making nice cuts on fairings

[george b]

how do you make the edge of the cuts smooth?

going to use blue tape and mark off a nice smooth line, then follow it with cutoff wheel on dremel. just want the edges to look professional when all is said & done.

 

[RYC1966]

That is one way to do it...cut it at a controlable speed..as far as how fast you move the tool. It cuts nice but when entering the plastic and pulling out it seems that it wants to wander or jerk so at those time hold on just incase.

Cut and fit it back on the bike till you are happy with the gaps around it etc...it might take a few times but it will keep the gaps tight versus cutting off to much and finding out after the fact.

 

[mynewride]

what are you cuttin out? it makes a difference. but i usually use a sanding drum on my dremel to finish the edge and make it look factory. in fact id cut close to your line and sand the rest down to get the perfect line your looking for. less chance of the cutting wheel slipping and tearing up some expensive plastics. a high speed drum can remove alot of plastic pretty quick, so be careful. patience is definately the key.

 

[george b]

luckily richard sent me a template and it was spot on. i put my faith into it, drank a few beers, then cut 1/8" short of the line and smoothed out the rest. came out perfect.

now i need some pics of what to cut away from the left side!!

 

[2wicked]

I think we will begin adding templates with the kits, just have to make one for the gen 2 busas and make up some for the left side.

Richard

 

[george b]

it really was appreciated. saved me a lot of time; i wouldn't of thought about cutting that much out.

some pics. i finished the left side too. i think it turned out perfect fit wise. i used a white crayon when holding it up to mark off what i thought had to come off, then made smooth lines. i was real close, just wanted to even the gaps up around the pipes after the first cut.

 

[jeepinocala]

why are you cutting those????

 

[george b]

i've been drinking and didn't have anything else to do.. why, you don't think the shapes i cut look better than the original cutouts??

nah i have to cut them to get them to go back on around turbo dump pipes and charge pipes.

 

[jeepinocala]

Ok wasn't sure but thought that turbo huh well post finished pics damn I need one

 

[scrappy]

i just finished cutting my plastics the other day.. the exhaust side came out perfect! However my calculations on the intake side were a little off, so it looks like some one attacked my bike with a cutting tool used to rip tank metals in WW2.

I used a file with large teeth to get the burrs off left by the dremel on both sides of the plastics, if came out really nice, some really course sand paper made the edges look real pro. I finished touching of the plastics with some finer sand paper.

i noticed one thing more than anything when i was cutting my plastics, the plastics melt fast with a metal cutting tool (made for plastics). I found some dremel plastic cutting disks after i did all my hard work with a file... i have no idea how well the plastic cutting disks work on fairings.

 

[mynewride]

Looks really nice. It was a piece of cake, right.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[george b]

mynewride: yeah, it really was pretty easy. i know i was probably too worried but geez when you've never done it before it's hard looking at a perfect plastic and diving in on it.

scrappy: damn that sucks bro! does it really look that bad?? most of the cuts are on the inside of the holes so hopefully it isn't too noticable. i used normal cut off wheels but the plastic does melt like you said and builds up on the discs to where you can't use it for a thin cut. and others break as usual. so it took maybe 10 discs just to make basically three cuts.

edit: what mynewride said: use the drum sanding attachment on the dremel and that might be quicker than a file and sanding. it cleaned it up nicely.

 

[macon454]

Looks good

 

[scrappy]

mynewride: yeah, it really was pretty easy. i know i was probably too worried but geez when you've never done it before it's hard looking at a perfect plastic and diving in on it.

scrappy: damn that sucks bro! does it really look that bad?? most of the cuts are on the inside of the holes so hopefully it isn't too noticable. i used normal cut off wheels but the plastic does melt like you said and builds up on the discs to where you can't use it for a thin cut. and others break as usual. so it took maybe 10 discs just to make basically three cuts.

edit: what mynewride said: use the drum sanding attachment on the dremel and that might be quicker than a file and sanding. it cleaned it up nicely.

I used the drum sander, and i didnt care for it, i found everything was much easier with the file... i would use the metal cutting wheel to get the large bits of plastic out of my way, then use a large tooth file and clean it up, it took longer, but i had way more control...


The only thing about the intake side that makes me want to is the fact that i missaligned my fairing when i was making the hole for the intake filter, so now the hole is an extra 1 inch larger than need be.. it just looks like crap. If the hole needed to be that large it would look like it was pro

 

[BUSA GHOSTRIDER]

So I'm not finished yet but this is how I've been doing mine so far. I personally use a die grinder at work every day so I am very comfortable with it. I tried a Dremel at first but I had never used one before so I personally did not like it.

Plastics are not shined up yet, they've got some fingerprints on em but you get the point. I will finish the edge off with some extremely fine sandpaper when I am done. Still have a little more cutting on the L/H fairing. I purchased a shoot out air filter but am going to wait until the final install to cut that hole.

I will trim more away from the dump pipes on final install also. I am sending everything out to be jet coated and I am pretty sure that nothing will line up the same way twice.