I bought a sheet off of Amazon.

That particular one seems to be out of stock, but there are many options. It's quite thick; I'd rather have had a bit smaller gauge, but at least it'll be durable. Snipping it by hand really sucks though.

 

Very impressive work Vegas!

 

Aluminum mesh would probably be easier to work with. It would also resist rust if the paint cracks or wears away. Just my 2 cents.

EDIT: I believe the gutter mesh is made of aluminum.

 

considering its steel, i would imagine that it was a pain to cut by hand.

Im looking for something aluminum.gutter mesh is usually made of aluminum. Im just looking for something that has a tighter pattern than typical gutter guard.

 

The stuff at Home Depot, as other folks said, works great. There was some in a roll there that had tiny gaps between the wires; it looked really nice, but I cheaped out a bit and got the bigger sheet for about a third of the price.

I think it'd be easier to work with, maybe more rust resistant if you're not using a rust inhibiting paint, and certainly form easier. I think it was too narrow to go across the bigger opening in one strip, though, so I would have had to find a way to neatly layer it, and I wasn't too sure I could do that.

Thanks, gotcbr

I stripped off the stator cover and the clutch cover earlier this morning and stripped the paint. I just put on the first coat of gloss black.

 

Can you please take extra pics of the covers and what you are doing with them? I am planning to do mine soon and would like some ideas. Thanks!

 

The stator and clutch cover? Sure.

I pulled them off the bike today; very easy. The toughest part was getting the clutch cable off the top of the clutch cover. After that, just disconnect the electric cables, unscrew the bolts, and work off the covers. There are tabs for leverage, and I used a rubber mallet and gently tapped a pry bar against the tabs to pop the cover free.

After that I painted on paint stripper, waited 15 minutes, and then hosed it off. I had to do that twice, and got most all of the paint off. Then I taped off the viewer window and slapped a bit of tape over the holes for the plugs, etc. I stuffed a rag in the back of the stator cover to keep overspray off the stator. Then I prep sprayed it with VHT prep spray, skipped the primer, and laid on three coats of black and three of clear.

It's pretty basic, but came out well so far. VHT requires 7 days to set, then I'm going to sand with 1500 and 2000, then rubbing compound, then polish to have super shiny covers.


I didn't take many pictures, but what I have is attached.

 

Thanks mate, that is exactly the sort of stuff I was after. I've never had the covers off on any bike, much less this bike and was not sure what to expect. Now I have a bit of an idea of what I can do with them.

 

Glad to help, F3

It'd be really easy to paint the big bolt cover of the clutch cover a different color because it separates from the main cover. Someone cooler than I might put a transparent window there to give an inside view of the mechanisms (in fact, an all clear setup sounds pimp all around.)

I painted my rear brake caliper and bracket red today. Hopefully it doesn't get paint where it shouldn't be; I tried to tape up, but there were some gaps. I'm just too paranoid about taking out pistons now that I've marred a few.

 

Keep up the work! looks like a lot of fun. Love the creativity and your ambition for a custom personal bike!