Under Seat Pan

[amkluttz]

A while ago I decided to remove the rear fairings and the plastic inner fender.  I originally wanted to chop the frame and then add a pan underneath the seat for added storage.  Today I made the decision to not chop the frame but remove the rear frame cross brace (the one the grab bar bolts to).  It was fairly simple once I ground the welds down on the top, back, and bottom and used a chisel to finish breaking the weld.  The good thing is that if I ever decide to go back to fairings I can weld the brace back in.

A few pics...

It started out life as a 12" x 24" 16 gauge steel plate.  I work 5 minutes from Joe Gibbs Racing and my boss knows a few people.  I was able to slip in the back door and had one of their guys bend it in the "U" shape you see. 



Trying to slip it in to the frame rails.



A different angle.



Doing a little grinding.



Clamping it in trying to get the bends right. 



Bending, tack welding, and cutting to get the seat to fit. 



It's bent to fit perfectly with the bottom of the frame rails.  It may look a little tweaked because one of the front clamps loosened up and I didn't realize it until way after the pictures.





The tail light will be cut in to the back of the pan.  I have an LED tail light that I am using.  Hopefully it will look nice.  I am not planning on leaving it turned up in the back like that.  It will be cut down to sit right under the seat and the reason I used that angle was that hopefully the LED will be easier to see.  Luckily my friend suggested a cardboard template to start with.  I was also able to put a new set of progrips on today. 

[codajastal]

Looking good. Keep the photos coming.

[amkluttz]

A little update. 

I'm still working away on this thing but it is a lot of work and progress is slow due to time.  Luckily the wife has been helping me out around the house so that I can have time to finish this up.  I always knew that when I started this project there was the potential to have the bike down for a couple of weeks.  I just picked the worst time in the world as the weather is perfect.


One of my welds.  Try not to laugh.  It's held so far.


Doing some trimming for the light and the seat.


Trimming around the seat.  You can see the gap behind the seat.  I plan to add a small patch panel on top to contour around the seat.


The light looks a little crooked but as soon as I finally get it to fit in right I'm going to make sure everything is straight and fill in around any gaps.


I ordered some M6 Rivnuts to put in to the frame rail.  The rivet idea wouldn't work out because it was just too far from the frame in points.  The tail light has been a pain but I knew it would be from the beginning.  If it was 1/4" smaller it would fit perfectly.  Right now I am trying to figure out where to put the key lock for the seat.  Basically it doesn't want to fit anywhere I actually want it to because of the length of the cable. 

[Slack]

Looks good so far 
Are you using an arc welder?  Because If so I understand an ugly weld like that.  Ugly and strong is better then a pretty but weak weld any day.


Hope you relocated those cans before grinding and welding 

[amkluttz]

Sadly that's my MIG welder but I am using flux because I haven't set it up for gas.  I am using it on the lowest setting I have so I don't burn this 16 gauge up.  The welds feel strong but who knows.  I weld on the other side of the garage so the cans aren't an issue.  I could very well have overlooked them when grinding... oops.   

[amkluttz]

So I didn't get out to the shop until 11:00 tonight.  I decided to work on things I could do without pulling out the welder, grinder, and air compressor. 

Adding supports to the tail light.  I am going to weld in studs at the bottom and bolt the supports to the bottom of the pan.



Relocated the lock.  I don't really like it on this side but the cable length determined the location.  The hole looks poorly cut out because of the sharpie but it is actually fairly clean.



The way the lock is mounted inside the pan.  I still need to weld that tab in.



I filled in the gaps at the bottom corners with JB Weld.  I'm sure it's ghetto but it should work.  Again the Sharpie makes it look like there are huge gaps around the light.



Glad I had these on tonight.  The two chipped spots on the left lens are from the piece in the next picture.  I would have been at the hospital tonight without the glasses and could have really messed up my eye.  The pointy end was what hit the glasses.

[codajastal]

Bugger

Safety first

[amkluttz]

A little more work yesterday evening.  I still have 4 or 5 smaller things left to do on my list before prepping for paint.  I can't wait to finish this thing so I can get my bike back on the road.

The tab holding in the seat lock.  It doesn't do much so I didn't find it necessary to weld the entire way around.




Welded in the front plate.  That's 1/2" EMT that I used to run the wires through.  The 3/8" wire loom I am covering the wires with fits perfectly inside.  I didn't calculate for the fact that I was bending the plate in the front to get it between the frame rails that begin to narrow.  It wasn't a nice surprise but I was still able to get it in.




Almost finished.




With the seat on.




Here's where I could have really screwed up.  I made sure there was room for the lock but didn't think about having to turn the key.  With the seat on you can turn it but if I had it to do over again I would have lowered it a little more.  At least it is somewhat protected and is slightly hidden.

[amkluttz]

Update...

Got the Nutserts.


First one is in.  That's actually the second one in that hole.  I had to cut the first one out because it pulled up crooked.


The nice thing is that I can see these through the frame rail so I can judge how far I need to go.


The second one I over tightened and the bolt head snapped off.  On top of that it cross-threaded.  I was able to tap it to make it work.  (Note to Self: Quit buying shitty bolts from Lowe's)



Got 4 of 6 in and in the right places, so far.


The tool I made to set the nutserts.  The problems I had are probably because I didn't want to pay for the right tool.  I watched several people online set them just the way I did and it worked out fine.


With 4 of the 6 in.

[amkluttz]

I wanted to let everyone know that I haven't given up on this.  Lately work has been extremely busy and on top of that my wife has decided that I need to build a fence for a garden.  Also a friend from church wanted a turkey hunting buddy on Saturday mornings.  After all of that I have had very little time to devote to this project.  I do have a few small updates.

I did get the last two rivet nuts in.  What a pain.

This is the tail light bracket finally with the studs welded to the plate.


I almost completely forgot about this thing.  I understand that it is ugly and is made out of strap steel and has a million holes in it but it is almost completely covered up and was left over from another project (read as FREE).


It holds this on.  Might need that.


The sides allow me to mount new signals.


Not a very good picture but it shows a panel that will close the gap at the back of the seat.  I still have to cut it to fit the seat shape.


A different angle.  You can't see much of that gap panel but you can see the studs welded in, the holes for the license plate bracket, and the grommet  for the signal wires.  I'm hoping that the inspector for the state inspection this month will not see that I don't have license plate lights.

[jacob92icu]

Looking good! But I want to see it painted and all finished! Hurry up! 

[amkluttz]

Not really much of an update.  I have had a million things going on recently and this has been pushed to the back burner.

First coat of filler.  I'm just trying to clean up the ugly of grinding.


After some sanding.



Trying to clean up with the wire wheel.


A second coat of filler.  Hopefully my last.  I just want to get to paint.

[amkluttz]

PAINT!!!  Finally.  It doesn't look like much but once it dries I can put the stripes in.  Hopefully that and a new set of rear signals will finish it.

I wanted to take the bike out so bad that I zip-tied the light and tag on and took it for a spin down the block.  It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow and possibly Sunday.  It was very strange getting back on the bike after being off it for a month.  I guess I just had to get used to it again.

Hanging it to get started.


First coat of satin black.  It's fully coated but wet and fairly reflective.



Wet third coat.

[amkluttz]

Spent a little more time in the garage tonight because I really want to ride the bike tomorrow. 

Here is what I accomplished.  It's not completely done but "done enough" to get it on the road.  Hope you enjoy.


Tape.



First coat still wet.


After third coat and carefully unmasking everything.


On the bike.



I understand that the holes aren't centered but that is where the holes needed to be to center the bracket.


More pictures on the bike.

[jacob92icu]

Looking good, do you have any pictures of the bike from far out that shows the while bike? How about with the key turned on so we can see the taillight? also any plans for side fairings at all?

[amkluttz]

Looking good, do you have any pictures of the bike from far out that shows the while bike? How about with the key turned on so we can see the taillight? also any plans for side fairings at all?

I don't have any really recent full pictures of the bike.  I don't know why I didn't think about getting one with the tail light on.  I will get some soon.

I don't have any immediate plans for the fairing other than to leave them off.  I would like to cut the fairings down in a similar fashion to one of these...



I still have my original fairings but really do not want to destroy them by cutting them up.  I would like to make fiberglass copies to cut and figure out what I want.  Maybe after I get some sleep that could be a project for me after I finish my exhaust.

[amkluttz]

I took a couple of pictures today of the bike.  I needed some more recent ones anyway.

With the tail light on.  You can't really see much.




A couple pictures of the inside of the pan.




A couple more pics for fun.




Also a crappy iPhone video/sound clip.
http://s1057.photobucket.com/user/amkluttz0819/media/1F54C6FF-0DAC-456A-A5FC-7B83D00883C0-1523-000000948F4C5DF1_zps7e39b61c.mp4.html

[jacob92icu]

Wow that looks really good! Great job. Yea the first black street fighter GS you mentioned is really neat looking, that would be awesome if you did something like that.

[Slack]

It turned out really nice looking, very professional.  Your bike looks great too.  I like the black stripes on black.

You took the time to put racing stripes on your license plate but not your front fender?

[jacob92icu]

It turned out really nice looking, very professional.  Your bike looks great too.  I like the black stripes on black.

You took the time to put racing stripes on your license plate but not your front fender?

Hahahahaha... I scrolled up to see if that was indeed true. Thats a funny thing to notice! Good eye.