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Where Can I Get a Solo Cowl?

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  • Where Can I Get a Solo Cowl?

    How to Make a Seat Cowl?

    This is how I did it, not necessarily the simplest/best but here it is:

    Disclaimer: All protective equipment and normal shop practices should be followed. I take no responsibility for any damage/accident caused whislt following this write up

    First off, wrap your seat in clingfilm to stop it getting damaged and to make removing the mould easier. (Personally I bought a second seat to play with)
    Cut card formers to make vertical sides around your pillion seat area to contain spray foam and fix in place with tape. Apply spray foam inside formed area and allow to expand and dry:

    Once the foam has dried out, take a large carving knife and cut to the required shape:

    Wrap your newly sculpted foam mould and seat in clingfilm. Draw your cowl shape on the clingfilm with permanent marker to give you something to work to.

    Cut out your 450 weight fibreglass mat to the rough shape of the finished cowl, this makes it easier to work with.

    I used 450 weight fibreglass matting and fibreglass resin to make the cowl, details of how to mix the resin and catalyst (hardener) can be found here : http://stores.ebay.co.uk/The-fibregl...ating-GRP.html
    I decided to use a velcro strap to hold the cowl to the seat once finished, so I cut a 4" wide strip of 450 weight fibreglass matt and soaked it in fibreglass resin first before laying it over the mould. The velcro strap was then applied over that and more fibreglass resin applied. Now apply resin to the areas within your pre-marked cowl area (I used a cheap 'throw away' paintbrush) and lay your pre-cut matting over. Brush more resin on top to soak the matting which will become more pliable the wetter it gets. Use the brush to form the fibreglass mat to shape and to push out any air bubbles.


    Try to form the fibreglass under the seat to conform to the contours once on the bike. You can see the ragged ends hanging down under the seat in this picture:

    Apply a 2nd sheet of fibreglass mat over the still wet mould, soak with resin and form in the same way as the first layer.

    TIME FOR BEER You now have to wait for the fibreglass to harden, which could take anything from an hour to overnight, depending how thrifty/heavy handed you were with the catalyst

    With the fibreglass all dried it's now time for some Dremmel work If you used permanent marker to draw on your cowl shape before you started fibreglassing, the lines will have transferred through the fibreglass and you will be able to see them. Carefully cut off the excess material under the seat first so that you can remove your cowl from the seat.

    Cowl and seat now seperated, start cutting the excess off around the front part to form your basic finished shape. I forgot to take any pictures but be sure to test fit the seat and cowl on the bike at this time so that the cowl a) fits on the seat once on the bike and b) the bottom lines of the cowl folow the lines of the bike.

    With the basic shape now all cut out you can now proceed to topcoating your cowl, this will give it a decent surface to sand to shape without compromising the strycture underneath. Make sure you use flowcoat/topcoat and NOT gelcoat. Gelcoat WILL NOT dry in the air and should only be used with a negative mould where the gelcoat will be covered with fibreglass. You can add liquid wax to gelcoat (up to 4%) to turn it into flowcoat if you bought the wrong stuff/have gelcoat already.

    Once dry, again this depends on how much catalyst you aded to the flowcoat, take your electric sander and sand the surface down to roughly the required profile. If you have some deep dents in the surface, due to a poor foam former (like I did ), use a fibreglass filler such as Isopon IP40. This comes with a pink catalyst so is easy to see when completely mixed and is also easily spotted on a white flowcoat surface. Fibreglass filler is different from body filler (aka bondo) in that you can actually see the fibreglass strands suspended in the resin in the tin and will readily stick to fibreglass panels.

    Once sanded down, I used 80grit for speed/ease of use, mix up some body filler (bondo) to fill the smaller imperfections and once dry sand with 120, then 240 to a smooth surface.

    Now that's done and washed off, allow to dry and spray with filler primer. This can be wet sanded with progressively finer wet and dry to achieve a nice smooth finish ready for primer/basecoat/topcoat.

    I'm not going to go into the whole painting thing here as it has been done before on this site, ig you missed it check out http://katriders.com/vb/showthread.p...nting+plastics
    Riding 2002 GSX600F for 2 years. UK rider.

  • #2
    good post


    www.SOARacing.ca

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    • #3
      Will it really sparkle like that when done?

      Great write up!
      -Steve


      sigpic
      Welcome to KatRiders.com! Click here to register
      Don't forget to check the Wiki! http://katriders.com/wiki

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      • #4
        Nice!
        It doesn't matter what you ride, as long as you ride.








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        • #5
          stickey?

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          • #6
            Or maybe moved to the How-To instead of a sticky.
            Pain is just weakness leaving the body.
            -Unknown Author

            The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love.
            -Terence

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            • #7
              Couldn't have written it up any better myself, well done.

              EDIT: I did think of something after all... For those of you looking for a hugger/sleek type cowl, just skip the whole building your mold part and do it right off the plastic wrapped seat
              If you are only able to use your factory seat and not a spare, wrap some aluminum foil over the seat under the plastic just for an extra 'piece of mind' type precaution....
              Last edited by teddy; 11-20-2007, 11:52 PM.


              Help Support Katriders.com via Motorcyclegear.com

              Originally posted by EmpiGTV
              You know why you shouldn't hold in your farts? Because they'll travel up your spine and into your brain. That's where shitty ideas come from.

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              • #8
                Nice post. Too bad I hate working with fibreglass and just bought one instead. Now if it was sheet metal then i might give er a whirl. Nah to lazy
                Can't blame me for something I don't remember.
                www.bakerboyz.net

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                • #9
                  Thanks for the replies, nice to be appreciated and to be able to give something back to this excellent site.


                  Steves, ofcourse it will sparkle, it's all part of the magic

                  I agree with Teddy (who wouldn't? ), aluminium foil will protect your seat even more than just the clingfilm. The sleek cowl will be next thing made :

                  Erki, I wish I had the tools/skills in order to make stuff out of metal as that would make for some more extreme mods Plus fibreglass is readily available, no idea where I would get sheets of ali/ss to work with
                  Riding 2002 GSX600F for 2 years. UK rider.

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                  • #10
                    oh theres some pretty extreme stuff you can make outta fibreglass, nothing wrong with the stuff. Just itchy and sticky.
                    Can't blame me for something I don't remember.
                    www.bakerboyz.net

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                    • #11
                      yeah i used to work with fiberglass for a living, my god that stuff will itch you for days
                      90% of motorcycle forum members do not have a service manual for their bike.

                      Originally posted by Badfaerie
                      I love how the most ignorant people I have met are the ones that fling the word "ignorant" around like it's an insult, or poo. Maybe they think it means poo
                      Originally posted by soulless kaos
                      but personaly I dont see a point in a 1000 you can get the same power from a properly tuned 600 with less weight and better handeling.

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                      • #12
                        thats an explanation,finaly somebody that shows it.very nice,i like it

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                        • #13
                          Thanks for the info...
                          With the bike in the garage my evenings are boring so I will be giving this a try!

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by scottynoface View Post
                            yeah i used to work with fiberglass for a living, my god that stuff will itch you for days
                            so use carbonfibre instead, pretty much the same if not better results and TONS nicer to work with.

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                            • #15
                              now ineed a show and tell on the flat cowl
                              sigpic

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