Aluminum Fairing Tutorial

[DY]

Aluminum Fairings Tutorial!! ( June 28, 2008 )

I'm bored, might as well type this up. theres probably lots of typos, I'll check for them later.

Material:

• 2mm aluminum sheet (5000 series, if you want to weld)
• Cardboard and paper
• Sharpies
• Jigsaw, Metal jigsaw blades
• Angle grinder, Sanding disk
• Drill and drill bits
• Rubber hammer
• Zinc Chromate Primer (conversion coating)
• Whatever other paint you want to use.

How to:
Alright, so this weekend I decided to make some tank covers for my bike. This tutorial will explain how to make fairings out of aluminum sheets.

NOTE: I also tried using plastic to do this but it is just a huge PITA. It is almost impossible to thermoform a clean bend without a mold as some places heat up more than the other. I also cracked and chipped it in many places when I wasn’t careful with the jigsaw. Aluminum is light, soft yet strong and extremely easy to work with. However, it is hard to make compound radius curves.

STEP 1:
Make a cardboard template of what you want to make.

Here you can see my rough template. Consider the bends you have to make, where you’re going to mount it, and of course, how it would look. Feel free to bend this piece of card board however you like, as long as it’s in one piece.

STEP 2:

Take the cardboard off, and trace the design to paper. Cut it out with a scissor along the INSIDE edge.

Round off the edges, and make it look pretty now because this is how you’re going to cut you’re aluminum sheet by. If you can, make the template bigger than the piece you want. With metal, it’s easy to remove material but it’s hard to put it back. Make a multi piece template if you are going to be welding it.

STEP 3:

Trace design on to aluminum sheet.



STEP 4:

Grab your jigsaw and cut away. Please wear some safety glasses. I found it easier to the section out of big sheet first, like below.

Here we go, nicely cut off. The edges aren’t really straight yet, and the shape is still quite rough. No worries though, we’ll fix it up later.


STEP 5:
Bend the piece to shape. This is probably hardest thing to do with aluminum. I find it easier to bend a bit at a time, keep referring back to your bike. Make it fit really well because aluminum doesn’t flex as well as plastic. Drill mounting holes bigger than they need to be. Use a sharpie and draw the line where you want it to bend and draw arrows to remind yourself of the bend direction. I used a vise and a soft hammer to shape my piece.

Smooth meant I have to smooth the part out a bit more. The lines with the arrows show where I want to bend.

Bend with the vice if you can.

STEP 6:
After all thebending is done, check fit again with your bike. If you are happy with it, then get out your grinder and sanding wheel. Using the vice and the hammer can really put some scratches and dents into your piece. Aluminum is really soft, so a sanding disk has no problem smoothing it out. Go over with 80grit sandpaper to get it smooth. Get rid of the burrs and sharp edges with the 80 grit.

STEP 7:
If you want to polish, then proceed to polishing. If you want to paint then you need to prime it with a special primer. Normal paint doesn’t stick to aluminum very well, so you need to use a conversion coating. The most common being zinc chromate. CT sells this stuff and is actually decent quality.

Be careful though, this stuff STINKS! A mask is a must.

Here we go…..apply a few coats and sanding down with 400 grits. This stuff fills scratches amazingly well for some reason.

EDIT: Color coat should go on as soon as the primer is dry to touch (15 to 30 min). Apparently, the primer is very moisture sensitive and leaving for longer and the paint won't stick. (thanks Dropgear!)

FINAL STEP:
PAINT!!!!
I decided to paint mine flat black because I don’t want to disturb the color theme and this black just looks real good on metal.

Left and right covers done. BTW: if the parts you are doing are symmetric then just flip the template over for a perfect duplicate.

Hope that helps! Again, sorry for the crappy picture quality. My camera is really messing up on me.

[andr01dm]

I made some aluminium brackets for lowering my bike's seat and found that bending and shaping was made much easier by annealing the metal first. That is heating it up with a torch and then letting it cool slowly to room temp. It will reduce the aluminium's strength a little, but if it's being used for fairings or parts that don't get much stress it shouldn't be a problem.

Thank you for the information on the zinc chromate primer. I'll have to give that a try before I paint next time. ^_^

-[a]-

[dropgear]

awesome, thanks for this insight.

where did you source the aluminum from?

[DY]

Metal Supermarket in Oakville. Right on Speers Rd.

[RockerGuy]

wow man, u should be bored more often. I vote for a DIY section and have this added.

[CanadianNinja]

very nice fabrication job! i was thinking of doing something like this before i decided to restore my old fairings instead. got any pics of these pieces mounted on the bike?

[DY]

wow man, u should be bored more often. I vote for a DIY section and have this added.

lol, I was gonna do a tutorial for valve adjustment a while back but didn't wanna get my camera greasy. I'll try to do a small tutorial once a week if this kind of stuff is some what helpful. A DIY section would be great too, theres lots of articles in this section that should be stickied. Maybe this DIY thing should go under technical forum, like the Insurance Specialist page.

anyhow,

here are some pics of the tank covers on the bike. I also just finished spraying my tail this weekend. Duplicolor rules! again my camera sucks.