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So I decided to mess around and try my hand at making an undertail for my bike. It was mainly a practice run, and see how it works out on a trial basis before I get the full tail mod finished.
I still am looking at redoing my subframe support rails to hide them behind the tail fairings. When I do that, I'll do a different undertail to hide everything under there. But, for now...
What I used for tools.
A large piece of cardboard.
Scissors
A razor knife
Needle Nose Pliers
Drill
Screw Driver
And a sheet of ABS plastic. I used 1/16" thickness, a little thinner but I wanted it to be very flexable for this application. The sheet comes with one side smooth, and one side rough. The rough side is shown in the picture. This was a scrap piece given to me, so that is the reason for the odd shape. It's sitting in a lawn chair for size perspective.
Time to start getting a pattern made. That is what the scissors and large cardboard piece is for.
I just started at the inside, and started to remove material to make the cardboard fit like I wanted it too.
Once I got one side pretty well worked out, I stared to trim the ABS plastic. The cool thing about the ABS sheets is they are really easy to work with in cutting out shapes. Take the razor knife, scrore a line where you would want to cut, and bend. It will snap right off in a clean line. For fine cuts and pieces, use the needle nose pliers for fine bends.
The next 30 mins or so was just cut, fit, recut, refit... till I got it where I wanted and in the right shape. Once that was done, I did a quick sand and rattle can paint to match the rest of the bike.
It's not supper slick, but then it's not supposed to be... it's a trial piece.
Once it was dry enough to handle, I mounted it up and went for a ride. First 2 up, and noticed it was going to rub very slightly. No major issue, as it's flexable enough to give when the tire hits it.
Solo, no rub at all. For the finished product I'll probably need to do a heat form to put in a curved spot right where it hits to prevent that going forward. At least now I know where it's going to hit.
Anways, thought I would share. It was just a learning experiment to see what worked, how it looked, where it rubbed if it did, so on. I'll probably leave it till I change out the sub frame rails.
Krey
I still am looking at redoing my subframe support rails to hide them behind the tail fairings. When I do that, I'll do a different undertail to hide everything under there. But, for now...
What I used for tools.
A large piece of cardboard.
Scissors
A razor knife
Needle Nose Pliers
Drill
Screw Driver
And a sheet of ABS plastic. I used 1/16" thickness, a little thinner but I wanted it to be very flexable for this application. The sheet comes with one side smooth, and one side rough. The rough side is shown in the picture. This was a scrap piece given to me, so that is the reason for the odd shape. It's sitting in a lawn chair for size perspective.
Time to start getting a pattern made. That is what the scissors and large cardboard piece is for.
I just started at the inside, and started to remove material to make the cardboard fit like I wanted it too.
Once I got one side pretty well worked out, I stared to trim the ABS plastic. The cool thing about the ABS sheets is they are really easy to work with in cutting out shapes. Take the razor knife, scrore a line where you would want to cut, and bend. It will snap right off in a clean line. For fine cuts and pieces, use the needle nose pliers for fine bends.
The next 30 mins or so was just cut, fit, recut, refit... till I got it where I wanted and in the right shape. Once that was done, I did a quick sand and rattle can paint to match the rest of the bike.
It's not supper slick, but then it's not supposed to be... it's a trial piece.
Once it was dry enough to handle, I mounted it up and went for a ride. First 2 up, and noticed it was going to rub very slightly. No major issue, as it's flexable enough to give when the tire hits it.
Solo, no rub at all. For the finished product I'll probably need to do a heat form to put in a curved spot right where it hits to prevent that going forward. At least now I know where it's going to hit.
Anways, thought I would share. It was just a learning experiment to see what worked, how it looked, where it rubbed if it did, so on. I'll probably leave it till I change out the sub frame rails.
Krey
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