Slow Monster rebuild

[350TSS]

Last couple of days have been spent getting high gloss (hard) polyester resin onto the petrol tank, seat hump and fly-screen. Two coats have been applied to the latter two with a rub down with 600 grade between (which took ages because it is very hard).
I only managed to get the first coat on the top surface of the tank. All went swimmingly until I was putting the second coat on the fly-screen when what I can only describe as “snot” dripped off the business end of the spray gun right onto just about the most noticeable part of the component. Either it was a lump in the resin which I doubt because it could not get past the spray nozzle or the resin was starting to congeal and formed into a “bogey” between the four spray nozzles. I was not best pleased as this means it will have to be rubbed down again and re-sprayed.
Nothing photogenic to show for this work.
All this work is, of course, extra and outside my ETTC which now stands at 144 hours.

[350TSS]

Unusually for a weekend I had about 8 hours in the garage (SWMBO is away), virtually all my time was in preparing the tank, seat hump and fly-screen for painting. 600, then 800 and then 1000 grade papers, boy it was dull but better than watching the rugby I decided after 50 minutes.

I bought the paint a few months ago from a supplier recommended on another forum and bought exactly what they recommended that I needed for the job. It was not cheap about £200 for c 4 litres total of 4 different sorts of paint/finish.

Yesterday (and unusually for me) I decided to read the information and instructions on how to use it.
First was a two pack primer mixed 1 : 1 in 500ml bottles and supposed to be laid onto a 1200 grit rub down in 2 very thin coats with an hour between coats and sprayed so that the surface remains matt.

Next was a 1 litre bottle of light grey base coat followed by the same quantity of colour coat (red of course).The surprise for me is that these are both water based and remain water soluble after drying (?). The base coat is applied in thin coats until the colour is consistent on the work piece and the surface should remain matt. The top coat recommendation is 3 light coats, more coats and the colour will darken apparently. It should dry matt. The recommendation is that there is no rubbing down between any of these water based coats and definitely no water used with wet and dry.

Finally there was a 2 pack lacquer with the recommendation that this is applied in 2 thin coats and this is done in a warm and dry atmosphere or it will bloom. More coats of lacquer are likely to cause a yellowish tinge to the final colour.

I have bought this so I shall have to use it but I have a number of concerns with the water based paints

What happens if the very thin lacquer coat gets scratched does the paint then bleed from the scratch if it is left in the rain? It is very easy for a jacket zip to catch the tank for example.

I think that the water based paints will severely limit my livery options as I do not think it will be easy to remove any residual glue from masking tape without compromising the colour coat.

The concept of this paint system is obviously is driven by the car industry, use as little as possible and apply it very accurately (robot paint booth) and my chief concern is that I do not have that level of skill – all my experience is to get a good wet coat on and rub down any runs afterwards and repeat the process until you have a reasonable finish. Old dog and new tricks chimes here.

[350TSS]

Interesting day today, I decided to try to fit the fly-screen. The first debate I had with myself was whether I should paint it, then cut it to fit or vice versa. Option 2 won.
The fly-screen will have about 5 interfaces, a) at the bottom it has to sit level with the bottom of the bottom yoke, b) in the centre it has to sit over and around the headlight lens bezel, c) and d) on either side the clip-ons and brake and clutch levers and the associated hydraulic master cylinders and e) at the top it has to pass over the instrument surround and engage with the “ears” I made on the aluminium surround to mount the fly-screen at the top. I cannot contemplate reconciling c) and d) until the forks are in and the clip-ons and master cylinders are attached and angled correctly so cutting the fly-screen for these will have to wait anyway.
I was very conscious that an awful lot of hours have gone into the fly-screen and it could easily be ruined by one slip of the cutting disc on the Dremel.
First I tackled the cutting of a “dashboard” that will engage with the “ears” and form the top mounting. The fly-screen was offered up and an approximate position for the dashboard was established by simply drawing round the instrument surround with a sharpie pen. A cardboard template was then fashioned to follow that line but 6mm further forward to take account of the thickness of the instrument surround. The CF sheet was duly jig sawed out of the sheet of CF I made earlier. All this took a couple of hours.
Next I took the chrome bezel and positioned it a) as close to central and b) in as close to the right place vertically as I could determine on the inside of the fly-screen and drew round the inside of it (generously inside of it) and cut the hole for the bezel.
I then offered the cut fly-screen up to check my cutting. It was in about the right place laterally and vertically but the headlamp bezel was 10 to 25mm aft of the front of the fly-screen. All this positioning was without any solid mountings – “hanging in the air” so to speak.
I decided therefore that I needed to make the lower mounts and at least fix the bottom of the fly-screen vertically and centrally to the position of the fork stanchions. After cutting and annealing some 4mm aluminium about an hour later I had two brackets that approximately set the lower rear edge of the fly-screen in relation to the bottom yoke. My headlamp bezel was still c20mm adrift from the front of the fly screen. Bugger!!!.
Consideration was given to making a Perspex window for the headlamp to shine through but this just seemed like extra complication and weight and the 20mm gap would still be there. Also the existing meagre Monster headlamp would be emasculated further by additional diffraction
The aluminium brackets I made were unsatisfactory as the primary bend in both of them was c 135 degrees so the chances of them surviving very long are slim to say the least. Other designs were contemplated that would not involve bending more than 90 degrees. None are yet finalised.
To reduce the gap between the bezel and the fly-screen, I will tomorrow spacer the instrument surround down about 6 to 8mm which should enable the fly-screen to move backwards the requisite amount. This use of spacers will require alleviation of material on two other components and a potential clash with the wiring loom coming into the space behind and above the headlamp shell. Looks like a fun day tomorrow. The dashboard I made first during the course of the day will almost certainly not fit without further modification as the angle of attack of the fly-screen to the instrument surround will be at a lower angle.
So 4 hours in the garage and no concrete progress apart from an approximately correctly positioned hole in the front of the fly-screen.
Although I complain I actually love doing jobs like this. Masochist or what?

[Jez900ie]

Originally Posted by 350TSS

Masochist or what?

Masochist!

Only 144 more hours hours to riding though.

[350TSS]

Largish setback today, as is always the case when you move something it affects other things. I made the spacers to lower the instrument panel and had to cut the support plates for the headlamp and the swivel plate. Looking at it again I realised that the instrument plate would now foul the clip-ons so I spent an hour filing an adjustment to the instrument plate, then I tried the fly-screen again and the fore and aft positioning was still compromised as the headlamp bezel barely touches the inside of the screen and it needs to project through by about 10mm so I am still 10 to 15mm short.

I had to bow to the inevitable and recognise that my headlamp support plates were never going to fit with my fly-screen as long as I have a hole in my backside. Quite a lot of work is now just scrap.
The rest of the day was spent thinking what I would need to replace it.

I need a) fore and aft adjustability, b) vertical adjustability, c) sufficient rigidity in the mounting so the headlamp beam does not flutter all over the road.

Looking at the original Monster design it is actually a very good and clever design, relatively light weight and incorporates a resilient mounting where the side plates connect to the U bracket and provides guides for the front brake pipes. It also used the strength of the top yoke to support the mounting without compromising the adjustment of the steering head bearings through the use of the nylon inserts in the top of the U bracket.

Unfortunately I cannot use it with my instrument panel and fly-screen. I have drawn something up that I think will work and which incorporates a rubber mounting as well, however I think it might be on the heavy side compared to the original.

I will try to knock it out tomorrow.

[350TSS]

My adjustable headlamp mount went through a number of iterations. Finally I settled on this which is rubber mounted and gives me about 10mm vertical adjustment and about 20 mm fore and aft adjustment.

I started with some 6mm plate, some 25mm diameter aluminium bar and some 25mm aluminium hexagon.
The hexagon was cut 65mm long and through drilled 15mm then turned down in the middle and the ends were drilled across the faces 3mm. Two of the holes at each end were then tapped 4mm to take the rubber isolation mounts and a 4mm stainless grub screw to provide adjustability and secure the sliding part to the spigot. The other holes were opened out to 10mm to lighten it.
The bar was turned down to 15mm for all but 6mm of its length and drilled 10.5mm for 56mm. The 25mm diameter end of the bar was then drilled and tapped 8mm. Two 8mm x 25mm countersunk titanium socket screws will retain these spigots to the 6mm plate which will pick up the original mounting holes.


The failed CF version weighed 305g compared to the Monster original at 425 grams, this adjustable version weighs …………………………………………370g. Must try harder!
It took me 11 hours to make with almost the same length of time working out what to do beforehand (ETTC estimate 2 hours).

The definition of stupid is doing exactly the same thing and expecting a different outcome, I tried bending the plates in my home made bender which is OK up to 2mm but creates too tight a bend at 3mm thick material.
host pictures
Two hours of my life I will not see again. On the third attempt I used the vice and a piece of 75mm x 100 box section steel tube and a block of wood and a dead blow hammer which did the trick.
My solution compared to the Monster original means that the headlight beam has a greater chance of wandering laterally because the rubber mounts are not constrained in any way, but this is the only way I can come up with that enables me to get the fore and aft positioning right and still fit in the space envelope.

[350TSS]

I only had a couple of hours in the garage yesterday and today, all of the time yesterday was taken fettling the headlamp mount which still does not quite work with the fly-screen. The hexagon bar bits had to be linished down as they clashed with the inside of the fly-screen and the 3mm mounting plate had to be relieved to enable the headlamp shell to tilt so that the headlamp beam would face the road rather than illuminating Ursa Major. Eventually, I realised that I have to make a fourth version of the holding plate where the headlamp shell mounting bolt holes are about 15 mm further forward.

Today I set about making the mark 4 version. When bending the ears, quite a lot of force is needed and unfortunately the mark 4 must have moved slightly in the vice with the consequence that the ears are misaligned, this I think will come out with a small twist in the in the cross plate. Annoying though and I do not want to have to make a mark 5.

I also spent some time pondering how to mount the fly-screen. At the top I always intended to bond in a dashboard that would pick up on the instrument surround but at the front and on each side I am trying to work out bracketry that does not involve fastener heads external to the fly-screen and is quick release.

On my racing bikes in the past I would attach the fairing by mounting a full width tube to something solid on the frame (or engine/gearbox mounting plates) and with a tube which was brazed end on to a perforated plate which was bonded to the inside of the fairing. The fairing tube(s) slid over the fixed cross tube with an R clip inserted to secure it. The fairing could be removed in about 20 seconds. That worked because the sides of the fairing were relatively floppy and could accommodate opening the wings of the fairing by the 2 x tube overlap necessary to engage the fairing tube over the frame tube. There are two problems with this a) a fairing inside is relatively flat whereas the inner surface of the fly-screen is relatively small radius double curvature so making the tube that project inwards at the right angle and associated perforated plate to bond in will be difficult and b) I think my CF fly-screen is too stiff and will not spring enough at the places where the tube could be mounted to allow this to work. Also I have a problem in that the only fixing place is the two mounting points already used for the spigots for the headlamp mount.

I reluctantly conceded that the method was not going to work and made a bracket as in the picture below. It will have short lengths of channel about 40mm long x 13mm wide x about 5mm deep brazed to each end that permit fitting of 2 x rubber well nuts in each end. I have had to concede that the fly-screen will have external fasteners visible.

My oxygen cylinder ran out after I had brazed only one side of the bracket so that stopped play for today.

[350TSS]

Today I made the two channel brackets for the end of the rear fly-screen mount and decided to fix the front of the fly-screen by making some prongs to fit in the front of the headlamp bracket spigots.
(12mm aluminium bar turned down to 10.5mm to fit inside the headlamp bracket spigots for 45mm and then turned again for 8mm down to 6mm for a nut to hold the prong to a steel bracket, drilled 5mm for lightness for 30mm along the prong axis with a lead also filed on the front face)
I shall now have to make a steel bracket to hold them in the right place and correct distance apart and at the right angle projecting rearwards from the fly-screen. The inside of the fly-screen is double curvature with varying radii varying between 100 and 300 mm, there is a potential clash with the headlamp bezel which has its own double curvature (shell diameter and forward curvature of the bezel). Once the bracket is fabricated I then must hold it in exactly the right place whilst I bond it into the fly-screen shell. It should be a piece of cake (???)

[350TSS]

I made a start on the front steel bracket for the prongs to locate the fly-screen. Here is the first roughed out version made from some old scrap 1mm sheet steel. Holes need to be drilled where it will be bonded to the CF. There is a fair bit of time and work yet in this before a satisfactory solution materialises.


The big problem I have is I have 3 mounting points, top, front and lower rear, none of which is yet fixed and I have two potential clash areas, the instrument surround and the light bezel, the light bezel, of course, can move in three planes, fore and aft and up and down and rotationally. Logically I should concentrate on the most fixed position first (the top one) and secure that relationship and adjust the others to suit. The lower rear mounting is entirely variable and should never be part of the solution. It will be where it will be.
My nervousness stems from recognising how much work has been invested in the mould/ almost finished article and the thought of irretrievably mis-cutting the bezel hole to get an exact fit because one or other of the mountings are out of alignment leaves me in a dithering paralysis.
Despite the logicality of fixing the top mounting first I think I should consider the purpose of the fly-screen which is largely aesthetic, hiding the underside of the instruments, and being right up front and in your face it is crucial that it’s positioning and the rake of the screen part is just right. A few degrees out and it will be very evidently wrong. Both the top and the bottom mountings will be easy to accommodate any angular changes in the screen rake after the relationship (in 3 dimensions) between the light bezel and the fly-screen has been firmed up. I think it would be almost impossible vice versa as the hole in the front of the fly-screen will be in slightly the wrong place or at the wrong angle.
Sorry for being boring on this but I find that explaining in writing the issues I face enables me to sort out in my own head what is important and hopefully how best to approach a solution. The execution of course is another matter entirely.

[Jez900ie]

You are right of course, the appearance is everything. Its the same when you hang kitchen cupboards; you make them as straight as possible but if the wall is off, its far better to move them so they look correct to the eye.

[350TSS]

Too bloody cold to stay more than three hours in the garage today, numerous trips inside for a reviving cup of tea and a warm up, whatever, that time was productive.
Using some of these
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331834783479
I managed to open out the headlamp bezel hole in the front of the fly-screen. Originally I had traced a line out on the inside of the fly-screen shell around the inside of the chrome bezel. So the hole I would have cut would have been a)circular and b) about 3mm less on the radius than the outside of the chrome bezel.

Whilst the front of the fly-screen had been moulded with a flat front at the edges it slopes away towards the rear. Also the flat piece on the front was vertical whereas a headlamp has to point down by a few degrees. In consequence the hole in the front is not round but very slightly lozenge shaped. My original plan to project the chrome bezel about 10mm through the CF has been abandoned as if the headlamp is to have any up and down adjustment the lozenge shape has to accommodate the worst case of the top of the bezel being almost clear of the outer skin of the fly-screen and similarly at the bottom. With any degree of projection the lozenge is longer in up and down directions and if the headlamp is exactly in the middle there is a gap top and bottom which is unsightly.
Some while ago I bought some rubber edging “U” section 6mm deep and I plan to edge the hole with this with the hole just big enough (with the edging in place) to go over the slight projection the headlamp lens has in front of the bezel. This should also serve to stabilise the headlamp beam when going over bumps, i.e. restricting any oscillation in the rubber mounts, flex in the headlight shell support brackets.
As my oxygen bottles were delivered during the morning and to warm up a bit, I decided to finish brazing the centre part of my rear bracket which came out OK. The two channel pieces for attachment either side end channels will be brazed on when the other two mounting points are firmed up
Finally I fettled the top mount to fit with the instrument surround, tomorrow I should be able to drill the mounting holes and think of a way to fix it in position so that it can be bonded to the inside of the fly-screen.

[350TSS]

More bracketry work today, with the time put in somewhat restricted by the temperature.
The rear bracket got its centre mount brazed up, the channels to be attached to the ends of the tube will have to wait until the other two bracket are bonded into the fly-screen.
The front mount had a bit of surgery and the holes drilled to take the prongs. The holes had to be really accurate as the prongs are a nice close sliding fit in the spigots, 0.25 of a mm out on the holes and they would bind. I have taken to using a 1.5mm centre drill rather than a centre punch to indent the centre of the hole to be drilled. I find that with a centre punch it is far too easy for the centre of the punch to move between the time you locate it and when the head of the hammer connects. Trouble is once it is there and wrongly located you are kind of stuck with it. With a centre drill you can using a battery drill on low revs make a mark, check it for accuracy and if it is wrong you can migrate the point of the centre drill to the correct location. I was well pleased when the two prongs slid into and out of the spigots as if they were not connected by the bracket. This bracket got treated to a bit of in situ walloping with a dead blow hammer so that the underside cleared the inner surface of the fly-screen.
Finally I made up the top bracket which locates on the instrument surround. Recognising that bonding a bracket into the fly-screen in exactly the right position was going to be an extremely unlikely event, I chose to manufacture the bracket to be bonded in about 15 mm in front of the instrument panel frame. I will use 2 x 5mm male /female vibration mounts between the instrument frame and the bonded in bracket and if there is any misalignment during bonding this can be taken up with spacers .
Pleased with the day’s work, but not looking forward to the next stage, bonding the two brackets in place as I have no idea how I will hold the fly-screen in exactly the right place, apply the epoxy and get it to stay in the right place for the couple of hours or so it takes for it to solidify.

[350TSS]

Yesterday and today I thought I would go for the fixing of my brackets to the fly-screen. After about 7 hours of messing about I am not much further forward and have managed to give myself a couple of extra hours work.
I spent maybe 4 hours yesterday trying to align the front prong bracket, testing different fore and aft locations of the fly-screen, adjusting the headlamp bracket itself fore and aft, checking the centralisation of the assembly, checking the position of the headlamp bezel in relation to the hole I have cut in the front face, checking the rake of the screen bit, trying to clamp it in the preferred position. It was not easy and |I was not confident that I could replicate the positioning at the time the adhesive was applied.
The problem primarily was access, the only place to clamp the two parts together was where the adhesive was due to go, there was no way to get a sharpie in to mark the position as the bottom yoke was in the way and the clamping area itself was only maybe 10mm wide. Also it needed one hand to hold the fly-screen in position and it was difficult to judge centralisation with one hand in the required position, you needed to step back to check the rake angle and the alignment with the seat hump. Without the adhesive available I gave up for the day having achieved absolutely nothing.
I had ordered some special adhesive for bonding steel to CF which arrived this morning. It is a two part glue with a syringe that combines the epoxy and the hardener in a long nozzle. So today was the day to get this job done. I must have spent another 2 hours messing about getting it all aligned and I left the fly-screen clamped to the bracket, I turned around to break the seal on the adhesive when I heard the sickening sound of my fly-screen bouncing off the concrete floor. The frame and the steering head was located on top of my home made sand blasting cabinet so the fly-screen fell about 1.2m. The clamp had obviously not clamped and in retrospect I should have put some blankets on the floor beneath it. There were 3 chips on the surface of the fly-screen, not on the bottom edge completely hidden from view, oh no, at 2 o’clock about 50mm from the headlamp bezel hole in absolutely the most in your face place on the component. Two more fill and rub down cycles will be required.
I probably spent another hour trying to get this configuration all aligned when it dawned on me that the real issue with my front prong bracket was that it would not successfully clamp in a repeatable position and even if it did I had little chance of injecting the adhesive (because the bottom yoke is in the way) such that it would stay in that place when it cured.
Nothing for it a new design was required and a bracket was knocked out in about an hour, This one allows the screen to have about a 10 degree steeper rake which aesthetically is much better but it will almost certainly require me to make a mark 5 headlamp bracket which drops the headlamp shell by 15mm and pushes it forward by about 10mm.
My ETTC estimate for fitting the fly-screen was 8 hours in total, as at 19.00 this evening I have spent 26 hours and I think there is a good 8 hours before I get it right (or as near right as I am capable of achieving).
As I finish writing this I have one slight concern, namely that the new fly-screen arrangement is c. 25mm further forward of the steering head than an S4 fly-screen and therefore may be more susceptible to wind pressure affecting the steering (more leverage for the wind to affect the movement of the handlebars). My S4 used to get into a very slight weave at or near top speed (never worrying and showing c. 130+mph on the speedo). I suppose if my old M900 ever gets to go that fast I can always ease the throttle slightly.

[350TSS]

A productive day today, first I made Mk 5 of the headlamp bracket (15mm lower and 10mm further forward)
Then I messed around with my Mk 2 front bracket in conjunction with the headlamp bracket, quite a bit of fettling was needed but the good news is that the fly-screen now sits with the headlamp bezel touching the hole in the front of the fly-screen. It appears to be pointing in the geneal direction of the road about 30m ahead and the top surface is in line with the seat hump and I have even managed to get the rake on the screen bit to look right. Having got a curvature to the wings on the bracket so that it followed the inside of the CF moulding nearly perfectly I stiffened them up by brazing in some lengths of 5mm steel rod and then drilled holes in it to facilitate bonding to the CF.
I also nearly finished a bracket to take my loom swivel device which is designed to reduce the stress on the loom around the steering head when the handlebars turn (no idea if it will work but I still think it is a good idea to try out).
Picture shows Mk3, 4 and 5 headlamp bracket and Mk1 and 2 of front mounting bracket.

[350TSS]

First, I finished off the swivel bracket and tried then to get rid of the surface marks from the file and the bending activity (welts with a 2lb dead blow hammer). The more I look at it the less confident I feel about it actually working but I will persevere anyway until proved wrong.
Then a little nervously, I took the plunge with the specialist epoxy to bond the front mounting to the fly-screen. It soon became obvious that I did not have any clamps with a deep enough throat to hold it satisfactorily in place. At this point I did what all bodgers do, I reached for the gaffer tape. The technique was to get the screen 95% in the right place then put the first holding strip on adjust the position then another strip, slowly centreing it in the right place.


The two epoxy tubes came to £27 and it very soon became apparent that you needed an applicator gun to squeeze the 2 part glue down the nozzle. I did not buy one, because I was not aware one was needed.
After the first 10mm of movement down the bores it was impossible to exert enough pressure to force the contents into the mixing chamber in the nozzle. I was holding the barrels in my left hand and using my finger and thumb on the right hand to get the glue to flow out of the nozzle, directing it to the right place was definitely impossible. So I used my largest snipe nose pliers to exert the pressure on the pistons. One of two things happened, either the pointed end of the pliers pierced the back of the pistons or the unequal pressure caused the piston to swivel in the bore, whatever there was £13.50 worth of evil smelling, unmixed epoxy on the wrong side of the pistons. I was not impressed.
For the second side of the front mount I had to open the second tube and I knocked up a plywood holder and a plunger using two bolts which works in an ordinary sealant cartridge gun which seemed to work OK. I will leave the epoxy to harden overnight before I try to do the top mount