New project: XS1100 endurance racer

[LAB3]

I hope you were able to rent a trenching machine! I know I'm now 70, and no way am I going to dig a 1.3 meter trench!

Getting one down the stairs might make it more trouble than it's worth.

[DiverRay]

I hope you were able to rent a trenching machine! I know I'm now 70, and no way am I going to dig a 1.3 meter trench!

[Mathh]

You are a hero for doing the sewer system yourself! I stay away from that job, and pay to have someone else do it. I'll do electrical all day, but I HATE plumbing work.

Hi Ray! I'll survive the plumbing itself but the endless digging 4 feet deep is what's killing me! I'm too old for that Luckily the remaining plumbing is 2-3 feet deep....

[DiverRay]

You are a hero for doing the sewer system yourself! I stay away from that job, and pay to have someone else do it. I'll do electrical all day, but I HATE plumbing work.

[Mathh]

Well, it has been a while since I last posted. We have been polishing the frame but as we were almost finished we found tiny scratches that reduced the shine from the polishing. Then we tried the upper and rear section of the aluminum fuel tank: same result (the rest of the tank will be painted). After a number of mails and phone calls our conclusion was that our "high gloss paste" is specifically for stainless steel.









Then life took over hahaha... I discovered a leak in the sewerage system under our house and I decided to replace everything from the beginning to the end with a new system (forgetting that the hardest part was to dig up the old system, partly hidden under concrete under the house, and afterwards closing all holes again.


The front garden looked like a war zone for weeks. At the moment the hardest part in front of the house has been replaced and I'm filling up the garden again. So hopefully I can do most of the rest next week when my old body and weather permits. Back to the polishing job. After a long search we found a real high gloss paste for a " mirror finish specifically for softer metals like aluminum". It comes with a hefty price tag, so that is what I'm going to order after this weekend. Hopefully we can finish both projects soon. Enjoy the pictures....

[Mathh]

Between all polishing stages the remaining residue from the polishing paste has to be removed, he uses Talcum powder to do that.



At this moment the frame is finished with all 3 stages:





Now it is time to start with the swingarm and some smaller parts, you can clearly see the difference with the frame





Work on the swingarm will start tomorrow. After that we will test our 2K clear coat on the small parts... We keep in touch..

[Mathh]

Some pictures from polishing the frame and swingarm. I first did replaced all welded on tabs fromcheap steel with stainless to get those shiny as weel. Than I did the entire frame with some 800 en 1000 grid brushes to get rid of scratches and blue coloring from the welding. Took a couple of days... here is the very last work on the swingarm:



Then I went checking for forgotten spots and degreasing the entire frame and swingarm in order to not pollute the polishing brushes. It's amazing how little the parts have suffered from rust and scratches from moving around and working on it since 2009.

Here is the frame ready for the 3 polishing steps. Coarse , medium and high gloss:



A friend of mine who was a professional car detailer volunteered for the polishing job.That is one of the jobs I decided years ago to never do that again. I hate the mess when doing that. Here he is in full action:

[Mathh]

Holy canoli this is an awesome build, you're a mighty talented dude!

Thank you for the compliment!

[OldGreyBeast]

Holy canoli this is an awesome build, you're a mighty talented dude!

[Mathh]

LAB3 Don't give up what you're doing because it's true that it can change any time. Me and my girl friend still ride in Andalucia in Spain twice a year on rental bikes. Excellent weather and, beautiful nature and fantastic roads. We do more miles in Spain than we do in our own country because of that. Overhere we have had mainly bad weather since September last year. As of yesterday the prediction is two weeks dry with sun, wow. So we took out our bikes again. What a great feeling riding these old Eleven's again.

As for the racer I have been busy with 1000 grit pads and with a Dremel with a tiny wire brush to clean up the welds. I also have chosen some designs for the bodywork that I think I can use for the final choice. I'll post some pics after my next visit to my workshop.

[LAB3]

@LAB3: I must admit that it sounds great but for me it is very difficult to visualise. So ... someday as you say ... this year?

Can't say that will happen this year. I'm a full-time camper with quite literally everything I own strapped onto my bike and a small trailer that I pull behind it. At just shy of 62yrs old my body is holding up pretty good but as you know that could change any time!

My "motto" at this point in my life is "Looking for a sane woman with an empty garage and loose purse strings" and although I've managed to come across #2 and #3 on more than one occasion I'm finding the first attribute to be awfully elusive.

[Mathh]

Here are some pictures of the frame done with 800 grit. I now started working on the swingarm as well. The polisher told me to go further than 800 grit, so I'll soon give it another go with 1500 grit. I must say that I am well pleased with the result so far.

[Mathh]

@LAB3: I must admit that it sounds great but for me it is very difficult to visualise. So ... someday as you say ... this year?

In the mean time I brushed the frame with 800 grit so all heat colouring from the welding is gone. It looks way better now. Tomorrow a friend of mine will visit my workshop. His specialism is polishing so we'll see what is possible. I also sent a mail to my paint supplier to check if there is a clear coat that fits my project...

[LAB3]

The "graining" idea has been an idea I've been kicking around for a long time. In the project I've been imagining the side covers would be grained or brushed then treated with a chemical agent to create a patina. This would the be sanded/polished to leave the high spots with a bright finish and the lower spots left darker from the reaction of the patina agent.

Someday I'm going to sit in one spot awhile and give some of these ideas a real world try! For the graining/brushing part I'm imagining some sort of a jig to hold a wire wheel etc in the same horizontal plane is the work moves below it to keep the orientation of the scratches going in the same direction. With the strong contrast between the bright and colored metal I'm betting some pretty stunning visual effects could be produced

[Mathh]

Here is a picture I took from a test session with different spray paints . I did almost 35 of those, luckily I got a hefty discount. They were all sprayed on square pieces of aluminum, painted white on one side, no paint on the other side. it made no difference as none of them were to my taste.



I also asked for the indoor ones but I got a warning to not use them outdoors and / or add clear paint over them.
My visit to the powder coating company also turned out to be a disappointment. I got 4 samples for chrome and nickel colors to try. Once in the workshop I saw they were not close to them but more to metallic silver / gray .. So another no go.





I am now still investigating the last mentioned options (sharkhide, everbrite and polishing the frame)) although I have not yet found something comparable overhere for the first 2 options.

Now this is the last status of my racer.. (this afternoon)



I am going to clean up the frame from scratches and heat colouring and will then have a try to see if I can experiment with some polishing.
There is alot of truth in what LAB3 said: "it just seems to make sense that if you're looking for a metal finish to use the metal you already have".
Not sure yet about that graining he also mentioned. It will be a lot of work to get that undone if I don't like it