rxrider's Turbo Garage - pics back, will continue

[rxrider]

UPDATE January 19-22. - Molding a fibreglass bottom for the seat. Cutting the fibreglass bottom to fit. Cutting out the seat to fit onto the Rev gas tank.


On monday I had the tank out to mold up a fibreglass bottom for the seat. I used the tank as a mold, taped some aluminum foil onto the tank to prevent the fibreglass from sticking to the tank, works like a dream fibreglass won't stick to aluminum foil. I cut out 2 sheets of woven fibreglass fabric and places the first one over the tank and added liquid fibreglass, rolled it into the fabric with a roller specially made for the task. When the first layer was fully covered I added the second sheet of fibreglass and added more liquid on top and rolled it out until all air was gone from the fibreglass fabric. I let it dry for almost 2 days before removing it from the tank, it came off quite easy. Sorry, no pics taken, can't take pics when working with fibreglass, would have wrecked my camera.


The fibreglass seat bottom fits perfectly on the tank.

It was made too large, I made marks were to cut the excess fibreglass away.

Done cutting the seat bottom.

And now onto the seat. I had a 2003 RX-1 seat bottom cut out to fit the Rev tank. I installed this template over the bottom of the seat and marked up where to cut when making room for the new seat bottom.

First half of the seat bottom cut out.

More cut out in the rear.

I managed to keep the wireing to the rear and brake lights out of harms way when cutting The back of the seat are getting close.

Done cutting for now. I probably have to cut some more plastic out here and there but I will take it little by litte not to cut out too much plastic. Next job will be cutting out the foam to make room for the new seat bottom.

Cutting for good fit and adjusting the hight of seat is the most time consuming part of the job. I'm not going to rush this work, I have only one shot to make it perfect. I will cut out the bulk part with a knife and use a special grinder disk for my 110 millimeter die grinder to grind down the seat foam to make a smooth surface to the foam.

:exc:

 

[kinger]

Looks great rx! Question how do you post a pict then type below it in your post? I can only get the picts to post in a row and whe I add comments its goes into the box at the top of each picture and not in the actual post like yours?

I cant wait till you take that thing out for the first time!

 

[rxrider]

I use Photobucket.com to upload pics (1 GB of free space on a normal user account at no cost), from Photobucket.com you can choose from a variety of tags for the image you want to post. Use the IMG tag for the pics you wanna post and copy it, then paste it in your post. Now you can add text on both sides of the image tag, add open lines or whatever.

HAHAHA me neither and I will document everything about it, and then everything on tuning the sled.

 

[kinger]

I see that makes sense I thought it was something in the boards. Thanks!

Looks great!!!!

Guess what....I'm going boost next year!!!!! Woo hoo!!! Going the MPI route 10psi on low cr pistons. Finally I can stop being a boost troll!

 

[rxrider]

Welcome on board kinger, boost is great ...... and sooooo addictive hahaha

Are you going to both boost and shoot (N2O)?

 

[kinger]

Nope just SC'd and sell the nitrous system. I just cant stand having to under rev it 99% of the time, want to set it up, clutch it perfect, and ride ride ride!!

 

[rxrider]

UPDATE January 25-26. - Cutting out seat foam to fit onto the Rev gas tank.


At last I have started on the final work on the sled, cutting out the seat foam to make it fit onto the REV gas tank. I use a sharp ordinary knife to cut out the foam to make room for the fibreglass seat bottom. It took some measuring before cutting to make sure the fibreglass bottom was installed in the correct position under the seat for the seat to fit with the stock plastic covers.


Last time I cut out the plastic, now it was time to start cutting out the seat foam.

I cut out a fair amount of foam and then tested the seat bottom into the seat. Not even close, I had to cut a lot more. Cutting........ what a mess it made in my garage, I may have to take some pics as I have not yet cleaned up cause the cutting is not done yet.

After another round of cutting it looked like this.

Testing the seat bottom.

It still needed some more cutting, time do go slow on the cutting to make sure I'm not cutting out too much. More cutting and another round of testing. It's getting closer

It's OK in the back, I actually cut out a little too much, I may have to make a fix back there IOW fill in some foam to fill the empty space I created, no big deal, less than an inch needed. It still need more adjustments in the front to make it perfect. The gas tank is a tad too wide in the front, this will be narrowed in by heating the offending spots on the tank with a heat gun and press in the sides where needed to make the seat fit better on top of the tank.

 

[rxrider]

UPDATE January 27-28. - Cutting out seat foam to fit onto the Rev gas tank - part 2.


Some minor adjustments remained to fit my fibreglass seat bottom to the seat. I had to move adjust the fibreglass to get the seat in the correct position to fit the plastic panels and tank cover. I used silver duct tape to hold the fibreglass in place while making adjustments.

The seat went back and forth a few times before I was satisfied with the outcome.

I'm pretty close.

Fitness is almost as good as stock. I will tape up the white tank with black duct tape in the spots where tank can been seen. F.ex. in front of the seat on the sides, a little black tape and the tank will disappear.

Here's a view underneat the front of the seat.

With the seat and fibreglass bottom positioned perfectly I taped the bottom to the seat with duct tape to hold the position when out to be joined together. I will use fibreglass and liquid polyester to join the two together.

A few more pics of my friends Attak, another rxrider's Turbo garage project sled.

Changing helix buttons in my friends secondary clutch.

Cleaning the clutch and rubbing the surfaces with Scotch Brite.

Is it a prototype MCX front mount you're installing?

The MCX front mount with the head light installed.

I'm lending my friend a hand while waiting for him to catch up with me. With all turbo parts, piping, electronics done, we're even when it comes to the amount of work remaining. We will cooperate on developing solutions on tank mounting in the front of the tank, brackets for mounting the seat to the tunnel in the rear and in the front. I really need his skill on fabricating the metal and fibreglass pieces we need to be able to safely install the tank and seat.

Here's more pics of my friends Attak.

Only minor work remains under the hood. Mockup install of the hood, tank over, misc plastics and side covers.

Added the seat and the rear end plastics. The sled will end up looking completely stock, except for the ZX-2 skid. He has even made up fake exhaust outlets to exit the stock exhaust caps in the back. Sound and performance will be nowhere near stock hahaha can't wait to see it run.

Yamaha


RB3 installed. A lot of electronics done. Only minor details before my friend and I are ready to start developing the tank and seat mounts. Will be back with pics on that later next week. Here's a few pics from the RB3 install.

Soldering the trigger wire for the RB3 onto the break light wireing.

RB3 install done. A turbo sled these days have some piping and wireing under the hood for various accessories and tuning equipment

 

[TT]

You guys are doing a fantastic job - keep them pics coming!

 

[rxrider]

Thanks Tarjei

I have a 10" by 3" tube and some 2.25" silicone hose to send your way when I get the time

 

[TT]

I am looking for 50mm aluminium tube - shoot me a pm on what "leftovers" you have - thanks buddy!

 

[rxrider]

My bad, I meant a 10" by 2" aluminum tube, sorry buddy

 

[TT]

My bad, I meant a 10" by 2" aluminum tube, sorry buddy

Just what I am looking for - send me sms or Pm and I will wire you money for the tube and shipping

 

[rxrider]

UPDATE February 3. - Fabricating mounting brackets for the REV gas tank.


My friend came by last night. He told me had dreamt up a design for the front mounting brackets needed to hold the REV gas tank to the tunnel. He had also aquired a aluminum U bar to be used in the design. He had no drawings all in his head, I had a few ideas of my own but when he finally put his thoughts on paper I dropped all my ideas as his design was both simple to fabricate and functional at the same time. I told him lets go forward with the design, and on we went fabricating mounting brackets for the REV gas tank.

We fabricated two mounting brackets to be riveted to the tunnel, made out of the aluminum U bar, we cut out one of the sides to make a V bar. Next part to mount to the V bar was a bolt welded on a steel pipe. We drilled a hole in the steel pipe. We then welded threaded rods to a steel bar to go up over the side of the tank to hold it down. The threaded part of the bar goes into the holes in the steel pipe. This design allows for movement of the bar in all directions, makes it a lot easier when bending the bar to fit the tank, bend it anyway you like, as long it fits the curvature of the tank you can easily install it.

We bent the steel bars to make hooks to hold the tank down, and installed rubber hoses over the end of the hooks to protect the tank and avoid wear.

Here's few pics of the first prototype.

It did not fit too well down in front of the tank with the dual tunnel mounting bracket solution we first fabricated. On mine id did conflict with the fuel line coming from the gas tank, on his the brackets conflicted with the rivets on the tunnel.

We changed the desigh slightly by fabricating a new single tunnel mounting bracket.

My friend working on the second version of the bracket to be installed on top of the tunnel in front of the tank.

Second version of the mounting bracket installed to the tunnel.

The arm holding the tank mounted to the bracket to give you an idea of the design.

Installing the arms holding down the tank.

At last I tightened down the tank by turning the nuts installed at the lower end of the bars. When done adjusting I torked down the lock nut on the opposite side of the pipe, we used nylock nuts. Done.

The tank is now bolted firmly to the tunnel, no movement, it's mounted rock solid to the frame.

My friends sled done as well

We have the seat yet to finish off before fireing the sled up Will start the final work on the seat this evening. The seat bottom has to be "casted" ? connected to the seat using Polyester and Styren mixed together along with sheets of fibreglass. We also need to fabricate front and rear mounting brackets to hold the seat down.

I want to up my sled
ASAP LOL

 

[rxrider]

UPDATE February 8. - Preparing the seat and seat bottom to be joined.


Before joing together the seat and seat bottom I had to make up a brackets for riveting the parts togheter. This was done to prevent the parts from moving when adding polyester and fibre glass to join the parts together.

I added two brackets in the front.

Two on the sides.

And one in the read.

Now the seat bottom was firmly attached to the seat.