Thought i would do something interesting with my 21 year old CBR600.

On a whim, bought a single sided swing arm on gaybay whilst ****ed (cos I've always hankered after one) which came complete with wheel, shock, caliper etc.

then decided on a whim whilst ****ed on gaybay, to buy afront wheel to match the back one (bit scabby, but will need powder coating anyway)

Realised, that the front wheel was wider, and so wouldn't fit in existing forks, so on a whim, whilst ****ed, bought a set of forks on gaybay (a pattern is emerging here, isn't it)

Wanted some more mean looking bodywork, so on a whim, whilst on holiday (and so a bit ****ed) logged onto gaybay. Think you can guess what happened.

Am now the owner of a set of race VFR400 bodywork, which will need altering to suit. Oh, and off the same fella, bought an sp1.

The missus just loved that, when I came home with that, too!

And at least I've got a toy to play with whilst I work on the old bike!!

Any way, am now on a nightly round of rebuilding forks etc, or glass fibre work.

need something to do. I'm not allowed on ebay anymore......

Any way. have got some goodies back from the vapour blasters

Before:

After:

also having to move the motor over in the frame slightly to allow the sprockets to line up properly. might have to tweak the front and back sprockets to get the last couple of mil.

got a little bit of powder coating done.

Think you'll agree it turned out rather nice.

Did a bit of bolting together

things are progressing rather nicely.

Done a bit more

So, now to the exhaust.

I wanted the can on the left hand side, RC30-esque, which posed a problem.

The following pics show how I have started to deal with the problem.

I have an akropovic can (I think, from an R1, I was given it) This will need some baffles making, cos it's straight through at the minute, and I'm not really into very noisy pipes. This may also need shortening somewhat.

will post more pics when I get more garage time.

So after a bit of time in the garage, have the link pipe all tacked up and ready to weld. (I will do that when I have offered the chain up, to make sure of no interference)

I am going to space to footpeg hangers out, on one side to allow clearance for the swinging arm, and on the other so my foot doesny get melted to the exhaust link pipe. I will put a heat guard on there as well.

got some loverly powder coating back:

Inspired by this:

I decided I wanted to to something similar.

Unfortunately, There is nobody who supplied blocks of acrylic of the size I wanted without first removing a kidney, So had to go down a different route.

This is what I started with:

First thing was to spray the tailpiece black.(as this will be the colour of the bike, so don't wat white showing through tail-light.)

The lights £3 from th'ebay:

I had to dim one set down with lens tint. One for tail light and one for brake light.

Anyway, These are they fitted:

And lit:

That's as far as I've got today.

The plan is to use clear cast resin and encase the LEDs, sand back and polish. Like a massive diamond.

I am hoping that this works. if not I will post back with photo's of a disaster and a ruined tyga tail unit.

Right then. Got some sealant and made up the "shuttering" from some pieces of 3mm acrylic:

It doesn't look that pretty but should do the job.

The insides of these pieces were waxed three times with mould release wax and coated with PVA release agent, so should come off the resin realatively easily when the time comes.

They were attached and sealed using silicon sealant. I know that this can have an effect on paint finish, but There will be ****loads of sanding to do before then, so I am hoping that it will not be a problem by the time the paint is applied.

Just a waiting game now for the sealant to go solid, before a deep breath and potentially scrapped tail unit..............

So. sealant gone off and it is the moment of truth.

I used this stuff:

I mixed about 750ml, using around 1.5% catalyst. I didn't want to cure it too fast, as I don't know what effect this would have on the clarity of the cured resin.

So, the poured casting:

I was worried at first about the air bubbles that were trapped in the resin. Spent 20 minutes tapping the acrylic to work the bubbles to the top. There are a few tiny ones, but nothing to worry about, I don't think.

It was taking a worrying amount of time to gel, so buggered off for my dinner. (Roast chicken dinner with yorkshire puddings)

Went back out about half an hour ago to check and it had gelled OK. It has quite a lot of heat coming from it though, which I expected, as it is such a large solid mass of resin. (I have seen resin combust in the past due to the exothermic reaction as a result of too much catalyst)

Again it is now a waiting game till at least tomorrow night to see the result after the removal of the shuttering.......

Got up ten minutes early this morning to take the acrylic off and see the results.

I am rather pleased. There's loads of sanding and a bit of touching up round one edge, but on the whole, pleased with the outcome:

Time to get busy with the whizzy.

Finished work yesterday. Three days off. Whoo-hoo.

So went back into garage for a bit of sandage this morning.

Got the resin to the basic required shape with an air operated orbital sander nicked liberated from my old work. Basic shape done with P40 disc. will work up to 400 grit before polishing. Then there will be a little more to add, just to smooth the odd radius out to create the effect of the resin being part of the tail unit itself.

quite pleased with it so far.

Preliminary results:

A bit more polishing to do once I have filled a couple of parts I'm not happy with and sanded back again, Then might mask off and prime the seat unit. can't stand looking at it half painted and sanded back. It looks like some boy racer's half finished bodykit.

You need to stop drinking before going on Ebay otherwise it will end up with a jet engine, ,but good luck with the build ,it's looking good so far ,not sure on the tail light but fair play for doing your own thing as that's what makes it stand out from the usual aftermarket stuff.Looking forward to seeing how this progresses.

Interesting thread, something different as well

Just love it! Good on you, and a great machine in the making

Really liking this great winter project, keep the updates coming, well done.

So, Pics of the finished article.

Just sanding tail unit now in preparation for at least a bit of primer.

Can't believe you just made that yourself. What a genius!

Can't believe you just made that yourself. What a genius!

Cheers.

I didn't make the whole seat unit though. Just the clear glassy bit at the end.

Pleased you like it, though.