PROJECT NINJA
Rob’s been decorating again…
W ell it’s time for a progress report on my ZXR project. I have spent most of this month polluting the country air with thousands upon thousands of curse words as I have encountered a few big problems. You may remember that last month I painted my tank and mudguard and apart from some easily sorted small runs all was groovy – well it turns out that may not have been the case.
I did manage to flat the runs out easily enough, ready to simply apply another coat of lacquer, but the paint had other ideas. For no real reason whatsoever (well no reason that I can think of anyway) the paint decided to react and promptly leave everything with a rather fetching wrinkle finish; I even tried leaving it a few days and flatting back again to end up with the same result. I can’t think what is causing it, but it’s really annoying. It looks like my only option is going to be to strip all the paint off and start again
I HAVE SPENT A LARGE PART OF THIS MONTH POLLUTING THE COUNTRY AIR WITH THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF CURSE WORDS AS I HAVE ENCOUNTERED A FEW BIG PROBLEMS
including making new decals, oh deep joy.
My fun didn’t end there either, I picked up a neat little quick action throttle from the popular internet auction site for £5, so when it turned up I attempted to make a throttle cable only to find the mounting on the carbs was really loose. Closer inspection revealed that the main mounting, which is cast into the carb body, had broken off. I’ve been on the lookout for another set of carbs but they seem to be like rocking horse poop so I will have to try and make a new bracket that bolts on elsewhere for the time being.
So what did I actually manage to achieve this month? Not giving up on the painting I managed to successfully lacquer the seat unit. My mate Cabbage sorted out my top and side fairings for me, doing a spot-on job of repairing the cracks and filling in one of the headlight holes. I managed to get them painted and stickered up; they just need lacquer applying but the weather stopped me finishing them off – hopefully I won’t have any problems with these. Once I got the top fairing back I loosely fitted it to the bike, complete with the new screen, and it looks exactly how I wanted it to.
The only thing missing from completing it was a yellow headlight cover which, as far
as I am aware, isn’t available to buy so I decided to have a go at making one myself. I started by buying a sheet of 3mm thick clear yellow Acrylic again from the ’Bay of much stuff. I made a simple template from cardboard, remembering to annotate on it which way was up (this will make sense shortly). I then transferred this to the acrylic and cut it out using my funky little high-speed rotary saw thing in multiple straight cuts.
It looked a bit messy and frayed so I used a file to make the edges nice and smooth and round. I drilled the mounting holes while it was still flat because knowing my luck this month I would have shattered it if I’d have tried to do it last. Getting the right shape was the easy bit but needed it to match the contours of the fairing, which is where the up arrow comes in, to make sure I got the contour at the right end. I snaffled the brûlée torch from the kitchen (don’t tell the wife) and I used one of the offcuts as a test piece, heating it slowly with the torch and bending it by hand, this worked well so I did the same with the cover using the fairing as a guide. It worked perfectly. The last thing to do was to simply transfer the holes to the fairing to drill them and fix it, giving the bike a proper endurance look for less than £4.
Next up, the eagle eyed among you will no doubt have noticed that although I have previously talked about the clutch, it had been only half fitted. This is because up until now I had misplaced the clutch nut and I wasn’t willing to pay £30 for a new one. Anyway, I managed to find it so the clutch is now completely fitted. I gave the cover a clean-up and a quick coat of tough black paint and fitted it with a new gasket and stainless bolts, so it’s all shiny and as good as new now. It has also meant the engine could be filled up with fresh oil, which hopefully won’t find its way back out onto the floor.
I have been ordering bits and bobs from China in little job-lots too, and I have been really impressed with the quality. In particular the switchgears; after pulling it all to bits to check it out, I have fitted one with an on/off and starter button to the throttle side and one with horn and light switch on the other side. They look like trick, mega expensive ones but again they cost next to nothing and I have loads of spares should one break.
Finally, the last thing I did this month was fitting the rear light into the seat unit. Normally the light bolts to a metal bracket on the subframe but it’s dead heavy and I didn’t want to use it (more weight saving). I had previously drilled holes in the seat unit to put a blank in place over the light hole (for racing), so I thought I would try and use them holes to mount the light. The bolts fouled on the lens though, which seeing as I hadn’t used it yet this month was a perfect excuse to get the angle grinder out and cut four neat little notches into it. The altered lens allowed the bolts to fit and fix the light in place nice and securely.
That is pretty much it for this month, it’s not been ideal but I have still managed to move forward; my list of jobs left is now down to just one major job which is the wiring loom and everything else is just relatively simple finishing jobs. It really is getting close to completion; happy days…