Author |
Message |
Lowroad
| Posted on Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 03:09 pm: |
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Harbor freight too. Decent (and cheap) tap and die sets. |
Oldog
| Posted on Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 03:16 pm: |
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Low some things from HF are realy good deals use caution on taps and dies there, likely good for thread cleanup but tapping a weld up or a new hole I would use caution, just me though. I got some files there and dropped one ( it shattered due to improper heat treatment ) For Good quality cutting tools check MSC supply. |
Lowroad
| Posted on Thursday, April 23, 2009 - 04:06 pm: |
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I get where you are coming from. It's hit or miss. I've used the taps without problem, but I'm a broke ass. If you got a few more bucks, buy something else i guess. Apparently I learned nothing from the chinese CF fender disaster. |
Adsva83
| Posted on Thursday, April 30, 2009 - 10:26 am: |
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TD I have a template made up to use your design for the undertail. I think it cleans everything up nicely and looks easy to do. I wanted to get some opinions on what material to use to do this. I work at a sheet metal shop so I was thinking stainless steel because I have it readily available. I had another thought as well. We also have a plastic shop and I have access to a very dark smoke plastic, it's transluscent. It basically has the same look as car windows with very dark tint. Any opinion on how this may look? I may just make both to have them around. |
Tdman77
| Posted on Thursday, April 30, 2009 - 11:34 am: |
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Adam - I used 1/16 aluminum. I didn't polish it but used silver wheel paint and clear coat (polyurethane). That plastic idea is pretty neat. How brittle is the plastic? Just wondering if it would crack from a rock thrown from the tire. Also the area between the turn signals and tail light I bent the under tail down a bit so that there was room for the wiring. Not sure if you can do that with the plastic. |
Adsva83
| Posted on Thursday, April 30, 2009 - 12:32 pm: |
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The plastic i'm looking at using is 0.100" thick, so it's pretty thick. We actually use it for thermoform molded parts. If i heat it up with a heat gun in the little part between the tail lights that needs to be bent, I can bend it the little that it needs to clear the wiring and it will cool in that bent shape. The stainless I will have powder coated or I'll just buff it to a mirror finish. I'm cutting them both out today and can post pictures soon. |
Lowroad
| Posted on Thursday, April 30, 2009 - 01:08 pm: |
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Uhmmm, if you built, say an extra plastic one, I might say, be interested in purchasing one. |
Tdman77
| Posted on Thursday, April 30, 2009 - 02:40 pm: |
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A plastic undertail would be pretty cool. I was just thinking you could put some lights inside the trunk and it would shine thru. The reason I didn't polish my under tail is that I am not going to use the rear fender and just didn't want to deal with trying to keep it polished up with all the debris being flung against it. Make sure to bend it enough to be able to get a long extension and socket to screw your tail light on. |
Adsva83
| Posted on Sunday, May 03, 2009 - 01:18 pm: |
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The sheets of plastic that I have were an inch to narrow to work so I used 18ga. stainless steel on the undertail. I still need to make a bracket for the license plate and drill out the hole for the seat lock. I'm taking off the carbon fiber rear hugger if I can figure out how to get a wrench on the screw that is under the oil tank that holds it on? I can't seem to get a socket in there, probably need a simple allen wrench.
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Tdman77
| Posted on Sunday, May 03, 2009 - 04:33 pm: |
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Adam - Try a long extension. I can't remember if I had the passenger foot peg brackets on or off when I took mine off. But a long 12" extension will just fit thru to the bolt. Your under tail looks good. Make sure to put some protection on the oil and brake line hoses. I had some 3/8 fuel tubing that I cut and wrapped around those hoses. On a side note, in the short time I have had the under tail on 300miles or so. I have noticed quite a bit of nicks from rocks thrown up against it. Not sure if it would be worth the effort to polish up if it is going to get torn up. |
Scarecrow
| Posted on Sunday, May 03, 2009 - 06:09 pm: |
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I put an American Sport Bike Carbon fiber undertail on my bike so I had a little more room to get to the taillight bolts than you will but what I found indispensable was a socket extension I got at the local Harbor Freight that has a magnet that extends from the tip up through the socket and holds the nut in the socket. Worked like a charm and I had my taillight on in seconds instead of ?????. It's cheap too. Copy and past the following address; http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisearch/web/sear ch.do?catPath=All%2BProducts%252F%252F%252F%252FUs erSearch1%253Dsocket%2Bextension¤tPage=1&las tPage=2&isNext=false&isPrevious=false&category=&at tributeValue=&attributeName=&requestedPage=2&resul tsPerPage=10&resultsPerPageBottom= |
Adsva83
| Posted on Tuesday, May 05, 2009 - 03:15 pm: |
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I was going to make a bracket for the license plate as well and just tie it in with the bolts that are used for the tail light. Now I'm thinking I may just drill and tap right into the part of the rear where the lights are mounted. I'm sure there is a logical reason as to why most plates are mounted at an angle? |