Build Status Update 2

The fairings are painted. Which is to say that they have several coats of paint and several coats of clear coat. Painting was not easy nor did it go as planned. As I may have noted earlier, I had constructed a paint booth to contain the paint and to keep dust and debris off the paint. The final result looks OK until you get up close and several defects in the paint can be seen. Here are a few notes:

1) Don't use Krylon. The clear coat in can 2, for example, spit some kind of debris that basically ruined the paint job on the entire upper section. Use the best paint you can get and can afford.

2) Make sure that clean gloves are used every time you touch the work. Even a small amount of debris or dirt will mess up days of labor.

The Woodcraft alternator cover is installed. This required removing the old alternator cover (damaged by the original crash), removing the stator and wiring connected to the stator. The oil must be drained before attempting this operation, since the alternator is bathed in oil. The stator must be removed from the old cover and placed in the new one. Instructions were provided by Woodcraft and the new cover seems to be a pretty good part. Watch out for the magnet when you reinstall the cover. It will grab pretty hard and smashed a perfectly good finger on my left hand. Also, after reinstalling the new cover make sure you start the motor and check the voltage on the battery. It should be over 14V if the alternator is working properly.

I partially completed the safety wiring and will talk about that in the next post.

I have started fitting the fairings. The shark skinz are decently made, but they didn't put in any provision on the tail section for the exhaust! The tail piece interferes badly with the exhaust meaning that I will have to remove it and cut out a chunk of the back underside, which won't do much for the paint. Word to the wise, when installing shark skins, fit them to the bike first before painting. Fiberglass is hard to modify cleanly after paint has been applied. However, you would think that they would have checked the fit on the exhaust by now. Also, there's a part, it looks like a regulator or something similar, that doesn't seem to fit anywhere. The Haynes manual doesn't even acknowledge that it exists. The manual lists the regulator as being located near the rear suspension, but there isn't anything regulator-like located there. This is where the cheap manual may not gave been a great value. There's plenty of room in the front of the fairing, given that the headlight assembly is no longer there, but it would have been nice to know where it was originally located.

Finally, I replaced the clutch lever and left side clip-on. At this point, the majority of the work is done. Left to do is to get a new exhaust, get the power commander and quick shifter installed, get the bike on the dyno and let the tuners work their magic.

Soon, I'll have to learn how to ride...