Fibreglass fairing

**ZorsT** · 6th February 2007, 09:32

Well, since I smashed one of my fairings a while back, I decided to build me another.

(on the attempt that worked) I started by covering my old fairing in sticky tape (the wide stuff). Epoxy does not stick to the shiny side of sticky tape.
I did my best to ensure there were no air bubbles under the tape.
Next I cut the fibreglass cloth into strips of different sizes. (I learnt from the failed attempt that you should have it pre cut, and many smaller pieces make it way easier to do well)
The smallest pieces were about 2 inches wide and about eight inches long.
I then mixed up a small batch of resin
(the failed attempt also taught me that its easier to work with a small batch of resin, because it hardens much more slowly)
and painted it onto the fairing with a paintbrush. I put fibreglass cloth down onto the wet resin (rubber gloves are good) and then painted more resin on top. More cloth went down. I did a total of 2 to 3 layers.
I then let it dry and mixed up some more resin, but then put in some glue powder in with it. I did one more layer of cloth with this glue powder and let it dry.
Once it dried I took the worst of the lumps out (sandpaper) and 'cut' the edges of the cloth to the shape of the fairing. I used a mouse sander to get good edges.
It is much easier to cut the edges off when the resin is only half set.

The final layer was only glue powdered resin (its easier to sand) and was quite thick (quite a bit of glue powder in with the resin mix)

I still have many hours of sanding before it gets painted, but I think its going to be a winner.
The black fairing is the 'good' one I copied. The tape is still on it, has been for a number of weeks.

**Colapop** · 6th February 2007, 10:15

So you just copied the new direct from the old one? I mean you didn't make a plug or a mould? I've got a couple of bits to fix and just thinking about fibreglassing some duplicates. How did you spend?

**ZorsT** · 6th February 2007, 10:30

Thats right. I suppose, I used the old fairing as a plug.
The fibreglass cloth was $7 a metre (I used about 1.5m all up) (6oz) and the glue was like $40 for 1.25L (1L of stuff, and 250ml of hardner)
The glue powder was about $16 for .333 kg (goes a LONG way), but dad already had some so I stole his.

The origional was an absolute failure. Was an expensive mistake.

**Colapop** · 6th February 2007, 10:35

I've done a little bit of fibreglassing so I'm not totally new to it. Iwas thinking of gluing the bits together, then making a fibreglass mould and using that to make the bit I need - headlight fairing...? Hmmm I want to but I don't want to waste cash for no reason...

**ZorsT** · 6th February 2007, 10:36

The main things I did wrong on the first one was:

-- Made a large batch of resin (goes hard in the contianer while you're still trying to glue stuff)
-- Didn't pre cut the fibreglass cloth (resin was going off while I was trying to cut the cloth)
-- tried to do it with the fairing still on the bike (the bottom part sagged down)
-- Tried to do it without taking the screen off first (less pronounced edges)
-- The pieces of fibreglass cloth I cut were too big (made lots of bubbles)

**ZorsT** · 6th February 2007, 10:39

Originally Posted by Colapop

I've done a little bit of fibreglassing so I'm not totally new to it. Iwas thinking of gluing the bits together, then making a fibreglass mould and using that to make the bit I need - headlight fairing...? Hmmm I want to but I don't want to waste cash for no reason...

Doing it that way would mean WAY less sanding at the end.

**Colapop** · 6th February 2007, 10:40

I've got a couple of really good articles (on my work PC) that I can send you if you like. Some really good tips and tricks in there. They focus on boat building but I assume the same theory applies. Just PM me your email addy.

**classic zed** · 6th February 2007, 14:05

Loads of time needed though, here is one we did for a film.

the model in the first pic is what we had to make the KTM in the second pic look like.

First we stuck green foam onto it and carved out the shape, then a layer of glass over the top to give a hard shell, once the plug was finished we made moulds and produced the glass bodies.

lots of priming, sanding and painting later they were finished.

**classic zed** · 6th February 2007, 14:05

aftre much work they looked like this

We even built a Quad Bike

**Colapop** · 6th February 2007, 16:08

Where do you get the foam from?

**classic zed** · 7th February 2007, 18:49

Originally Posted by Colapop

Where do you get the foam from?

We got the foam from a company that makes it for insulation, there are lots of different densities of foam some are easier to work than others.

All of the pieces in the pictures were hand formed and finished, lots of bog, lots of primer and lots of sanding to get a satisfactory plug, then you have to make metal brackets to attach the new pieces to the bike, I made them out of Aluminium to save weight.

You could try the local yellow pages for "Insulation" then ring around, you might be able to get some offcuts or seconds that cant be used for building.

Have fun