Ha, i know. stupid auto correct.

When i got my VFR sssa, it just came with the hub and brake assembly. no tools. I got a hex nut spanner and it does the trick. kinda tight when the wheel is on.

So, on the update side, I took the bike for the first spin around the block last friday. Was nice. I forgot how much i miss the bike.

No fairings and the headlight assembly was just attached to the stay bar... wires dangling everywhere... the seat was just bolted to the frame. but she rode.

I was all freaking out. I knew my battery was dead, so i jumped the bike. took 10 minutes before i had ample fuel going into the system.

of course, it didn't start. until i noticed the choke was open (in the on position) so, i closed it and it jumped to life.

I don't have the exhaust setup yet. How bad is the compression going to be if i ride without it?

right now im painting all the fairings.. and i have to say, what a PITA! holly crap.

The base coat ive used so many different products to get a result i like. Prepping the plastic was easy, painting the top coat has sucked.

First, my front cowl had cracks at the top of the headlights, so i fixed those, heavier on the paint to fill some of the cracks. Then i airbrushed on the sparkle finish.... problem is that you cant wet sand this stuff. its like when you skin peels after a sunburn.

I had a small run that i went to wet sand with 2000 grit, and the sparkle all peeled off... I was so mad. it peeled off in just one section, so its not like i could just start from scratch. I had to wait a day for it to fully cure, then lightly sand it down without lubricant. Eventually last night i was able to rescue the cowl and repaint it to be even.

THEN on the right fairing, the paint bubbled for some reason. I always rub with a little alcohol before hand. Anyhow, so i sanded it down, then resprayed, and repeated too many times. I built up a thick layer of paint, then i could not sand it any more. So i took the power sander to it, and it caused the underlying paint to MELT! 0_o

so, i scraped as much off with a paint scraper, and let it cure for a day in the sun. I came back last night and had to hand sand it with 250, 600, 1000, 2000 to bring it to a nice smooth surfacing. Then repainted with semi-gloss white enamel.

I have a fear that the gloss coatings from spray cans leaves a film on the paint that needs to be removed before you clear-coat.

I did the underside of the R1 tail... just with the primer, then white gloss paint. then i clear coated it. The entire thing bubbled. So i grabbed some grafiti remover and that took all the paint off of it without damaging the pvc.

what a pain in the ****.

I hope to god that when i clear coat the bigger parts that i dont run into the same issues.









here is a pic of my rear framing.



i have to provide some under support with two more aluminium rods, but mostly its stable enough to hold my weight.

Tonight's job is to lightly sand any surface roughness from the fairings and test a light coating of clear on them. I may do one or two more coatings of the sparkle finish to really make it deep.

Then i want to do a test fitting of the exhaust. I had to cut a little from the R1 undertail to move the exhaust in such a way that it wouldn't hit the batter box.

Which will mean the exhaust will pop out a little further than the tail, but thats not a big deal. I ordered in an aftermarket brake/turn light. I just wanted to have the licence plate under the exhaust, nothing else. I will order in a custom LED light strip for additional visibility for turn signals.

LED Flexible Lighting TruFlex Flexible LED Light Strips

Was thinking of their Integrated Turn/Brake LED strip. may have to make some alterations to the tail to make it sit flush.

Here is the new tail. I had to remake the end because the previous owner's dog chewed if off.





I need to sand it back a little more so the light fits under it.. too much bondo.

its getting there. maybe on the weekend she'll be up and on the road! here's hoping!

 

got side tracked with a quick mod:










The accent color of the bike is gold, so i'll just buy a monster with a yellow/orange label.

On another note. Painting is almost done. got some clear coating in last night. looking good so far.

 

quick update, put humpty dumpty back together again last night. Had to do some creative thinking with the electrical, but everything turned out ok. Now its time to fit the rear upper fairing and get the exhaust holders mounted up.

Tonight is about a decent test ride, but as i have no rear side mirrors (the stock f3 do NOT fit the f4i fairing stay) and i have no rear turn signals (the stock tail light didnt have the integrated kit i thought it did)... both parts are consequently on order from HK and should arrive... sometime.

I mounted up the side ram air duct covers, and they were almost a perfect fit without alteration, but after a quick blast from the heatgun, i was able to bend the plastic a bit to mould to the gastank. The HID's are just a one to one, one low beam, one high beam. Im waiting on picking up a diode tonight to wire them up properly to a relay.

I still need to figure out where to mount the rectifier on the bike. But i can deal with that tonight. still lots to do, but a lot has been done.













I ended up mounting just one of the ram air tubes to the front fairing, the one on the left. I didn't want to not include it. I was going to cut a hole in the left side fairing, and just put it there, but wanted to retain some of the old design from the F3. Although you'll never see it.

The ram air intake covers are from a microwave filter i saw on the weekend. Kinda costly at 25 dollars. But the end look is very attractive. And I still have enough left over for some accessory covers if i choose. I added a blue LED to the base of the windscreen. I chromed the inside a while back, thinking it would show chrome on the outside... and not so much. But this look reflects all the little lights from the f4i guage pod, and the LED just adds to it. Its activated off the low beam light. I was going to add a toggle for it, but at this point, i can just flip on the high beams and it will turn off.

Still have the give the clear coat a good polishing coat with a buffer to bring out the shine... but as is, in the daylight, i cant look directly at the bike, its just too blinding

 

I want to send out a warning to anyone interested in doing these kind of modifications to their bike... read read read... invest your time in learning what is required to perform the tasks you need.

That and have ridiculous amounts of time, not to mention money to burn when you try to configure things.

Thankfully i was able to sell off all my fairings and extra hardware for just over 1k, it was all in mint condition, so i was lucky. but this bike has cost me at least 2k to customize it.

From paint, to parts to things that i thought would fit but just didn't. Now im waiting on Hong Kong to send me new side mirrors and a integrated tail light...

it's mid summer, and i have only ridden the bike twice. such a PITA!

My advice, one project at a time! not all at once.

The only thing left for me to do is configure the exhaust and take it to a muffler shop to have all the pipes bent and setup...and of course wait for my parts to come in.

sigh.

 

I was wondering where you get thethe headlight cover and also howd u mount the air duct covers? Dont feel bad bout it taking so long, I purchased my bike 2 yrs ago and it finally got painted last week. Still not dont either ,but I bought everything cheap with road rash or in need of tlc to save some cash. Ur doing great work the only thing id say to u is to make sute your happy with the way you mounted the tail. It has to be strong to support you butt.

 

The headlight covers are vinyl. In another life i was a vinyl designer/cutter. So having some distributors in the area, i just went to them and picked up some chrome and block out white. I covered the headlight in the chrome first, to reflect any flood light back into the housing, then the blockout to make sure no light bled through. It wasn't easy as the curvature of the headlight is not easy to wrap in chrome vinyl. I found with the HID that light bled through the aftermarket headlight assembly. So i masked it off as best as possible. Looks ok, could have done better if i had taken more time.

The vent covers are from microwave filters. I was passing the isle looking for something to use and saw them. 25$ was a little high, but the effect is pretty good. I made a couple paper templates for size, then a cardboard template to make sure it would fit ok. I double sided tapped it, then used hot glue to hold down the spots that were fighting me. Because they were actually paper with a chrome finish, I decided to clear coat them. Essentially the clear enamel will help them resist moisture, hardly water proof.

As for the tail. I have reinforcement bars i will be installing after i get the exhaust mounted. I did one side last night. The other side wont take that long. Then i can install the support brackets.

still waiting on parts to show up. cant travel much till they do.

-1 to shipping across the world.

 

small update.

Managed to get the exhaust mounted up, will take a photo of the frame. Such a pain... im sure there was a better way...

took the bike to the gas station to fill it up, didnt have side mirrors or rear turn signals, so i was pretty cautious. I have since Frankenstein'd my old mirrors on until my new ones arrive. Thinking about mounted some red LEDs for turn signals until my integrated light comes in too... we'll see how tomorrow goes. Rides pretty good, already some positive feedback.







TO DO's:

- get the exhaust linked.
- install secondary rear frame... just more support
- install new side mirrors
- install rear turn/brake light
- adapt the top passenger seat so that it will close and or lock.
- RIDE! <- looking forward to this one!

NICE TO DO's

- big wax job.
- clean up overspray on rear tire.
- align HID's
- adapt highbeams to run both HID's (have the diode, just need to install it)

 

Been a while since i last updated. Need to update some shots. I have the new tail light in, new underside frame support, side indicator mirrors.

I now see that i need to change the coolant and oil, since neither got changed at the beginning of the riding season.

Here are some side by side comparisons. Im thinking it looks a bit bland all white. In the daylight its pretty awesome with the sparkle paintjob. But It needs some small decal work to finish the project. Thoughts?









Here are some quick comps i was tooling around with for decals.



I think this is too busy, but I had another, i suppose i just didn't upload.

Tonights job is to drain the cooland system and do a flush. Need to pick up some engine ice tomorrow. Also need to change my oil, what is a good filter? suppose i'll just search.

 

more pics of the lower subframe? i can't tell what you're doing with that lower support bar.

 

do you mean the rear subframe? I can strip her down and take some pics. The lower third beam i installed just recently is just to cut down on extra vibration and to stabilize the tail a bit more. Nothing for rigidity yet. I will take some pics this weekend.