidy it all up....must use mask and try to collect every bit of dust for future use in bog and fillers etc.
then I cut away a ring off the tube I made.

Because its only the outer ring that rusts and breaks I leave the old base on which is still firmly attached to the rod,Then I cut or break off the remaining broken bits and its a simple process of carefully grafting the new ring onto the old steel base, to my surprise it worked a treat and still holds to this day!
Because I made the tube longer than needed I cut two rings off and done my other rod as well, I still have that solid tube of carbon somewhere in the shed so I can make more if need be! Note!! these are Surf fishing rods and we are only looking at the bottom half of the rod, the whole rod is 4m long!

 

[Son of Kradus]

The seat is becoming a real headache! I need to retain the original seat to make less work for myself, I did contemplate making a whole new seat but it really has got to the point where ive gotta finish this and get rid of it!
The seat is originally bolted to a big plastic surround cover that then bolts to the quad, however its so cracked and broken, bits missing etc etc I had to biff it out and fabricate a new base with a different bracketing system. (less work...yeah right!!)
I needed to form the underside of the seat and make a strong fiberglass base so it can be bolted to the seat itself and provide a load sharing platform.
1st I covered the seat underside with just paper and covered in plastic food wrap to keep the resin from getting through. where im planning to glass is underneath the seat so then it gets turned on its back and several layers of glass layered onto it! I staggered the application so theres a couple really thick woven matt (650gsm) to give it a bit of spine and the hole areas are built up a bit stronger too, all up it cops about the equivalent of 10 layers of fiberglass!

So after a 2 day cure...yep, the temperature has dropped here in Brisbane and the epoxy resin I use takes longer to cure enough to sand and shape!
we end up with this very light but thick and strong base with a good amount of flex in it too! you can see the strands of carbon and off cuts etc, I grabbed them off the floor and threw them in with the layers,
So now I have my seat base that fits like a glove and has great support all the way along it! Now this seat base gets bolted to the frame and some carbon covered plastics will make up the surrounding cosmetics for the tank and rear cowl.

So after all the glassing work I threw some hammertone blue over the riser assembly and the top suspension adjusters, I also drilled out the nose cone and attached it, its coming along quite well and im gonna be quite upset when I sell this....some of my best work ever has gone into this! the look... the vision in my head... all coming together!

 

[Son of Kradus]

So now we move onto the rear cosmetics, ive cut away shapes from the back plastic off the office chair,
This was 2 halves and joined with epoxy glue to form the rear seat cowl. The carbon side covers were cut from the larger seat, and the cowling is made from the smaller chair.

Once dried and cured I then threw a few layers of glass over the join to give it some spine and strength so it can be worked on, I'll start making the tank surrounds and remaining seat work

 

[Son of Kradus]

After laying bits of fiberglass over the joins I then start applying the carbon sheets, I used a different weave pattern on the straight side covers to save on the woven twill weave that wraps better around corners and bends, All this is is just using up the carbon in the shed...and bits of glass here n there but they really are the same product to cut and apply with the same epoxy resin but once dried and cured the carbon is tons stonger and possibly a wee bit lighter, its breaking properties are above and beyond fiberglass but the latter still is used to secure a general structure to lay carbon over, Die hard military types would use carbon or kevlar all the way through so im cheating a wee bit!

Everything came out fantastic, while looking ripply and wonky it really is the nature of naked carbon work, the more you sand back the smoother it gets but youll lose the look of the weave which is what im trying to expose, the weave pattern within the carbon fiber, thats what makes it look trick n cool.

I then made up some Decals on the mac!... customers favourtite number.... ok ok hes younger than me ha ha !
And some business name propositions, Penkat is the mrs and my last name chopped and ratted down to well..... PENKAT, and then of course carbon works, all the carbon and glass work came back to me real good and I remembered how much I enjoyed working with glass, be it fiberglass or carbon, im even eyeing off some cheap kevlar!

So this was made a few days ago, I only get minimal time to venture out and grab supplies, I went to print these on some clear stickers and the bloody printer is out of "BLACK INK" ok so its a 2 hr affair to go the shopping mall and buy this stuff so off I went, got the black ink and some clear sticky paper etc so the decals can be printed on them and they then stick to their piece of work and another clear coat of resin over the top.
I got home, put the black cartridge in and....nup...nothin!! a few seconds later an alert pops up..."COLORS NEED REPLACING! ok ok so im now irate, I leave it for a day and do the 2 hr trip the next day, I get home and $83 over 2 days later the printer decides i dosnt want to come online and print anything!
I tried over the next day and a half to get this printer to work, its only a couple yrs old,
anyway here it is!
the EPSOM 2100 is a pretty tough thing, they may die electronically and use ink as fast as anything youve seen but when thrown onto brick pavers it faired quite well structurally, it came apart easily but didnt really crack or break! I was impressed as I used every bit of my twin hernia ageing body to try and smash this thing to ...well more bits than this!