'78 KZ1000 makeover

buy yourself a 1/2" or 3/4" emt bender and practice with conduit to get your lengths/bends where you want them then transfer dimensions to the larger pipe

Wisdom gleaned from years of experience I presume, plummen?

lots of trial and error sessions making things fit on old streetrods,conduit is cheap and easy to bend! :laugh:

I'll take your advice Plummen. Once I've explored the capabilities and limitations of the roller, I'll switch to emt for trials. Thanks

1/2" is around $2.00 for 10',3/4 is around $3.00 for 10'.
for those prices you can afford to go crazy! :laugh:

I have been way too busy with side projects! Between the week I spent playing with my new tubing roller, and the time I've spent putting together the stuff I need to make side cover molds and vacuum bagging supplies for carbon fiber covers, I have lost sight of the main objective! I got back to the roots this afternoon and finished off the front cradle cross brace. It's not perfect, but it's close enough that with the header in place, NO ONE will ever notice.

Now the only bracing I have left to do is the steering head and rear top tube sheet bracing, with the top center to perimeter tube braces, and I'll be done with the frame. The sheet braces will be MUCH easier that that damn front "X" brace or my upper shock mount :blink:

A sneak peak at the side cover project. I picked up an 8' plank of melamine laminated 3/4" press board and started making a mold box

I finished the box today-

I got a quart of tooling gel coat last week along with a few yards of perforated release film. I'm waiting on a vacuum pump, bagging film, sealant tape and connectors. I still need to order some mold wax and prep the side covers. They have some monor imperfections that need to be cleared up. I need the surface as perfect as I can possibly make it before I cast molds from them. Any imperfections in the master part then get transfered to the mold, and subsequently every part you cast from the mold :S I'm in no hurry though, so I will endevor to make it right. When the time comes, I'll start a new post in the body work forum for this

why do you need to make more side covers?those stock wont fit?frame bracing looks good.only one to see ANYTHING wrong would be you.

I'm glad to see that you're back on track. I was getting ready to kick your ass for spending your time screwing with a custom exhaust when you don't even have a roller yet. The x looks good. I can't see anything wrong with it. With that said, I'm looking forward to the CF sidecover project. Is this your first go at vacuum bagged CF moulding? I have done a lot of reading about this, but never tried it myself. Boeing has been doing thier best to drive up carbon fiber prices for you.

I can use a good ass kcking every now and then to keep me on track :laugh:

Camaroguy, I lost my left (broken) OEM side cover last year on the freeway. I picked up a pair of aftermarket ABS plastic side covers from another member here. I figured if I was going to run aftemarket covers, why not do it a little different than anybody else?

Josh, I have a little experience with composites. I learned to work with fiberglass in my bodyshop days, and the body kit on my Porsche is fiberglass. I got into using carbon fiber because of some broken (and VERY expensive)interior panels in the Porsche. I have only ever made flat panels with c.f., like this clip board I made a few years back:

It turned out great except for 2 things. One, in my attempt to make sure it was strong, I put in approx. 12 layers (I didn't have any core material). The amount of resin I used made it heavy, but it IS strong :dry: Nobody has any use for heavy carbon fiber parts! Two, I did everything I could with rollers to get all the air out of the layup, but if you look close, you can see tiny white dots. Those are micro air bubbles, and unacceptable for a finished body part. So I have some core mat (inexpensive core material) to retain panel rigidity while cutting weight, and a vacuum pump to suck the air and excess resin out :woohoo: And yeah, CF prices are a good $10 a yard more expensive now than the last time I bought it!

The cf project looks like fun. i'm dabbling in glass work myself. nothing fancy though. i just have to glass the fairing back together on the cbr6. my bud dropped it on the track thurs, so it came back in 2 pieces may even get to use my grinder in this. :laugh:
the frame brace looks great.