Trike Conversion

[Pappy]

This is the last of the repairs to the Harley. I had a corner on the top of the tour-pak that was broken off. I decided to eliminate the rear mounted antenna and install a hidden antenna inside the fairing. There were also stress cracks at the lower hinges.

Reenforcement of the hinge area and inside of antenna hole fill.



Outside of antenna hole fill. Picture was before filling the pin holes.



After a couple of failed attempts at rebuilding the corner I came up with this idea.

First, grind in down and square off the missing section and rough up the area with 36 grit paper.



Make a 2 piece mold using the good corner as a pattern.



With the inside mold temporarily clamped in place I laid 3 strips of fiberglass mat on the outside, taped the outside mold in place,added 3 layers of mat in the missing section, then 2 layers on the inside. After clamping the molds together I let it cure overnight.



The rough repair after removing the molds.





After cutting off the excess, I sanded and shaped the repair with 150 grit paper and rattle can primed it to check for pinholes.



Tomorrow I will use glazing putty to smooth everything out, wet sand all parts to be painted with 320 grit, and shoot the primer.

[cabinetman]

That looks like it will be a good repair. The mat if well saturated has some good strength. Good idea to make a form. I did that on a car trunk that had a rusted out lip on the body. It was a small groove that catches water off the trunk lid. The groove ran all around the trunk area and had a rubber gasket that pushed on a vertical edge. Well, the groove part for a portion of it was just all rusted away.

So, similar to what you did, I made a form to create the groove and edge for the gasket. Trick was to maintain an edge to put new rubber on.

.

[Pappy]

Progress report....

I got the last of the fill work done yesterday and all the pieces wet sanded and ready to paint. I was hoping to set up the 'paint booth' and lay the primer but my wonderful neighbor decided to play with his bee hives. Of course he had on net gear but the bees were irritated and started swarming to me. After getting stung 4 times I gave it up until he was finished. By the time all the sanding was done it was too late to paint.

This morning I picked up some plastic at Lowe's to wrap the work deck for painting, picked up the base coat and clear coat, and grabbed a couple of box fans from my storage unit. I got the booth set up and layed the primer then stopped to eat lunch. After lunch everything got sanded with 600 grit, wiped down, tack ragged, and the base coat applied.

I ordered some vinyl grapfhics from an outfit caled 'Twisted Chrome' and started to put them on tonight. I put 2 silver stars on the fenders about midway between the taillights and the bottom of the fenders and 2 smaller stars either side of the license plate on the trunk lid. These had straight lines and were easy to align. The other 3 are 2 color scroll work to match the pinstripes. The 2 smaller ones will go low on the front of the trike fenders and the large one will go on the fairing.

I decided it was too late and I didn't want to screw up the alighnment so I called it for the night. In the morning I will apply them and put the guide tape for the pinstripes on while I wait for it to warm up. As soon as it does, I will paint on the stripes, let them cure for a couple of hours and get the clear coat sprayed on everything but the bottom of the Tour-Pak. I was trying to avoid a complete repaint of it but I'm not happy with the way the touch up paint job looks so I'm going to tape over the factory pinstripes, sand it down and shoot the whole thing. I have plenty of paint and I should be able to do it with my touch up gun.

I got some pics today but too tired to download and edit them. I'll get some more as I progress and post them tomorrow night.

[Pappy]

The paint process

I got the trike body primed, the base coat down, and the graphics / pinstripes done. The graphics are vinyl from ‘Twisted Chrome’, the pinstripes are painted. Screwed up the fairing twice and had to repaint it. Still have to go back do some more work on the pinstripes on it. Once that is done, I can clear coat everything except the base of the Tour Pak. I didn’t like the way the paint came out trying to tape off and paint the repaired sections so I am going to sand it down and do a repaint on everything except the bottom.

My ‘paint booth’. Not high tech, but it worked.





Mixing table



Of course ‘tunes’ are a necessity...



Primed parts



Fairing



Tour Pak lid



Front of the body and a close up. All the ends of the pinstripes are tapered.





Rear of the body

[chopnhack]

Looking great Pappy! Lot of hard work so far and its showing

[cabinetman]

Pin stripes look great.

.

[bigstick509]

Great work Pappy, one project on my long list is to respray a few metal and fiberglass items. I was wondering what spray gun you are using. I only have HVLP and air brush guns so I would love to know what you are using.

[Pappy]

Mike, I was using a gravity feed gun from HF spraying at about 50-55 psi at the gun. I picked up 2 of them on sale a few weeks ago. The gun sprays a good pattern and adjustments for pressure, flow and pattern are good. The down side is the screw on lid for the cup. The threads on the cap and cup are poorly machined and it leaks/drips if you tilt it to paint a horizontal surface. After having to sand out several drips in the primer coat I pulled the cup off an older Husky gun and used it on the HF gun. It fit with no problems and the snap on lid solved the drip problem.

The biggest advantages to gravity feed guns are complete emptying of the paint cup and ease of cleaning.

As I said, I bought 2 of the guns and the second, unused one is going back. I'll keep the one I used and take the refund from the other one to buy a better cup for it.

[cabinetman]

I prefer conventional cup/gun over gravity feed. They are easier to set down, and you have 1 qt instead of 20 oz, and are more convenient for spraying cabinetry IMO.

.

[Stytooner]

For cabinets or furniture, we never used a cup. We always used a pot. You can spray at any angle with that type and get inside easily without a cup clanking around.

Like these.
http://www.mcmaster.com/#paint-spray-guns/=mgkta8

Looking good, Pappy. I'm kinda looking forward the the little fiberglass job I have coming up soon. Looking forward to the finished pictures.

[cabinetman]

For cabinets or furniture, we never used a cup. We always used a pot. You can spray at any angle with that type and get inside easily without a cup clanking around.

I do too, but most hobbyists don't need the volume. With a pot, you don't have a cup, but you'll have two hoses. Keeping the fluid hose clean can be a PITA, especially if you are using different media.

.

[dbhost]

Not to pick nits Don, and I LOVE the work you are doing here... It looks great, I am curious though. The paint you laid down has a fairly matte finish to it, or at least the photo looks like that. Are you planning on buffing / applying a clear over that to give it a shine? Or does it have a shine that isn't showing up in the photos?

Which HF guns are you using?

I have the newer of the purple guns, the #67181. I found the plastic seal thing that goes at the bottom of the cup is 100% worthless. I fished up an o ring that fits, and it seals pretty nicely. Or are you talking about the cup / cup lid thread? Mine doesn't leak there, it was just at the gun to up joint it leaked...

I also have the HF, and a Husky conventional gun. I hate the overspray from those, but I find they are easier for me to use... Guess it is experience though...

[Pappy]

The 67181 is the gun I have. The leaking is at the cup / lid threads. May just be the one I tried to use. But we all know how great HF's QA is....

I also have one similar to this that I bought at a cummins show years ago. Still works like a champ.

http://www.harborfreight.com/touch-u...gun-66871.html

You are right, the color coat does not shine. The high build clear coat creates the shine and depth.

[ironhat]

The size, placement and number of the stars really set it off. That's going to look rich by the time you complete the clear-coats!!

[Pappy]

Finally some 'finished' pics of the paint job. After sanding everything down, laying another coat of color, redoing the pinstripes and graphics, and clear coating I was getting a bad orange peel.



A bit of research showed 2 possible causes, too low of pressure at the gun and too high temps letting the clear coat dry before it had time to flow out.

I scuffed everything except the trunk door and the top of the Tour Pac with an ultra fine sanding sponge and sprayed 2 more wet coats of clear. I am happy with the trunk door and was going to rely on compounding the Tour Pac top but I may go back and clear it in again it.