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Refreshing Glenlivet's ride

It was a messy day, with rain compressing the snow and freezing on contact with bare ground, rendering driveways into skating rinks. It was a good day to just hunker down and deal with the nasty task of grinding down all those fiberglass repairs and modifications. Donning coveralls and rubber gloves, cuffs taped, dust mask and eye protection in place, I did Sand The Floor for hours. It was worth it!

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First with a grinder, then with a DA sander I worked on the seam around the tub.

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Then on to the patch that filled the hole where the OEM recessed headlight had been. Miyagi-San stopped me before I thought I had removed enough to show me the problem wasn't that my patch was too thick, but that the Hannigan tub had a low spot near the middle of the nose. Sometimes he sees defects like that, and sometimes he discovers them by feel. I'm so fortunate to have his expertise in my corner!

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The scoop took form as I sanded, but Miyagi-San wasn't happy with the transition between the tub and the swell, so the low spot will be filled with glass matting then resanded.

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You can see how far off the back seam was in this photo. On the left side of the trunk all that remains of the fiberglass repair is about an inch, while the misaligned right side needed much more glass to cover it. Dead center is a low spot that will need another layer of glass.

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The fender also had a few low spots that needed more attention.

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And the previously identified low spot on the truck was patched.
 
With just a few more tiny fiberglass repairs to line up on the tub, and the glass repairs so far ground or sanded to near their final form, I moved on to filler. I used Chrome a Lite, a two-part filler that dries in minutes and can be sanded to identify high spots that need more sanding, and to fill slight depressions. The initial layer is very thin and applied with moderate pressure so it completely fills pinholes; once that's done it's much like spreading frosting on a cake, albeit one with curves and hollows.

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It's a bit easier to spread (and sand) on flat surfaces like the back of the tub.

Fifteen minutes under a heat lamp and it's ready to sand. And sand. And sand. I use a dual action sander only to knock off the ridges. After that it's all done by hand, using care to follow existing curves. After a few minutes of sanding high spots in the fiberglass begin to show through the green filler. Those high spots are then ground or sanded down till slightly below grade, then another layer of filler is applied, allowed to dry, and sanded till the desired curvature is obtained with no high spots showing or detected by feel.

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To the right in the above photo you can see where I've sanded down a large high spot to reveal the pink glass beneath (and some of the black gelcoat). An additional coat of filler will be applied to that area, then sanded till it matches the contour of the rest of the fender, which at this point is just about perfect.
 
I'm impressed with all the effort you're putting into this. But it's all a labour of love, for the dogs, eh?
 
I'm impressed with all the effort you're putting into this. But it's all a labour of love, for the dogs, eh?

It is for the love of a dog, yes. I'd travel with my wife, but find her screams distracting. Glenlivet has absolute faith in my riding abilities, never criticizes my dietary choices, listens to my every word as if it's the most profound thing he's ever heard, and snuggles better.
 
Looking at all your pictures gives me a memory smell of working in an auto body shop 30+ years ago. Oh to grind on a Corvette again. Good job, I like what you are doing.
 
Maybe I shouldn't have started on the most difficult part. Those compound curves on the fender just seemed to leave me frustrated today! I'd get a curve perfect, but identify a high spot on another part of the fender, apply a layer of filler, let it dry, and in the process of sanding the bad spot would alter the previously perfect curve. More filler, more sanding, and the same mistake would surface in a different spot.

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After four attempts Miyagi-San took pity on me (or noticed I was using up his filler) and with four deft strokes applied a perfect layer of filler.

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I'll leave it overnight and get a fresh start in the morning. Meanwhile there were holes in the trunk lid that needed to be filled. The luggage rack I used was designed for a Givi topcase, and two of the mounts were angled. I got them to work, but the fasteners and mounts didn't line up. Gotta get it perfect, so heated the rack and straightened the mounts, then sanded a shallow depression over the existing holes and glassed over them. After the tub has been reassembled I'll remount the luggage rack with all the pieces-parts properly aligned.

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In the process of sanding the tub I exposed an air bubble on the leading edge of the air scoop. After carefully cutting out the weak spot I realized there wasn't enough material left, so will use what's left as a framework to support another few layers of fiberglass matting, then will form the leading edge with fiberglass cloth.

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Miyagi-San had some filler left over, so I used it on the rear quarter of the tub

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Frontal view with the lid gently put in place so you can see the new look. Notice the slight bulge of the air scoop behind the nose to the right in the photo. Kolbock, the shop dog, ensures I put all my stuff away at the end of each day by picking up and relocating tools left out.

I'll get a good night's sleep and start fresh in the morning.
 
Have you realized yet that when the chair is all finished, by comparison the bike will look like crap and the whole process will start over once again ??? :):):)

Friedle
 
After this, you'll be so good at working with fibreglass that you'll have to find an old Sting Ray to restore. :)
 
Have you realized yet that when the chair is all finished, by comparison the bike will look like crap and the whole process will start over once again ??? :):):)

Friedle

The chair will be transferred to my 2012 GSA, which will be painted to match. So I hope the rig will pass muster...

And Rinty - the board I use to mix and hold the filler is a square cut out of an old Corvette Stingray hood!
 
Nice work! Would it help to incorporate a metal bead into the leading edge of the scoop, just to help protect it from impacts or pressures?

Best,
DG
 
Nice work! Would it help to incorporate a metal bead into the leading edge of the scoop, just to help protect it from impacts or pressures?

Best,
DG

Not a bad idea! That area, especially in left turns, gets a bit of road grit thrown at it.
 
Success at last! After a restful night of Scotch-assisted sleep it all came together this morning. The Chromealite filler behaved itself during sanding and was carefully blown free of all dust to prepare for the next step.

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A two-part poly with the consistency of Elmer's Glue was applied. It flowed into every little scratch and pinhole, hardening in a few minutes.

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While much harder to sand, by the time I stepped down to 220 grit it looked fantastic! I'm very pleased with how the fender's curves flow into each other!

Yesterday's fiberglass patches on the trunk lid were sanded flat with a DA, then covered with a layer of filler which will be sanded down tomorrow. I had some filler left, so before it hardened I covered a few small patches on the tub.

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Once the sanding is done, those parts can be set aside so the tub can go back on the work table. I'll prop it up till I have a good angle for filling in the large air bubble on the scoop.
 
With the filler on the fender and the fender's curves all looking good, it was time to find and fill the pinholes and small depressions with polyester glaze (sometimes called icing). The white spots you see below are minuscule defects filled with glaze.

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Then I sanded the plastic filler covering a multitude of small fiberglass repairs. It took some time because of the compound curves (the shot below starts as a concave curve but as you drop down a few inches it reverses to convex), plus the awkwardness of trying to hold the sidecar in place with one foot while using both hands to control the long board sander.

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Some more sanding on the seam between the sidecar halves. The plastic looks good, but all those small holes will need to be filled with glaze.

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Another go at the trunk lid got it looking better.

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All this sanding makes for an unholy mess!

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Then on to the air bubble on the air scoop. Flashing back to the dental rotation of my Navy medical training, I carefully removed all the "decay," then bevelled the edge for better adhesion.

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Resin was worked into the far reaches of the cavity, then using popsicle sticks I worked fiberglass matt into the void, tamping it down with resin and adding layer after layer till the depression was gone.

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On Monday I'll grind off the whiskers, smooth out the contours, and rebuild the leading edge of the scoop

But we needed a day off, so this morning Glenlivet and I drove (it was ten below zero so no bike) the four hours down to join Max BMW in Hoosick NY for their winter celebration!

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Another "Step Back" day. It's Sunday, so a short day was planned. I was going to sand a bit, but the more I sanded the more flex I noticed on the scoop where there shouldn't have been any. So I whipped out the dental drill on steroids and cut away a small section that gave a bit when I pressed it. Found a void beneath it and kept extracting more till I reached "healthy tissue". It was a huge hole! It looks like the portion of the foam mold that had been backed with duct tape just sort of dissolved as the resin had cured; the foam with the 3M adhesive was still intact, but the entire area had to be fixed.

It's funny how military training comes in handy long after your service is over. Oddly enough it's my training as a Navy Independent Duty Corpsman, and not the later more focused PA training, that I fall back on most often. While I only had one dental emergency on the ships I served - EN2 Rodriguez broke BM3 Ramirez' eye tooth when a tough spare rib he was trying to pull apart gave way suddenly - we spent a lot of time practicing the art of removing cavities. Removing the weak portions of the scoop reminded me a lot of that. I didn't get a photo of the hole as I had rubber gloves on at the time and the iPhone requires skin contact to come to life, but below is a photo of the hole half filled as I mixed another batch of resin. It's about 2.5 inches wide by 3.5 inches long.

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Once again I used popsicle sticks to wedge the glass matting into the edges of the abscess. Layer after layer of matting built up the patch till at the end the repair was about 5mm above the surrounding area. Tomorrow I'll grind it down and sculpt it, secure in the knowledge that the scoop now has a solid foundation.

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With a moment of silence for my friends who have not yet retired and were starting yet another work week at a company where their contributions are no longer valued, I drove the three miles to Miyagi-San's shop and dove right in. First up was the coarse sculpting of the air scoop. It's looking pretty good, and tomorrow I'll work on shaping the leading edge.
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A small metal guide had been riveted into the side of the lid. When I drilled out the rivet a bit of filler fell out revealing another hole; yet another example of "if you don't get it right the first time, just drill another hole" during assembly. In the photo below I've ground the area down a couple millimeters and will put a fiberglass patch over it. Later, I can redrill in the proper location. (And no, it's not a potato.)
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The forward edge where the two halves mated was a bit wavy, so I applied plastic filler then sanded it down to restore the hard edge. Later, when the entire seam has been covered, I'll have a better feel for where the edge should be and how to transition from curved to relatively flat sections.
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I did the same to the back seam.
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All the while Miyagi-San's 12 year old dog, Shayna, kept watch from the comfort of the radiant floor heat.
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