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Refreshing Glenlivet's ride

Arrived this morning to find yesterday's fiberglass refinishing well cured and ready to grind and sculpt. It's a messy job, and airborne fiberglass finds every opening in protective gear and ITCHES, so I taped all my cuffs and doused myself with baby powder.
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It looked pretty good after the excess was ground off and a couple reinforcing layers of glass cloth were added to the leading edge.
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Ready for a layer of plastic filler
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With the scoop in roughly its final form, I applied filler to the entire length. Through LOTS of sanding I'll be able to blend the side of the tub into the curve of the air scoop.
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The shop temp was about 54F today, so the filler didn't want to cure till I put a heat lamp on it. There was nothing to do after that but sit back and watch the plastic filler dry.
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Eventually it dried. I filed off the high ridges, then used a curved longboard with 80 grit sandpaper to rough sand it, carefully transitioning from one curved surface to the next. It will need more attention units, but is coming along nicely.
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I get itchy by just watching this thread...:laugh

I dislike fiberglass work just for that reason. I worked in a fiberglass shop and also spent countless hours on friend's boats putting in stringers, transoms and decks to know what it takes to do this. :bow

Looking good so far!!:thumb:thumb
 
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I've been experimenting (trial and error method) with different ways of dealing with the section where the gentle curve of the back of the tub morphs into a distinct angle in front of the cutout for one of the struts connecting the bike to the subframe. Do I carry the hard angle back to the flare of the scoop? Do I carry the gentle curve forward from the scoop? I tried both ways and ended up applying more plastic fill and trying again. That's what you see in the photo.

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Finally I decided to try treating the section above the cutout as something unique, not trying to match either end of the tub but just rounding it and blending each end of that section to the shapes on each respective part of the tub. That seemed to work better, but I'd sanded too much off the upper curve of the air scoop so had to build that portion up again. More filler.

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While I reserve the right to change my mind, I think that approach works best of all. A little filler added to the inside of the scoop to eliminate the mud and bug catching irregular surface of the fiberglass which, in that cramped location, had been applied using the Braille Technique. And voila!

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Then on to the swingarm. I hadn't intended to do anything with this as Hannigan had recently rebuilt it to correct a manufacturing defect (no charge though the rig had 80,000 miles on it at that point - kudos to Hannigan!) but it was pretty badly pitted by road grit and portions were beginning to rust. In for a penny, in for a pound. It had to come apart and be refinished.

Question for the experts: Can the tub shock be mounted upside down as shown? Since new I noticed a loud clang whenever I went over bumps with the camber control set low. I looked all over for the source of the noise and never found it...till the rig came apart. On the swingarm, just to the right of the shock in this photo, you can see a gouge in the metal where the shock was impacting the swingarm. With the shock inverted, the long "neck" of the shock clears the swingarm but I'm not sure if that would create other problems.

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A trip to the parts cleaner was called for. The bearings look good but are inexpensive, so might as well replace them.

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Disassembled, with some parts destined for the sandblast cabinet then epoxy prime before deciding on the final finish
 
Shocks can't be mounted upside down as a general rule as it has to do with the separation of oil and gas in the upper chamber inside. However, I would ask the manufacturer of that shock if it is feasible.
Some shocks are horizontally mounted, but I believe that are build for that application as well.. :dunno
 
Dec14A.jpg
View of the nose after two light applications of plastic filler to eliminate a wave in the original fiberglass. The high spots visible on either side of the green filler post-sanding tell me I need another light layer. The waviness in the original fiberglass was just barely visible, but I could see it against the straight edge of the lightbar.

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When I started fiberglassing the unsightly seam between the halves of the tub last month, I started on the side facing the bike figuring that my skills would improve as I gained experience, so the side the public saw should be the last part I did. It worked out well. By the time I got to the right side of the tub I'd already made every imaginable mistake and learned from each. The right side was nearly perfect, with only a few very slight imperfections that need plastic filler.

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Even though the shallow spot was less than two inches across, to avoid ripples each layer of plastic filler has to cover the entire width of the area being worked. All this fresh filler has to cure, then be sanded with care to the desired curve

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I mixed almost enough filler to coat the entire right side...but not quite. I'll catch the residual on the next layer. In the meanwhile, more sanding.

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As I sand the light green filler, high spots show as the black gelcoat is exposed. All the truly high spots had previously been ground down and covered with fresh fiberglass. The two large black spots in this photo are about a millimeter higher than the filler around them. So more filler, more sanding

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The next sanding reveals no major high spots remaining. I sand away the filler till the gelcoat just begins showing in multiple locations and the surface is free of waves and ripples. The darkest spot up forward is not a high spot, but where the side of the tub begins curving into the narrow nose. I've placed the clamshell lid atop the tub in this shot. Because it needed no modifications and there were fewer imperfections, most of it is still covered in gray primer.

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Frontal view with the lid in place shows one small high spot on the right, but it's barely noticeable by feel and will be behind the lightbar.
 
Dec15A.jpg
Work on the nose continues as I shift from the bottom half to the top. There are some significant waves in the original fiberglass with as much as 1.5mm variation from the high spot to the low spots. Over the years I've noticed the waves when the light was just right, but it never bothered me all that much. To Miyagi-San, a retired autobody perfectionist, it was an affront! The rig must be perfect before it leaves his shop. So I mixed up a batch of plastic filler and using the widest applicator, spread a relatively thick layer on the nose. The first layer goes on heavy and is sanded down till the high spots appear. Subsequent layers are much thinner, but are also sanded down till just a thin film remains. Remember from previous posts that the truly egregious high spots had been ground down and repaired with fiberglass, then topped with glaze. When I mention filler I'm not talking about your grandfather's Bondo.

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Post-cure, with sanding well underway. When dealing with straights, curves, and transitional compound curves one must be careful and use a variety of sanding blocks. I appear to be getting the hang of it.

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The propane delivery truck showed up at noon. With the paint booth now usable, Miyagi-San pushed his 150cfm compressor outside and setup his sandblaster. It was a fine Vermont day, bright and sunny, so I carried the subframe outside and prepared to sandblast it.

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Dressed like an Ewok, I blasted the subframe (pausing so my mentor could flip it for me) then the swingarm which I had forgotten to do in my cabinet blaster. As soon as the backlog of paint jobs clears the paint booth, the freshly blasted parts will get epoxy primed.

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Dec17A.jpg
A bit day in the shop. After three iterations the hump on the nose is nearly gone. The shot above was taken after the second application of plastic filler. As you can see I still have a hot spot, so more filler, more sanding and

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Close but no cigar! I got 75% of the high spot, but missed the bottom part. So the DA sander came out and more of the original fiberglass hump was removed

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Any spot that is more than 1mm higher than the surrounding surface is sanded down like so, then covered with plastic filler (much better than your grandfather's Bondo) and sanded down. Repeat as needed. If there is less than 1mm difference, it's handled with filler.

Tomorrow this will be coated with a light layer of filler, then sanded down. I expect the result will be a perfectly smooth surface ready for glazing, then priming.

Now on to the subframe.

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Sandblasted yesterday, the subframe was ready for two good coats of epoxy prime. Here it is hanging in the paint booth.

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It costs a lot to operate a paint booth, especially in Vermont winters. So when priming, you cram as many jobs into the booth as possible. In the back is my subframe, in the middle the front bumper off a Lincoln, and in the foreground hanging like windchimes are the smaller components of my subframe and swingarm accompanied by parts from a vintage Porsche being restored.

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Not sure if you can see it, but just to the left of the nut in this photo is a horizontal crack. There are about 75,000 hard miles on this subframe, with many of them on rough Forest Service roads at high rates of speed, so metal fatigue is not unexpected. While this crack will be easy to fix, it was a good reminder to check the subframe annually.

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All the pieces-parts post cure cycle will spend the night hanging like wind chimes behind the Ferrari.
 
Much sanding today, but first I removed from the paint booth and inspected all the freshly primed parts. There were a few small spots missed by the spray gun, but overall coverage was excellent!
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Then back to Sand The Floor. While my plastic filler application skills still need some work, thanks to all the mistakes I'm getting pretty good at sanding! The nose is nearly perfect, though I didn't extend the filler high enough to take in the ripples between the lid hinges. Will start on that tomorrow. There's also a rather prominent bump on the lower half that I'd been intending on ignoring since it's in an out of the way spot, but the perfection bug has been biting lately. I'll sand down the gelcoat and possibly some of the original fiberglass in the morning, then hit it with filler and sandpaper.
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I started sanding the rear as well; it will need some attention units tomorrow with the long board to remove some minor ripples.
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This reminds me of the many applications of fiberglass and fillers I applied to my first car. I think I turned 80% of it into dust.
 
This reminds me of the many applications of fiberglass and fillers I applied to my first car. I think I turned 80% of it into dust.

You'd be surprised at how much all that dust weighs by the time it's all said and done.... At the plant I worked at, it was collected and used as filler for the cheaper parts we made....:eek
 
This reminds me of the many applications of fiberglass and fillers I applied to my first car. I think I turned 80% of it into dust.

I think my percentage of dust is closer to 98%. It seems pointless, till I run my hand across the surface and find it nearly perfect!

But today was a disheartening failure. The latest batch of filler I mixed must not have had enough hardener. It never fully cured and I ended up having to remove all of it as well as some of the previous layer. Huge step backwards!

I also found a manufacturing defect while I was sanding off the grit-damaged powdercoat at the rear of the bike's subframe. It perfectly matched the curve of a cutting wheel, so I used one to grind out the powdercoat and widen the slit so it could be repaired by a TIG weld.
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The end result was pretty good! Concerned that there might be more issues hidden by the powdercoating, I used a small DA to sand the rest off and inspect the metal. I found no more, but in retrospect should have just sandblasted the subframe along with the other one.

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My day in the shop was cut short by strident demands from the Wife Unit to address items on the Honeydew List. I did manage to sandblast the bike subframe down to bare metal; it's now ready for epoxy priming. Looks like Friday is going to be devoted to improvements on the shop's air system, but here is the bare naked subframe

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Those frame elements all look pretty beefy...just curious what the whole sidecar rig weighs?

Thanks so much for taking the time to document your process. It's been very interesting and very informative.
 
Ride

Looking at pictures of the front of sidecar on post 46 with a bit of creative painting and some whiskers you could make it look like Glenlivet is riding in a big ole catfish :) people would love that in Tennessee next June.
 
Looking at pictures of the front of sidecar on post 46 with a bit of creative painting and some whiskers you could make it look like Glenlivet is riding in a big ole catfish :) people would love that in Tennessee next June.

I thought about getting creative with painting the nose, but with the lightbar and skidplate up front the art would just sort of disappear. Sure could have had some fun with that!
 
Ride

Forgot about you mentioning light bars etc. now any members good with photoshop?
This fiberglass work kind of reminds me of drywall work a expert can put on way less material not do very much sanding and have it look better!
On another has anyone had the “talk” with Glenlivet about how he better appreciate all this work you’re doing for him? :)
 
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The nose is finally coming together well and though many layers of plastic filler have been applied, each has been sanded down to expose high spots which are then reduced in height and covered with the next skim layer of filler...and the process repeats. Vertical and horizontal ripples in the front and sides of the nose are now gone, so I applied a skim layer to the curve where those two sections meet. Once those curves integrate gracefully into each other, I'll be done with this section.
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Top photo is fresh skim. Notice how much better I'm applying it these days? I've moved beyond the toddler applying frosting to his first cake level and might actually be getting the hang of this! The second photo shows the sanding half done. The curves are right, but the filler must be sanded down (maintaining those curves) till just a tiny bit of it remains.

In the process of detail sanding around the cockpit opening I uncovered yet more air pockets left over from the original manufacturing process. Because Hannigan uses a gel coat most of these are never seen, but some are exposed when even a light impact cracks the paint and reveals their presence. In this case, light contact with the lid when it was closed caused these pockets to peek out from where they were hiding. I probably could have drilled them out a bit and filled them with plastic, but the gold standard is a fiberglass repair. The pockets were exposed and the area surrounding them was ground down a bit so the fiberglass patch wouldn't protrude above grade. Tomorrow I'll sand it level
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Then on to the previously discovered crack in the subframe. This plate is one of the highest stressed mounts on the rig. The original Hannigan subframe was showing the effects of my riding style in just 15,000 miles. Claude Stanley's team at Freedom Sidecars rebuilt and reinforced it, which did fine for an additional 75,000 hard miles.
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In the process of removing that mount I noticed that the steel plate was bent as well. No big surprise there. It was bent back with a large sledge, the crack was ground to a V-groove on both sides and will be welded. I've also decided to add another metal plate beneath it. Not just a gusset, but a plate the full size of the existing one edge welded together and to the subframe. That should do me for another couple hundred thousand miles especially, since I'm now retired, I don't actually have to rush my adventures in order to keep HR off my back!
 
After several days of high temps in the teens and lows below zero, things warmed up and it rained. Rain hitting ground that cold turns to ice. And ice, especially since Vermont is mostly hills, makes for difficult travel. On Friday I almost made it up Miyagi-san's steep driveway, but not quite. As the AWD RAV4 with studded snow tires started sliding backwards I used throttle, brakes and steering to keep it centered between the drainage ditches on either side, impressed the heck out of his neighbor by making a sliding 90 degree turn in reverse, sliding between her truck and a split rail fence, then sliding another 200 yards to the town road which had been heavily sanded. It looked like skill, but the pucker factor was high!

Today his driveway had been sanded, so it was back to work. I flipped the sidecar over to make it easier for me to sand the bottom half, but with reading glasses in place noticed that the fiberglass around one of the rear mounting points was cracked. Badly. In fact, with light pressure I could push the glass down a quarter inch. The soft section was a near perfect outline of one of the small aluminum blocks used to lift the body. When I had first seen that years ago I was uncomfortable with it; it seemed to me that having the support run the full width of the tub would have provided much more support. Looks like I was right on that score, so when I remount the tub that's how I'll do it.

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So I used a small knife to dig out the bad section, but it soon became evident that there was a lot of debridement required. So I moved on to a burr grinder and carefully ground away till the edges were in healthy tissue.

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I feathered the edges and sanded off the gel coat, layed down two sections of fiberglass cloth, then built up the area with glass matting.

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Tomorrow I'll use a long board to sand the repair level with the good side, then flip the rig and reinforce the other side with more glass.
 
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