Need a little help - Seat Cowl

Stosh's bike, while not my personal cup of tea, is rolling art and one can sure appreciate the work he put in. If you're looking at more understated simpler looks, here's a decal done by Drippin Wet that a friend had custom made for me. Just an idea. Seemed relevant, since you were talking seat cowls. Hope it passes the content test.

 

DId you know that they use turtles to make the glue for these decals?

 

Here are some shots of my bike as it sits. It is stock pearl white with just a couple of stickers (makes it faster right?) I have one on the windscreen and one on each fork (superman logo)

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z478/CAverhart/C360_2010-12-1512-19-04.jpg
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z478/CAverhart/C360_2010-12-1512-20-22.jpg
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z478/CAverhart/C360_2010-12-1512-19-59.jpg

 

The one on the screen has the cool factor. The forks do nothing for me either way. I have one on my screen too. When I broke the screen, I just had to get another decal all the way from Hawaii to replace the original. I was actually going to have one made. And still might cause this new one is not quite as big as the last one.

 

Seat Cowls and Rattle Can Paint Jobs

After a few weeks, I'm back. I tried many different design mock ups in photoshop and decided I wanted to go with something simple. I wanted something that looked sportier, but still kept the VFR "Feel". I decided on some simple highlight graphics...and then...I decided I wanted to try to paint it myself. Yes...first time.

I didn't want to invest a lot of money into it if I was about to make a total mess of the job, so I decided to go with simple spray paint and use rattle cans (I can see the looks of horror already as you read this...lol). I figured worst case scenario is that I'd just have to get it redone by someone who knew what they were doing if I screwed up too badly, and in the mean time I'd still know exactly what the paint looked like on the bike "live".

So I did a bit of research on rattle can painting and headed off into my new frontier. I decided to add a little touch of vinyl graphics into the mix after seeing some of the other members ideas. I only added the vinyl graphics to the seat cowl since that would make it removable and optional depending on how I wanted the bike to look on any given day (squid mode or not, haha).

Finally I added a lighting kit under the plastics to give it a bit of pop and for better night time visibility by drivers. I went with the million color kit because it was a no brainer install, came with a remote, could show any color and had lots of lighting modes built in. For final touches, I added chrome lettering to the fairings. One simple set of letters that reads "VFR" on the lower part of the fairing and a logo that reads "Sports Edition" just above the exhaust vent...I placed the larger logo above the vent because part of the lighting kit points upwards out of that vent and reflects off the chrome. It ended up being a really nice effect at night.

The only thing left to do is wait about a week so the clear coat is totally cured and then I will wax and polish the parts. That should really bring out the final shine and finish. So without further delay, here are the Before, prep and after photos of my weekend project. Comments welcome!!!

pic 01: Factory reference shot. This is how the bike looked before starting
pic 02: Seat cowl taped, sanded and prepped
pic 03: Painting the seat cowl
pic 04: using shop lights to heat (bake) after shooting clear coat
pic 05: Finished seat cowl after adding vinyl graphics
pic 06: Painting the fairings
pic 07: Baking fairings after striping and clear coat
pic 08: Finished Fairings and Seat cowl after rubbing compound and buffing
pic 09: Close up of the Sport Edition Chrome stick on
pic 10: Finished gas Tank
pic 11: Left Side
pic 12: Right side
pic 13: Close up of VFR and Sport Edition Chrome Stick on's in place
pic 14: Lighting Kit active

 

Somebody told me that the pic of the chica is Chaz Bono before the operation.

 

The bike looks sharp but keep in mind that in some states it is illegal to ride motorcycles with those running lights.

Rollin

 

so did you find a cowl yet??

 

I have liked the black/white (European) scheme since they came out with it. It just think it is sharp and clean.
The chrome tags on the sides are a nice addition.

 

Yes, in many states it is illegal to ride with emergency colored lights running (red/blue)...when I'm riding, I set the lights to White. Which makes it look like it's being showcased by spot light (hard to explain, but nice effect). The white lights tend to not look so much like lights since they are white on white...but it seems like the white plastics are just glowing. I've had many people do a double take since installing them. So far I'm liking it. I may still have it professionally done just for durability. I couldn't find much information regarding spray paint durability. It's just off the shelf krylon. Had I known it would turn out so well, I may have invested the time and money to have auto paint mixed and rented an air compressor and spray gun. It was a good learning experience though.

 

Doing some research, I found the states where those lights are illegal have more McDonald's and Taco Belle's than the states that allow the lights.