Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Tail Redesign Part 4

I fabbed up the tail light bracket today and am very pleased with the results.

I first started with a cardboard template to get a feel for layout and look:

I then worked a piece of 1/16 aluminum and came up with this:

This is using my new flare LED brake lights I ordered from England.
And on the bike from a couple of angles:

Alas, everything is not quite right yet. The bracket/endpiece is a perfect fit, I mean so perfect. But the only problem is:
Those stupid welds are in the way of the end-piece fitting flush up against the lower cross piece! I didn't plan the weld location all that great. OOPS. So now I either remove the welds (bad idea), space out the end-piece using rubber or another metal piece, or modify the end-piece so it doesn't fit all the way to the round frame (ugly). I think I'm going to space the bracket out slightly.

I've still got to drill the mounting holes and of course, anodize the aluminum piece. I've set up a homebrew anodizing rig and have been getting excellent results on test pieces so far. More about my anodizing setup on another post.

-Stephen

3 comments:

RazorsEdge2112 said...

Looking great so far! Those lights are quite nice. OOPS on that weld issue. Is there much stress on that cross-piece? Maybe dremeling off that side of the weld wouldn't be so bad?

Excellent work!

esbowman said...

Great stuff man. I'm enjoying watching your progress. I have a 1991 Suzuki VX800 and I've been doing the opposite of you in a way. I'm setting everything back to stock, and replacing old parts with new OEM pieces. Much of this is due to a lack of equipment and tools.

Kudos on all the hard work. I'm sure this will be majorly impressive bike once you are finished...hell it is already. :)

Stephen F. said...

RazorsEdge: Thanks! Not much stress on the cross piece. It's really for bolting on bodywork, lights, license plate etc. I ended up grinding down the welds slightly, now I just need to dab some paint to prevent rust on the exposed steel.