And the two, new, extended side panels which butt up against the extended saddlebags are now under primer.

looking good SS

Yeah, your work is improving all the time here.....

The bike owner finally got the new fiberglass fender. It fell to him to get it on the bike and make the numerous cuts to get it to fit with the saddlebags - keeping the gaps even and to a minimum without rubbing. He also cut holes for the new turn signals. I think he did a pretty fantastic job. That lower right hand corner has been sanded through the gel coat because that corner of the mold caused the fender to protrude past the saddlebag. He sanded through the gel coat and into the fiberglass a little bit to make it less offensive.



This fender, for what it cost, is nowhere near the quality I expected to see. I don't have a picture of it yet, but I'll get it later today and post a pic of a problem and hopefully spark a discussion about how to properly fix it.

This afternoon I was able to find time to block sand one of the saddlebags. Took a couple of hours. I only had a couple of small areas that burned through and a few little pinholes to address. Just a little bit of primer touch up to do before base color. I'm in a better place than I had feared. I was fairly certain that I might need to go back with more high build primer before I was happy with it.

In accordance with the project that just keeps on giving....

The bike owner took the fairing I had painted and tried to use PlastiFix to replace a couple of missing mounting tabs on the inside of the fairing. The absence of these tabs was causing a misalignment issue between the inner and outer fairings.

Well...as you can see...he managed to drip some of the catalyst onto the front side of the fairing and melt the paint. So....guess what?



We've (he) decided that I'll just start over on a new fairing which has all of the mounting tabs. Because he doesn't think he can manage to rebuild the missing tabs..and we all want it to fit right, don't we? I had no idea this fairing was missing mounting tabs while I was working on it. I did request that he take the new fairing and mount it on the bike to be sure there were no issues. There are not. So last night, he was supposed to have started the process of cutting out the turn signals and drilling holes for the new ones. See my first post if you want to know what Déjà vu looks like.

Oh...the things we do for friends.

Let's see what phrase am I searching for here..... hmmmmm..... Oh, I know, no good deed goes unpunished.... Hey, I jumped on your other thread about those "flash seams." Looks like plenty of work for you just ahead....

Thanks, Darrel. I figured that fender problem would be best in its own thread. I didn't want it to get lost in this monstrosity of a thread.

This buddy...he's the best of friends...and very helpful when it comes to engine work. So...it's a give and take thing. I'm not happy about having to start over. Neither is he. He's very upset at himself over it.

It's like 100+ degrees every day now...and I hoped to have this done before that started happening. But it's all good.

I block sanded the second saddlebag yesterday and it turned out great as well. Only a couple spots to touch up with primer. And a new lesson learned. I left my glazing putty and hardener out in the garage yesterday while I was at the day job. I bet the materials was already 100 degrees when I tried to use it. It set up SUPER FAST. I remembered to put it back in the house last night.

There it is. Your Déjà vu moment for the day.



At least I was able to do this part inside, in the air conditioning. Back to the 100+ degree garage this afternoon.

And your Déjà vu moment from Saturday as well. I can't really complain. This one went much, much faster than the first one did. A little bit of practice under the belt goes a long way.

Oh...and something I forgot to mention. This particular bike used to be a police bike. As evident by the ghost image in the paint.

Beer and bike parts. Just because I can.

I was surprised at how easy this new, fiberglass fender was to prep once we got the flash seam gaps filled with the epoxy as suggested by DarrelK. I spent a couple hours with 220 grit and a block to knock down any weird spots in the gel coat. There were plenty. Especially along that LONG 90 degree angle between the top of the fender and the "bag filler" flange that shoots out horizontally.

So, it's under primer finally. After spraying, I found a few pinholes along the side, where the two pieces were joined. No biggie. I'll fill them as I go back over this with a block. I'm sure I'll end up with a few little spots that might require primer again with the touch up gun. But overall...I still learn more every time I spray. I've finally found the primer viscosity that works very well with my guns.