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350TSS · 30-10-2019, 05:33 PM

Not much progress made over the last 10 days, even though retired, real life (half term for the youngest) gets in the way sometimes. What little time I have had has mostly been garage clearing and organising stuff.
Some small jobs have got done, mounting the solenoid and rubber mounting the 30 Amp RCD (main fuse) to the battery box and making the retaining strap for the battery (5mm bungee looped over a cotton reel and clamped the other side of the battery). Sometimes these little jobs take a lot longer than expected, working out where cable runs are going to go and how you will access things for maintenance and finding and then having to shorten the bolts etc., etc.
My upholstery of the seat stalled a bit as the first attempt ended looking naff. The plan to first wrap the whole seat using 6mm foam, capped on the seat base only with one further layer of 6mm and one of 12mm did not work out well as the sides of the seat ended up looking lumpy where I had ground the foam with a drum sander, pulling the ambla really tight exacerbated the issue. Fortunately I did not glue the foam down with Evo stick but rather used double sided carpet tape so it all came off again without damage.
I tried putting the bottom layer on the top but had to stretch the 6mm foam to make it fit over the additional thicknesses and then it looked worse when I stretched the ambla over it.
One continuous 6mm layer immediately beneath the ambla is the way to go but it means a) re-sanding the two seat base only layers reducing their width by 6mm and b) cutting a new 6mm foam to wrap the seat base layers.
I have yet to pour petrol in the tank to test it. I have decided to apply a hard high gloss coat of polyester resin to the outside of the tank, seat and the fly-screen, before finally painting them. The reason for this is that I have rubbed them down so many times that I am pretty sure the original gel (hard) coat on the outside has almost disappeared and the epoxy resin binding the carbon fibre together is nowhere near as hard and it marks quite easily just with general handling. The priority arose from marks appearing on the seat hump whilst struggling to stretch the ambla over the seat base. I reason that if, when I do pour petrol in the tank and it leaks, I will not be repairing it from the outside anyway so I may as well get ahead with the re-establishment of a tough outer skin for those components. Today a first coat of polyester primer got sprayed onto the tank base, the seat hump and the fly-screen.
Tomorrow I hope to lay down a second primer coat on those already done, spray the tank top with two layers of primer and then on Friday lay down about 5 light and 25% thinned coats of the high gloss on everything.
After this hard coat has cured, it makes sense to paint all parts at the same time first in primer then in topcoat which means that I must very soon make firm decisions on the livery. I wish I knew how to use photoshop so I could play around with a few options before committing to the final spraying.

30-10-2019, 05:33 PM	#1020
350TSS Too much time on my hands member Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Shipbourne Bike: M900 Posts: 1,419	Not much progress made over the last 10 days, even though retired, real life (half term for the youngest) gets in the way sometimes. What little time I have had has mostly been garage clearing and organising stuff. Some small jobs have got done, mounting the solenoid and rubber mounting the 30 Amp RCD (main fuse) to the battery box and making the retaining strap for the battery (5mm bungee looped over a cotton reel and clamped the other side of the battery). Sometimes these little jobs take a lot longer than expected, working out where cable runs are going to go and how you will access things for maintenance and finding and then having to shorten the bolts etc., etc. My upholstery of the seat stalled a bit as the first attempt ended looking naff. The plan to first wrap the whole seat using 6mm foam, capped on the seat base only with one further layer of 6mm and one of 12mm did not work out well as the sides of the seat ended up looking lumpy where I had ground the foam with a drum sander, pulling the ambla really tight exacerbated the issue. Fortunately I did not glue the foam down with Evo stick but rather used double sided carpet tape so it all came off again without damage. I tried putting the bottom layer on the top but had to stretch the 6mm foam to make it fit over the additional thicknesses and then it looked worse when I stretched the ambla over it. One continuous 6mm layer immediately beneath the ambla is the way to go but it means a) re-sanding the two seat base only layers reducing their width by 6mm and b) cutting a new 6mm foam to wrap the seat base layers. I have yet to pour petrol in the tank to test it. I have decided to apply a hard high gloss coat of polyester resin to the outside of the tank, seat and the fly-screen, before finally painting them. The reason for this is that I have rubbed them down so many times that I am pretty sure the original gel (hard) coat on the outside has almost disappeared and the epoxy resin binding the carbon fibre together is nowhere near as hard and it marks quite easily just with general handling. The priority arose from marks appearing on the seat hump whilst struggling to stretch the ambla over the seat base. I reason that if, when I do pour petrol in the tank and it leaks, I will not be repairing it from the outside anyway so I may as well get ahead with the re-establishment of a tough outer skin for those components. Today a first coat of polyester primer got sprayed onto the tank base, the seat hump and the fly-screen. Tomorrow I hope to lay down a second primer coat on those already done, spray the tank top with two layers of primer and then on Friday lay down about 5 light and 25% thinned coats of the high gloss on everything. After this hard coat has cured, it makes sense to paint all parts at the same time first in primer then in topcoat which means that I must very soon make firm decisions on the livery. I wish I knew how to use photoshop so I could play around with a few options before committing to the final spraying.