| Author | Message | ||
     Americanmadexb |
im getting ready to do this soon and was wondering what you DIY guys did to cut this down! My plan is just a dremel and some sand paper. Any tricks i need to know of? | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
A Dremel is a bit of a light weight for this job. A hack saw and a good hand grinder is more like it. Another approach is to send it to Odie at Special Ops, one of our sponsors. He does a super nice job for $150, if I remember correctly. May sound like a lot, but it will seem cheap after you do your own.  | ||
| Americanmadexb |
Another approach is to send it to Odie at Special Ops, one of our sponsors. He does a super nice job for $150, if I remember correctly. i know, i thought about that, but i think i might try to learn the hard way first!!!! | ||
| Tx05xb12s |
I'll tell you, that's a lot of work to get it to look like anything. The first one I tried ended up in the trashcan. The second one turned out ok, but still not as good as Odie can do it. $150 may sound like a lot, but he earns the dough. His are hand-sanded to perfection, any pitting in the aluminum casting is filled in with bondo, and the piece will either come to you primered or painted in the color of your choice. He'll even make you a plate bracket for free. If you're still adamant about doing it yourself, you need a hacksaw, a bench grinder, an assortment of files, an assortment of sandpaper, bondo, primer, paint thinner, and paint. It will probably take you several evenings of work to get it roughed out, and a few more to get it to finished/ready to paint condition. I'm telling you, with the amount of labor that goes into this job doing it by hand, Odie isn't paying himself very well for a first rate job. As for the dremel, it just isn't heavy duty enough for the job you're talking about. Trust me, I know from experience. That's what I thought I was going to use the first time I attempted this modification. That thick aluminum turned out to be a bigger challenge than I originally anticipated. | ||
| Americanmadexb |
damn.....ok i guess its not worth the effort!!!  i guess i should ask him, but since some of you have had experiance with him, how much more does Odie charge for paint?(or maybe he will chime in.) I just want the cut tail with paint to match the subframe on an 06 Ss(silver) P.S. Odie if you read this, you where my first and only option to fix this incase i screwed it up!!!!!!))) Odie, whats the turn around time on one? With paint? i did email you about 5 months ago on this but never got an email back, so i thought maybe you where to busy to do this, being in the military(i think) and all!! (Message edited by americanmadexb on February 15, 2007) | ||
| Lonexb |
not to take any thing away from Odie. he is a great guy. but if you are handy with a grinder it shouldn't take much more than an hour or so to do.     how ever if you are not handy with a grinder. i would highly suggest that the $150 that Odie charges for this service is well worth it. brian | ||
| Bads1 |
Lonexb is right. I did mine and had primered in a 1hr and a 1/2. I used metal filler for some poor fill in the casting and sanded smooth. | ||
| Odie |
Americanmadexb- with the proper tools you can do it yourself. It is time consuming and easy to go too far in places. It also depends on how smooth you want everything also. There are no filing/sanding marks on mine when finished and the paint goes on smoothly. If you are going to do it yourself I recommend going slow and taking your time. I use a Plasma Cutter, pneumatic tools, a 4" grinder, and alot of hand sanding to get mine the way they are. Of course you don't need these tools but they make it alot easier. If you need some help just drop me a line. Take care, Odie. | ||
| Americanmadexb |
thanks Odie for the reply. Im handy with tools. Ive been a welder/fabricater for 10 years untill i got my recent job. Its just if i screw up the first time, i have nothing to exchange it with and it will cost more then $150. Plus i will need it painted. Unless you can work with a chopped up tail grater??? haha.. i dont know. i will drop you a line and let you know Odie. My exhaust is coming to you in about 2 weeks so i may just send both!!! | ||
| Ratyson |
I bought a $30 angle grinder from Lowes, and cutting wheel, and some grinding wheels of decresing grit. Went to town on the cheese grater, and about 2 hours later, I had what I wanted. Primed/painted, drilled some holes to relocate my turn signals, and viola! I had a pastastrainerectomy. The only thing I was bummed about was that since the tail piece was made of aluminum, I was unable to make a crap load of sparks as I grinded it down... what a letdown... I made myself a plate bracket out of some sheet steel... not THAT made some sparks! | ||
| Thansesxb9rs |
Ya it is pretty easy to do as long as you take your time and don't rush it, doing it this way is still not a long process. I have done around 7 of them and each one turned out good. Just don't rush it. Plus it is always fun doing something for yourself. | ||
| Thansesxb9rs |
Oh ya keep watching Ebay you can pick these up pretty cheap sometimes just don't let Odie snipe the auction.  | ||
| Ulendo |
hey guys on the topic of the cheese grater - anyone ever done any welding on them? just curious about the quality of the casting ( not to knock it - some castings are weldable, some not so much) reason I'm curious is I'm still working on my undertail exhaust setup. the new rear cowl will be aluminum, and rather than fabbing up all sorts of bits to mount and brace it, if the casting is readily weldable I'll weld the new cowl right in, and go for a factory look. t.i.a. for any feedback. | ||
| Glitch |
If you can weld on cast aluminium you may have a shot at it. | ||
| Ulendo |
yah, as a matter of fact I CAN, and have done so: fabricator by trade, and I have all my own gear, including an oven to heat castings prior to welding. that said, not all castings are created equal - for example, castings with any pockets of impurities in them have a tendancy to explode if you try to weld them. 'odd' alloys can also cause problems as you end up trying to weld dissimilar metals. thus my question about the tailpiece castings on Buells |
