Bashing together a metal fairing for a ratty and industrial look

[Steam]

I'm going to make a steel fairing, completely covered in rust by painting it with battery acid. Bashed, dented, nasty and ancient-looking.

I'll take the white plastic bodywork off and use the original attachment points, that shouldn't be too hard.
I'll have to make a cover or cowl for the petrol tank, as I don't want to rust anything vital to the bike.

I'm going to make it out of steel about 0.3 or 0.2 mm thick, so I can cut it with my laughable tin snips, and bend it with ease. Normal roofing iron is about 0.4mm thick.
I thought of doing it from old tin cans riveted together but I think that may be quite noisy and rattly. The rivets would look cool though.

I'm looking for a finish like this below, so I may leave it immersed in the sea for a month or so, then spray it with a sealant to stop the rust infecting or reacting with my bike.

Opinions? Suggestions?

[limbimtimwim]

DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!

That is my suggestion.

[Steam]

Thanks Limbim, you are a man of taste. I know what ZeroIndex will think though!
I'm off to Steel and Tube tomorrow at lunchtime to get the steel, hopefully shouldn't be too much more than $50 or so...

[Sam I Am]

A mate use to do stuff like this he made some wicked mudguards from wok's as they were cheap and come in many sizes and are about the correct light gauge steal too.

[riffer]

You're an inspiration son...

[Pumba]

The ideas you keep coming up with never cese to amaze me.

DO IT, DO IT, DO IT, if for nothing else for those of us that do not have a single creative idea in there body.

[sAsLEX]

Would be careful with sharp angles as come WOF time?


On second thought keep the old fairing and be more creative.

[Steam]

Oh RATS, I went to Steel and Tube (blaady massive place, they have some amazing stuff in there) and the thinnest metal they have is .4mm, the same as corrugated roofing iron. That's too stiff for me to shape and cut properly, with my little hammer and tin-snips.

Maybe I could fabricate it from old cans pop-riveted together. That'd look sick too, with the rivet heads sticking up, yeah!
Or some of the miniature corrugated iron bashed flat, that stuff is the perfect thickness.

Hmm... thinking thinking....

[scumdog]

I'm going to make a steel fairing, completely covered in rust by painting it with battery acid. Bashed, dented, nasty and ancient-looking.

I'll take the white plastic bodywork off and use the original attachment points, that shouldn't be too hard.
I'll have to make a cover or cowl for the petrol tank, as I don't want to rust anything vital to the bike.

I'm going to make it out of steel about 0.3 or 0.2 mm thick, so I can cut it with my laughable tin snips, and bend it with ease. Normal roofing iron is about 0.4mm thick.
I thought of doing it from old tin cans riveted together but I think that may be quite noisy and rattly. The rivets would look cool though.

I'm looking for a finish like this below, so I may leave it immersed in the sea for a month or so, then spray it with a sealant to stop the rust infecting or reacting with my bike.

Opinions? Suggestions?

You've been looking too long at those 'rat-rods' - hot rods built to look like the 'old days' with perfectly good bodies but scuffed up with sanders, acid poured over them, 'real' bullet-holes and thin watery primer paint over the rest - they even paint fibreglass bodies to look 'rusty'!!!

FFS when hot rodding was in its early days they strived to get their cars to look flash and expensive any way they could, NOT make 'em look rougher.

But go with the flattened big sized coffee cans and pop-rivets, I like the cut of your jib young feller-me-lad!!

[Steam]

You've been looking too long at those 'rat-rods'

Oh those are so profoundly cool. Hotrods ain't my thing but those, wheweee!
Here's a couple, one covered in salt at Bonneville.

[scumdog]

Meh, that first one is just a mobile decoration - look at the tyres, the radius-rod/drag-link angles, the tie-rod out on front of the axle etc etc.

Would drive across the car-park in the sucker and i doubt the owner does too - it's all about looks and being cool baby....


The black car with green rims in the background probably cost another $100 - and looks waaay cool too.

[imdying]

Get some alloy sheet and hand beat a 60s GP style fairing

[crashe]

try getting the stuff that planes are made of....

thinner and easier to bend etc...


or find some old signs left on the side of the road.... that metal is easy to bend as well.