My XBR project

[mthee]

Really great price on the trimming! Thanks for the contact details.

[tommy]

bike coming together nice ian  ..tommy

[iansoady]

Not much progress recently - too cold in the shed! Apart from another round of filling / flatting / priming on the tank which is now getting somewhere near what I want. But now leaving it till next week.

[Moto63]

Don’t blame you Ian. Blinking freezing in my garage, minus 4 yesterday. Fortunately I only needed to nip in to get something, I wasn’t working in there ?
Cheers, Michael

[Itsme]

Honestly you nesh pair, I've just spent 4 hours outside. Then my wife relented and unlocked the door!

Seriously I am with you, I spend no more than an hour at a time in my garage and even then I have on a hat and warm fleece, as well as trousers etc obviously.

I expect once the weather picks up you will also pick up the pace Ian so just enjoy the warmth inside until the right day comes along.

Ian

[iansoady]

My excuse is that it's too cold for the paint to go on properly. But the real reason is as you both suspect....

[iansoady]

... but the kitchen is quite warm.

The people who'd done the Honda wings said they could make up side panel stickers to my design but stopped answering email. So a search brought up an Etsy supplier.

I created a side panel logo in MS Powerpoint and exported it as a png file. Then used paint.net to make the background transparent.   Now I've never used Etsy before but for a very reasonable £5.70 a lady called Sarah made a pair for me from my "artwork". And they've come out very nicely. Shame I couldn't get them quite straight.....



Slightly different to the ones on the original panel but I think they look quite smart and more elegant than the Honda blocky ones although they would have been easy enough to . The question is should I try to lacquer over them? My current thought is no as I don't want to risk destroying all my hard work.

[Itsme]

Hi Ian

Looks smart and as long as they're both at the same angle surely it will be fine. As for lacquering if you can do a test spray to make sure the sticker material won't react I would go with a coat of lacquer. The reason being I used some automotive pin striping tape on the Might Midget but it lifted and only stayed put after I replaced it and sprayed over it. Maybe the weather and wind got underneath it.

Ian

[mthee]

I'm  with Ian ! Looks very smart, the decals. Are they laquer-resistant?

[iansoady]

I don't know - should have asked the supplier, or got some offcuts to try. I don't want to have to redo it all (again!).

[Moto63]

I don't know - should have asked the supplier, or got some offcuts to try. I don't want to have to redo it all (again!).

Hindsight Ian, it’s a wonderful science and one that we ALL wish we could master from time to time.
Looking good tho 👍
Cheers, Michael

[JOOLZ]

Loving the look, that seat has come up a treat

[iansoady]

Thanks Joolz, I'm very pleased with it. There's a bit of a gap - 5mm or so - between the back of the seat and the moulding which I may ask the upholsterer to fill later on but that's just being picky.

In other news I tried a little dab of lacquer on the side panel stickers and it didn't seem to have any bad effect so I've given the panels a couple of coats which look to have gone on nicely. I warmed the can in hot water before spraying which I think might have achieved a slightly better finish.

[iansoady]

I took advantage of the slightly warmer weather to spray the tank. I have to admit I was a bit scared of this as it involves 2 coats of silver, 3 of colour and 3 of lacquer - all to be applied in 10-15 minute intervals. But I'm really pleased with the reults. Apart from a little imperfection on one front corner - a bit of dust? it's looking pretty good. All that filling and flatting was worth while.

I have a pair of Honda wing decals and am pondering whether to add some gold lines. Possibly in a Manx Norton style.

Here we are:

[mthee]

Quite apart from your decent paint job, I didn't think your side panel was going to look THAT good. Big congratulations,  Ian!