[Bassdude404]

Yesterday......

 

[Bassdude404]

And today finished up piecing together....

 

[Bassdude404]

Weird how the pics don't post in the order I picked them....They get jumbled all up during uploading....🤦‍♂️

 

[IndyX]

Never had that issue just insert each after already attached and uploaded.

 

[Bassdude404]

Was too cold to work out here yesterday, so I'm a day behind where I expected to be today...But I got busy with the Dremel while the heaters were slowly warming it up some out here..Sanding drum to knock some of the edges left from cutting out the original floor, and while I was creating dust I went ahead and got rid of the turn signal slot....

I didn't realize it until I stood the bag up, but there's an area at the back that's lower than the new floor I made, so I'll have to cut a piece of cured flat fiberglass to fit there and 'glass that in place...Otherwise stuff will fall in there and be a bitch to reach....

Original plan for filling in the turn signal slots was to use the mylar on the outside, and fiberglass it from inside and that would give me a smooth surface on the outside that wouldn't need a ton of sanding and bodywork to make it perfect....Well the fact that the mylar I bought sticks to the resin (still can't figure out why), I had to come up with a new plan....So trying a piece of a Coke box with packing tape on the side facing the saddlebag, taped in place...Not sure how this is going to work out, we'll see when this shit cures I guess...Got to give me a better starting point than just trying to lay 'glass in there with no backer....

Got some of the seams where I pieced the floor together covered with fiberglass on the inside, but still a bit more to go...Not much room in there for my big ass gorilla hands and I was getting into areas I just put fresh 'glass and resin, so need to let this cure before continuing with the rest of the seams....

Last two pics, you can see the line where I cut the original floor (different colors)....That 4-1/4" gained me a ton more storage space in this side.....😎

Annnd when the resin started to set up O pulled the piece of Coke box off and it didn't exactly go as planned...Most of the top edge has a gap that I need to fill in...Working by feel inside there and I missed a good portion of that edge.....

 

[Bassdude404]

Got home a bit earlier than usual, so took the opportunity to go in the garage first and get a little ahead of this weekend's "fix where the cardboard and packing tape failed" on the former turn signal slot...Laid some resin and fiberglass on the outside to completely cover the area as most of the top edge didn't get 'glassed in Sunday morning.....Pretty much all of this will get sanded back off eventually, but now this Saturday I can go lay more fiberglass inside this area and not have any issues with it pushing completely through to the outside of the saddlebag...I'll build that up inside with several layers. And after it cures I can sand this down smooth and it'll be like the slot was never there....😬

I'm always learning something new while doing this stuff....😎

 

[Bassdude404]

Forgot to update last week...That previous weekend I filled in a void that was inside the right bag, added more fiberglass to the former turn signal slot, and sanded the speaker mounting rings to match the speaker grilles....

 

[Bassdude404]

This past Saturday we had a birthday party going on here, but I got out in garage yesterday morning for a bit....Started sanding the outside smooth where I extended the floor of the right bag, and of course sanded through some thin areas...Rather than keep sanding I decided to add more fiberglass in the low areas and of course fix the spots I sanded through...Despite the "sanded through" spots, I'm happy with the progress and how the extended floor area is blending into the rest like it's supposed to....


Annnd of course the pics aren't loading in order and I can't figure out how to fix it, so my apologies for that.....

 

[PaXman11]

This past Saturday we had a birthday party going on here, but I got out in garage yesterday morning for a bit....Started sanding the outside smooth where I extended the floor of the right bag, and of course sanded through some thin areas...Rather than keep sanding I decided to add more fiberglass in the low areas and of course fix the spots I sanded through...Despite the "sanded through" spots, I'm happy with the progress and how the extended floor area is blending into the rest like it's supposed to....


Annnd of course the pics aren't loading in order and I can't figure out how to fix it, so my apologies for that..... View attachment 245645 View attachment 245646
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We are not worthy. If it was easy anyone could do it.

 

[Bassdude404]

Yesterday....

More progress!!...Sanded it out and still had low spots and some thin spots that I sanded through....

But a couple days ago in "memories " a post came up from a few years ago when I was doing Jen's Shadow....Brian Elsner gave me a helpful tip....Add baby powder to the resin to thicken it up and a different bonding agent...The fiberglass mat I've been using is just to give the resin more strength and hold a shape...I've seen those car build shows on TV where guys make custom interior parts using fleece stretched over a frame and then brush resin over it...After it cures it's strong and holds whatever shape you're after..Then add a little body filler to smooth everything out....Well with this I'm trying to get it as sooth as possible before switching to any body filler...I could use fiberglass reinforced filler which is great stuff....Sets up damn near like concrete, but it's heavier than resin, and takes some work to get smooth...

So I mixed up some resin and added baby powder until it was a little thicker than pancake batter...Resin being a liquid, it self-levels....But on vertical surfaces it just runs down the side...This mixture though holds better to the vertical surfaces...Had a little bit running down but I'm standing here smoothing them out with the brush until it sets up...Aside from a few weird divots in the resin/baby powder mixture, it laid out awesome and will be damn near perfect after I can sand this out, needing very little body filler to be perfect...

 

[Bassdude404]

Today.....

Hit everything with the sander and 100 grit...Really happy with everything except that one spot that I sanded through yet again...Cut some small pieces of fiberglass mat and shoved them in that area to create a kind of a trough...Put three layers in, then mixed up another batch of resin and baby powder and put a bunch in that spot and coated the entire bottom to fill in a bunch of low spots....Next weekend when I can sand this out, hopefully I'll be done with fiberglass on this part of the project and can use fiberglass reinforced filler to fix whatever is still needing attention....

Then onto finishing the floor in the left bag, put them on the bike and start the fun stuff, doing the speaker mounts, license plate mount and rear spoiler....😬

 

[Bassdude404]

Yesterday.........

Sanded the right bag again, looking good on that one, the minor low spots can be fixed with fiberglass reinforced filler and sanded out smooth....

So put it back on the bike and pulled the left one back off again...Plenty to do on the bottom of that one...Cut a curved piece of cured fiberglass to somewhat fit in the end and make that look finished...Had to use a small screw to hold it in place while the fresh fiberglass and resin cures...Lip along the bottom needs a bunch more fiberglass laid in there....Put like 5 layers in there, so how it looks tomorrow after sanding it down...Pretty sure it'll need at least another couple layers to get it as thick as I want it to be....

Also still need to remove the turn signal slot and fill that in...

 

[Bassdude404]

 

[Bassdude404]

This morning......



Bye bye turn signal slot!!!...

Cut it out and trying some HVAC aluminum tape on the backside to support the fiberglass this time....Hopefully it pulls off the fiberglass after it cures...If not, it's on the inside where nobody will see it, and the insides of the bags will be painted black anyways when I get to that point....It's holding better than the cardboard and packing tape deal I tried on the right bag, so this is already better than that side was at this stage...


Annnd the HVAC tape pulled off clean, so that worked great...

 

[Bassdude404]

Oh yeah, new seat arrived Friday....

 

[Bassdude404]

Birthday party for my 2 year old granddaughter yesterday, so only got out to this today....And of course the pics load out of order as usual....🙄

 

[PaXman11]

Anticipation........

 

[Bassdude404]

Long way to go.....Haven't even started the fun stuff yet....

 

[tworley]

Looks good! Glad to see you back.

 

[Bassdude404]

Forgot to post more progress Sunday...

Did a test fit of the new seat to make sure I had the fender sitting correctly, then as I suspected, the bags needed some sanding to fit around the chrome fender struts and be level with the bottom of the fender...Then of course more sanding and broke out the short strand fiberglass reinforced filler to take care of low spots on the bottom of one bag....And used some of that same filler to make a mold of the V tail light slot on the fender...Going to use that to make a pair of recessed slots for the turn signals which will be alongside the V, but in the bags...I have one drawn on the left bag with a Sharpie...

Turn signal LED strips already arrived, ones for the tail/brake lighting ordered and waiting on them to arrive...Also ordered new pop-up quarter turn latches like I used on the other bags...Possibly getting started on the speakers in the lids this weekend now that I have everything lined up correctly, or maybe the license plate mount and rear spoiler...Haven't decided yet...