Going to take a break. Lol fairings almost literally " hot off the press!"

I will say, that I should have done this on the GSX-R. WAY less complicated body work. ( for the record, the purple\green ninja, all of that was vacuum formed, EXCEPT the side fairings) My old table was too small. Everything else fit, I just didn't have better tooling at the time, nor a large table for this piece.

Its not perfect, by any means. But figured I would show. Tweak a few things, fresh ideas..etc...etc.

Han in Carbonite I spose.


Not sure why this camera didn't record sound. It did on the previous take. I'll see if the other camera got better views/sound.

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The other view of it. Pretty boring if you ask me. With sound. Still boring. :D

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A few notes:

Intentionally done in black, so I can really see problem areas, with too much heat, too long, etc. ( on the platen, stretched so thin, it looked like smoke package wrapping)

I'll eventually make proper stand-off units for the bodywork to be at rest, and not " smoosh" out across the table. ( And so the vinyl can get a proper lip, around the edges.)

Needed a second or third person to hold the frame w/vinyl down. That size, with one person ( at the moment) was too much going on. I'll find ways to make adjustments for a good seal later.

A few issues with dust/sawdust, cold weather, and static electricity, within a garage environment.

A shop vac, a vacuum pump, a heat gun, and a patio heater, will leave you in the dark! ::keke::

More in a bit. But for tonight, that's the only pull I can do. Will do some more tomorrow.

wow, that's some mighty awesome stuff you're doing!

Doing some reviewing.

Areas highlighted in red, are under high tension. ( at least for the vinyl.)

The deepest recesses are the problem. An immediate solution, is of 2 answers.

1. Dremel off/sand the material on the outlet/scoops inward folding faces. Which suits me just fine, looks wise. But I feel, if I did that, then there just went a lot of structural integrity, of the fairing.

Or

2. I can lay down some "knife less tape, where I highlighted. I think the black/green combo would look good.

wow, that's some mighty awesome stuff you're doing!

I try to find new things. :D

My 3rd attempt on the same piece. Just trying to do new experiments to it.

This time I pre-heated the bodywork, and I left the protective clear wrap on it it. The 2 prior times, I removed it first. Found out it makes it worse, so I left it on, while doing the pull. Just to see what would happen.

It was REALLY cold last night. So unfortunately the static cling was worse, in drawing up some of the sawdust/particulates, but I'm not complaining. Just an observation. But as a whole, I was really impressed with this pull, leaving the clear protective wrap on, then peeling it off,, after the pull.


I'll do the smaller parts in the next video after this one. I should also have someone narrate for me. As apparently I can't talk, and "do" at the same time. :keke:

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Almost out of black. Got most of parts prepped. Just don't have the time. Hopefully I can have a new video up by sunday.

But I did order two more interesting colors. ( mainly because of price) white aluminum, and a dark grey. ( darker than Nardo/attack grey) the white aluminum gave me an idea for a tribute P-51 with invasion stripes/D-day theme. I'll see how it pans out, but wont have the stuff until tuesday.

No new vids tonight.

I was stretching the vinyl across the frame, and it fell through the frame. Onto the concrete. Sticky side down. DOH!

Apparently I need a new way of securing it. Last of my current 4x4 ft vinyl. But I have the 2 more rolls coming in this week. So hopefully a new vid by this following Sunday.

I never thought of using a vacuum table with vinyl. Nice. Did you you buy the vac table or make it yourself? I have always wanted to play with those but never done it.

It was something I made. I was really big into RC helicopters, and trucks. I started making bodies for those. Then after watching some of the youtube auto wrap gurus doing bikes, and watching thier process to do bikes, it hit me. They are so close, but didn't know it. Had I not vacuum formed my RC stuff, I probably would not have realised the two industries can be crossed over.

Right now, it's a rudimentaty set-up. Later on I'll be redoing it

How thick of material you think can be done with vacuum-table? I'm looking at moulding some small 20x30cm polycarbonate 1.5mm sheets. Would that be possible or should I use pressure from above?

Very workable.

I cant remember the thickness, i believe it was 1/8" but I made some helicopter bodies, and 1:6 scale motorcycle helmets, using lexan.

You would have to use an oven to heat the plastic, until it droops a bit. Different plastics require different heat, but 1.5 mil, is thin, compared to the lexan I used.

Also, depending on the thickness of your plastic, you will lose some resolution of your formed plastics edges and lines.

This is one of the videos that explains a lot. I built my tank system, after his. ( he has another video, and parts list) ( but you dont need a tank system, i used a shop vac for years, they do fine, for thin plastics)

But here is a recent simplified tutorial

https://youtu.be/Tugr2juVWuk

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4th pull!

https://youtu.be/IkXVLFlOEOg

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Much better results, but still not perfect. Again, each failure shows the weakness, and gives more answers.

( most of my situations, explained in description.)

I had help, with my neighbor. Really good "kid". And a good friend. I'm only going to state it here. He is moderate/high functioning autistic. So, feel free to ask away, give support.but keep comments respectful, in the channel, if you place a comment. Other than that, let me know what yall think of the process. Questions, comments, issues, concerns...