itguy Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 As it says, How easy is it to change from having long swept style wings to small 'modern' cycle type wings? What do I need and where do I get it from? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oioi Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 its relatively straight forward. unbolt the swept wings. modify the headlight bracket - basically chop of the swept bit with a hacksaw and plug the open end to stop it filling with water buy some brackets - ones from tiger come highly recommended, if using Westfield ones it may be neccesary to modify the uprights to ensure full bite of the nut onto the thread (you are looking for at least 1 1/2 threads showing) you will be left with some holes down the side of the body. some strategic sticckers may be helpfull. and thats about it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Podmore Posted February 17, 2006 Share Posted February 17, 2006 Plus this info for filling the holes, shamelessley lifted from another thread in this FAQ section but most relevant: 1) The hardner required for the gelcoat is Methyl Ethyl Ketone Peroxide - sold as Butanox M50 or Scott Bader Catalyst M. The ratio is officially 2% by weight, but 2% by vol is near enough. Scott Bader's local agent for the NW is in Denton (0161 336 0766), I got mine from Stevens at Sandbach (01270 529111) - they gave me some good technical advice as well 2) According to Bridget Ringrose at Scott Bader, "The repair should be carried out in dry conditions with a minimum continuous temperature of 15 Deg. C. The moulding should be kept in these conditions for a minimum of week". I was working in a garage with a fan heater, the temperature was around 15 C most of the time for the initial gelling, but may have dropped overnight - so far I've not had a problem with it. 3) I turned my gelcoat into 'flowcoat' by the addition of 2% vol of wax - what Stevens describe as 'Tack free solution', this meant that I could just leave the surface of the 'gelcoat' open to the air, and it would 'dry' rather than remaining tacky - a lot easier than having to seal the surface! 4) I prepared the panels by chamfering the edges of the holes to make sure there was no loose gelcoat (in some cases this meant making the holes a bit bigger , as the original holes weren't that tidy), and 'carving out' cracks in the gelcoat, so that the new coat could bond. 5) I patched the inside of the holes with a piece of fiberglass mat to give a surface to work fill onto. I also built up the depth in the holes a little with some isopon p40 - for smaller holes I just used the p40. 6) For measuring out the hardner & wax I bought a couple of 'baby medicine syringes' (used for squirting nasty medicines into the mouths of screaming brats! ) from the local chemist - a couple of quick checks told me that it was approximately 30 drops per ml, so 3 drops per 0.1 ml. 7) I made up small batches of gelcoat, of 20 ml of resin and 0.4 ml of hardner & wax (12 drops each), which started to gel (and become unworkable) in about 20-30 mins. I rarely used more than about 1/4 of what I had made, but smaller batches were too awkward to measure accurately. 8) I applied the first coat of gelcoat on the hole using a plastic spatula, leveling off the surface with a flat edge. After this had dried (gave it a day or so), I flattened the surface down with a stanley knife blade (this isn't Blue Peter so I can use the real name! ), scraping it across the surface, and checked there were no 'edges' showing through - if there were - it was a case of cutting them back as with previous 'cracks'. the surface was also 'scratched' to give a better surface for the next layer to bond to. 9) the next (final) coat of gelcoat was applied with a brush (there is a small amount of shrinkage in the gelcoat, so the surface won't be flat after the 1st coat if the gelcoat was quite thick), and deliberately applied it to raise the surface above the panel. When this layer has dried, the surface was again levelled with the stanley knife blade, and then sanded with 800 grade wet & dry. (I did go as far as trying 2000 grade w&d - but didn't get any better results over 800) 10) The final polish was done using Brasso which gives you back the deep shine I also got asked about 'star cracks' in the thread : I did a couple of them on the main body (not wings - as they'd just been replaced and so were unmarked - going to coat them on the underside with latex paint - yumee!! ) - I mentioned them in the main post as 'cracks'. You need to carve out along the lines of the crack to give a small 'V' (only just go through the gelcoat layer if you can) so that the gelcoat can bond. You're probably best levelling down the painted surface with wet & dry for these fine cracks as using a stanley knife blade can 'pull' the gelcoat out of these cracks (I found this out the hard way! ) If the cracks are on the wings - you may be best putting a glass fibre matting patch on the underside of the wing as well, as you may have lost a bit of strength there. And from what Perksy found out before ... I've spoken to a Helpful chap at ABL (stevens) in Sandbach, Cheshire. They supply Resins,GRP etc, his advice was to use an Epoxy resin, a Catalyst and the coloured Gel coat because "Epoxy adheres much better than Polyester..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hammy Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 You will probably need lock stops fitted to the rack as the new wings will restrict steering lock. The stops will prevent the wings touching the tub 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Pete Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 Just can also use at least one of the holes on each side to put your repeaters in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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