The Hump

Here few photos while I deal with the blues... The weather this week is looking much better then the pass weeks / months, that's is if it doesn't get too hot now to work on the roof!. Also I now have an M.O.T to do on the car and my sister family car fuel pump needs changing so another job I wasn’t  planning for.
                                     

The photos are old 35mm film stock so unlike digital I couldn't see what I was taking at the time so some photos are better then other and now sometime has passed since they were taking and therefore I can’t remember for sure what each photo is showing, i.e. Plug, Female, male moulds or in which stage of the project they were taking. Most of the photos are of the "solo cowling / Hump"  Finding part for the b4 are hard in the UK when it comes to things like the hump and I don't like the cowling that just fit over the pillion seat. 

The photo with the piece of wood in it is the "plug-Pattern" The plug is coloured black and the mould is the female mould which will be the "master mould" I can tell by the thicker layers of fibreglass in the photo so it will keep it shape when being used for making the male mould (the finished item “hump” and weigh no more then the pillion seat ).  The hump plug was shaped on the bike using car body filler which weigh a ton. You can see the hump plug in the photo which has two other plugs, the hump base plug and the rear light back plat plug. The finished hump “solo cowling” fits on the bike the same way as the pillion seat dose, and can be change around  with the pillion seat within few minutes.




The photo at the top of this post.. Shows the "plug-Pattern"(first stage in making up the hump mould) Made out of car body filler, at this stage I had shot some primer filler and was reshaping to get a better fit around the edges that meets original body panels.The original body panels around the back of the bike have not yet been touch and are still in the original paint colours.

The photo to the left shows the plug and the female mould with the edge cleared up. This is not the edge I speak of in the text below.
In between the two parts is a release agents wax to aid in the break out of the plug and the female moulds.

When finishing off the hump unit I took care to make sure the edge around bottom of hump look as good as you would expect a manfactor body part to look and not like so many aftermartket body part edge look like - unfinished and rough.

The hump to the left is finished.

And the photo below with the graphics which were fixed by me was cut out of numbers of graphics to make up what you see, which I put on after flattening out the paint. The next step was to ply three clear coats over graphics, etc.


If I was making up a hump, etc, today rather then using body fillers, I use... pvc / pu ! foam blocks, foam liquids or even maybe balsawood, or some other similar foam materials to make the plug up. I would have to refresh one's memory!! on how too by  google  "how to" !  which I do all the time these days. I didn't know much about google @ the time of this 1st build.

Previous -1st build

Frustrating weather

The weather in the UK has been dampening my spirits over pass months, I was hoping to have the B4 back in the workshop by end of April 2012. But that hasn’t happen, therefore I’ve got the blues! and it isn’t helping to motivate me to posts more post lately. Here in UK we seen very few dry-shiny-days in-between the pass months and if the heavens don’t stop opening I never get this roof finished off let alone the bike and the month of May hasn’t been any better so far. although posting might be a way of vent my frustration with the weather and dipsticks.

At the beginning of April  just as various agency were telling us we were in a drought the weather began to become unsettled from light to torrential rain within a week the same agency-dipsticks were given out floods warning but still with drought warning in place! "The wrong kind of rain it seams ?"  lol 
This remind me of few years ago when we were being told that the UK is getting hotter and within ten years we will be having summers like Southern France. Before this that we would only be able to grow African type Plants and the summer of 1976 (a hot summer) would become the norm, But haven't their been saying that since 1976   lol

On top of the weather the removing the old roof was lot harder-work than I first thought and has put my schedule behind even more then I would wish for,  I was only able to start the work in November 2011 due to a heavy work loads.  A different story this year 2012... I now have lot of time on my hands but due to the weather can’t make use of it. When it is dry' if not just for few hours its one of few days I more-then likely got work on.
Lucky November 2011 was a much dryer month then usually and by the end of the month I had manage to get the main structural part of the roof done, this included lowering and
replacing main beam with a new heavy deeper/beef-up beam and where this roof meets the garage roof  fitted in a new guttering channel to aid in the removing of rain water off the roofs, replace most rafter with new and then lay-down new OSb3 boards for  main roof area. Only few timbers from the old roof were reused and all the above replace using new C16 structural timbers. 

When the winter weather was started to close-in and getting too cold to carry on, it was time to closed up till sometime in the new year 2012.. Now it would be down to heavy polythene sheeting on a 6’feet wide roll that a bother in-laws give me some years ago and finally has become very handy. 

Being able to restart on the roof in March 2012 to finish off various parts of the roof, like where the end wall meets the roof to make a good join and therefor a good surface for the felt to bond too and in turn keep the rain out which is one of the areas the old roof failed. But everything seams to be taking longer than thought and before I knew it April was here as well as the unsettle weather and its has become a pain every time I wish too or able too that's is if the weather allows me to work on the roof. Having to roll back the polythene sheeting which takes time to uncover and more so when it comes to recovering to the next time having to making sure I recover as well as previous so the building below stay dry, which I’ve manage so far.

 

  

frame a picture

                                                                                                                                                       Previous -1st build

Blending the colours orange and back together, I'm sure I could do a better job today then I did during the first build. If I was to redo the frame in the present (2) build. Which am not, if I can help it..That is. Were the two colours meet/blend? was shoot using a full size spray gun...Today I would use Airbrush or a Touch-up gun to paint this area.                                       


  Although' With all the black plastic panels eventually back on the bike would help to make things look bit better?.The idea behind blending the colours was to highlight only the front end of the frame. I think' I achieve the look I was after which was to make the sexy part of the frame (orange part) stand out from the rest of the frame, by shooting the black on the rear of the frame help to merg this part of the frame and black bodywork-to-become-one. Which in turn helps to highlights orange part of the frame {sexy part} to standout evening more.

                                                                                                                          

                                                    Under all the cover in the photo is the dismantle engine.  

                                                                                                                     

Few' bandit 400 owner swop-out the rider pegs for more races types, although I for-one like the original pegs they also help to hind the ugly block of metal that the original pegs are fix too. With the original pegs polished again adds to the overall look as well as helping highlight the orange frame bit more. You may have notices at the end of the frame' "in the photo showing the pegs" that I forgotten to remove the masting tape and I still haven't got around to removing the tape. Perhaps I get around to it in this second build? The Screw heads where too bad to remove. 

The colours I chose are nothing special, the time it took to find these colours, 'ie' the number of colour chips/books I look through to find what to use and then the right orange to go with the black was. Important thing is, is to use good quality paint and more so with solvents(thinners and lacquers, if used), don't cut corners with these materials' It doesn't pay in the end. Not many rattle aerosol spray can were uesd in the making of this bike. I'm luckily that I have large compressor and spray guns, etc... I'm probably a tool nut as I think you can never have too many tools ! other then were to keep them.

          

            

Clip-On

                                                                                     Present-2nd build

There’s only few items I've brought new for the bike of which these are one of them... They are "polished !"  Clip-On  By  PP Tuning racing parts  although  they were supposed to be polished...Not good enough to go onto my polished forks and still had ridges on the surfaces left over from the milling processes,  Which I sanded out with 120 grit sandpaper then various grits of wet and dry paper before re-polishing.     

Bandit GSF400...forks upgrades

As I mention in a previous post  I've gain a lot of info and more from a great SUZUKI Bandit forum that I couldn't find during the first build. With the newly gain info I was finally able to make  the choice on the GSXR750 forks to do the upgrade to the front-end of my Bandit. The other possible choices I could have gone with were the Thunercat 6 forks that a UK Guy fitted to his 400 bandit. Another was the RGV 250 USD forks which was my first choice that someone in Germany had fitted to his B4.  But at the time was told  that the RGV forks are the same as the gsxr400 and are shorter then the original bandit forks and would lower the front!.

Another possible fitments see the link on my link page is the ZX6R636 forks link-being fitted to an SV650. The SV650 is said to be 99% the same to the 1 ! / 2gen bandits, But I haven't  heard of anyone fitting ZX6R636 forks to a 400 bandit.. Plus being much newer are most likely to cost lot more..as I found.

I could have just upgraded the original bandit forks but I've heard two many of these who have, in the end still charge-out the original forks for something else. The reasons' I went with the 750 forks were many, Although mainly-like the RGV 250 USD.. I like the look of the 750 USD forks and believe them to give the best ride. I wanted something I knew that would work first time off that had already been done. The other good thing with the 1990-1995 forks is that on ebay they are numerous GSXR750 USD forks that can be had for a good price.

The items in the photos regards to the state of polishing have since moved on since those photos were taking.

The GSXR750 forks are the ones' most choose to fit to their bandits in general, although most just throw them straight in without doing anything to them 'ie' paint / polishes..I've gone with polishing them at the moment, the forks are now totally dismantled to replace a seal that was letting the polish's finish down so it had to go. Once dismantle I found the guide bushes, of which there are two of each in each fork tube were getting on the wrong side of worn. (I will go in to this more in a later post)  I will say although, if you need to replace seals/bushes in set of forks that are not original to the bike, and you don't have the "chassis no" for them don't just order an item/s, lets say off ebay that are said to be for the same year as your item's is...It May and more then likely won't be the right size part. Send or take your old worn part into where you are going to buy them. It will save you a lot of time, trouble and money.
I'm been told that the GSXR750 USD fork, 1994 years that I have for mine has many diff. Sizes bushes fitted during 1994s forks.

The USD fork fitted to the GSXR750 bike start from about 1990 in the UK and 1991 in USA but from 1996 the Speedo no longer run off the front wheel so if you choose to use forks from 96 you would need to fit digital Speedo/tach in place of the original Speedo/tach and I wanted to keep the original clocks myself.

Present-2nd build

Bandit GSF400... "Awe-Inspireiring"

First photos shows the bike before I was Inspired to build
My tired SUZUKI GSF400 BANDIT  (Jap/grey Import) More sporty model then the UK model but still the same as every other GSF400 Bandit  jap Import out there.  
                     
        
                                    


Flipping the pages of a motorcycle magazine “STREETFIGHTERS”  awe-Inspireiring experience Were custom builders show off their stunning motorcycles builds, encourage me to build my own. I wouldn’t be able to spend fortune as these guys had. I would have to use the bike I already had, as I couldn’t afford to buy another motorcycles.
The do list: updated the front end, swingarm and possible wider wheels & tires, repaint, etc..
you don’t need to spend fortune too still be unique to yourself !!.

The next Photos Shows Suzuki  bandit After the first build. 

Never did get around to fitting the front end, swingarm, wider wheels & tires because of lack of info that I could find at the time. 










The Suzuki 400 bandit Is now in to the second build due to info gain from a outstanding Suzuki bandit forum. (the forum covers all of the sUZUKI bandit range)
A new to do list, That weren’t done in the first build are now underway after
buying most parts from e-bay..
While that gone on, I follow up with post about the first buildin later posts.


At present the rebuild has come to a stop till a new roof gone on the bike edifice.