"Fly" redux: Super Fly! Bugeye 94cc liquid conversion.

[fly]

it's 38 degrees out, and it's (Aluma-hyde) supposed to go on between 70-90 degrees (F). And then it takes a reallly long time to full cure (week or two) unless you heat it. Which I'm not doing in my house with an epoxy paint. It's probably MEK based. I'd really like to be able to paint the cases when they're apart, but I'm sick of waiting.

[190mech]

Our hangar is unheated and when something has gotta be painted we fab up a paint box,proper sized cardboard box with a small electric space heater on one end..My buddy uses heat lamps in a box also..

[fly]

that's a good idea. I may try to get something like that going. I just need to make sure the cans are warm because the stuff is notorious for clogging up when spraying.

[aeroxbud]

I have put spray cans in a bucket of warm water before it the temperature is a bit cold. Works well.

[fly]

it's in the '60s tonight, I'm up nights right now, I'm about to spray! I've got a patio heat lamp I can use to cure, I've got heaters I could do the box trick with. not sure, but it's going down!

I have some LifePo4 cells that have arrived, so building the battery when the weather goes to hell again in a few days will be a good project. I don't usually buy cells on eBay because there's a huge risk factor if you don't check them thoroughly, but I found a good seller that's only about an hour from here. so I will have a 20Ah (real usable Ah with LFP) batt powering the electronics that's good for thousands of charge cycles, should last life of bike. The plan is to lay them flat, and the battery will fit as a shelf kind of insert in the seat bucket. That'll run just the pump for about 12-13 hours. I can't remember what I clocked the LED headlights at. I don't think they are the most efficient emitters, but as I recall I had calculated around 6 hours running everything on the bike including headlights on high. not bad at all. I barely ride at night, to boot. I can add a uxiliary battery port for a 12 volt Milwaukee battery, which I have plenty of the 18s and 12s. But with a 12V I wouldn't have to step it down, and I've got four and six amp hour 12V I could throw in there if I wanted if I'm going to be riding for a while. I'm also going to put in a low voltage cutoff to the ignition, so that if for some reason the battery cut the engine will shut down instead of running without cooling.

I need to load test them, probably a few cycles just to make sure since they are eBay bought. then top balance them, probably let them sit in parallel for a while just to be overly thorough, and add the BMS. I was going to use a cheap 4S BMS I already have, but I'm thinking maybe I should spring for a Bluetooth enabled one, and add active balancing.

The battery will probably have a XT90 connector that runs to a common bus in the seat area, and another bus under the front plastic for easy wiring. Going to use DT style connectors where needed. The battery will just be removed by undoing the XT90, and will charge via that with a Victron LFP charger I love.

Glad this is at a point where I can get some momentum going again. I really did a lot more casework than I had intended.

engine assembly should go quick.

I'll have to figure out the cooling system, though. My first LC. I'll be soliciting feedback on plumbing before I fabricate mounts. I want to put the water pump in the battery box instead of having it hang off the side, I just don't know if that's ill-advised for some reason. it's the Malossi energy pump, it's a small thing.

okay I got to get after this.

[fly]

it's going to be 80°F out on Saturday. will spray cases. Calling Brownell's to see if alumahyde can full cure at slightly higher temperature. If I point my 1800W patio heater at those cases they will definitely be at least 200°, but I don't want the stuff to deteriorate if they go over 200°F. on the long side I was thinking I would point it at the unpainted interior to heat the metal. The small half will have paint on both sides, so. boring update. 

otherwise, it's been a whole lot of this sort of thing

[fly]

I SPRAYED THE CASES.

I kinda messed up the inside of the long case half, the part facing the wheel. The stuff is every bit as sputtery as they say, and more. I kept getting sputters, and I would use a gloved finger to tap them out a little bit, which necessitated a recoat to match, and then yeah it just kind of went south for a minute. I do not care at this point. The adhesion is incredible, not surprising it's just epoxy and my aluminum was super super super clean.

It's 80 something degrees out right now (°F, I try to use units because we have international users here) with a bright shining Sun which is supposed to help. if they get cured enough in the sun, I will finish them in the oven in here. or if I feel they need more heat as the sun abates I will point a super powerful infrared patio heater at them, the dang thing draws 14 and a half amps to give you an idea. I have to be careful not to put that too close if I use it.

I'm happy with the color. I think it's a little bit more unique than matte black would have been. shows the mess ups a little more than flat back would have been. won't be as easy to touch up as flat black would have been. however! this stuff is more than just a paint, it will make a fantastic base coat if I choose to change the color in the future. for example, if I find this finish to show oil too readily.

taping off wasn't too bad, I filled the screw holes with hot glue. obviously case halves are really well taped off mating services and cylinder deck, etc. pics hopefully later, depending on state of cure.

also I basically ruined my angled intake spacer thing anodizing a couple days ago. My power supply does not play super friendly with anodizing and it switched the polarities on me, and I walked away and I came back and it had been using my parts as the cathode. so they are all pitted. so I figured I'd mess around with it just because, in the name of science. I ran them up to 20 volts and 10 and 1/2 amps, and the became extraordinarily hard and a kind of a golden color, more like sandstone because of the pitting. I think one of the alligator clips might have been partially submerged at one point, and that's iron oxide in the anodized. it's no big deal, I had slightly tweaked the designed at a little bit better seating area, and now that I've figured it out it will be quick to zip out another one. I think it might just be part and parcel of prototyping a piece. here all attach a picture.

[aeroxbud]

I have found that some spray brands have really good paint, but fit very poor nozzles. Putting a better nozzle on stops all the splattering and gives a better, more fine spray.
You can buy nozzles in packs.

[fly]

Apr 23, 2022 16:37:38 GMT -5 aeroxbud said:

I have found that some spray brands have really good paint, but fit very poor nozzles. Putting a better nozzle on stops all the splattering and gives a better, more fine spray.
You can buy nozzles in packs.

This is a one part epoxy spray that's meant for firearms, so it's very, very thick stuff. Hence the recommended spray temp being quite a bit higher than normally recommended.

Defo agree about nicer nozzles. Problem is the nozzle in question is designed specifically for this very viscous stuff. A finer mist might not even come out! lol

They're in the oven. They sat out under a heat lamp in the sun for a few hours, IR thermometer says they were 130-150°F. Not much odor, so doing the final oven cure, they have just under an hour left.

I went out and sprayed the intake spacer as well, cause why not?

I'll cut the oven and let them come down to ambient temp in there, so probably not pics tonight. But they'll be fully cured and ready to go. Can wait to take off the tape and see how they look.

[fly]

I pulled the small half out, The larger half is retaining more heat so. but I wanted to see what it looks like, so here's a sneak peek









it's not anywhere near perfect but it's more than good enough. So I'm happy it's done, and the stuff should be super tough. I don't know if I'll bother to take more pics or just try to hop on assembly ASAP. 

[fly]

ugh the big half looks pretty bad lol.
I laod it on way to heavily, kinda looks like a plasti-dip with all the splatter. :/

I never really intended to give a dang a about The way the case is looked, apart from just rattle canning them. but I put plenty of hours of work into them, granted many of them hours I would take back and not do if I could. but that's okay. and so while I'm not super happy, good enough. I'll get a pic later I need to dig some hot glue out of some holes and I'll clamp them up for their underwhelming reveal. lololol. 😅😅😅 ( I don't know if Android/cell phone generated emojis show up or not, I feel like they might not)

ETA: It was 83°F here yesterday, today it was 80°F until about an hour ago but it's already dropped down to 70°F, and by Tuesday it's going to be in the 40's/30's (°F) here again. I hate Michigan.

[90GTVert]

Apr 24, 2022 16:39:53 GMT -5 fly said:

😅😅😅 ( I don't know if Android/cell phone generated emojis show up or not, I feel like they might not)

Emojis show up for me on PC and iPhone. 🛵

Apr 24, 2022 16:39:53 GMT -5 fly said:

ETA: It was 83°F here yesterday, today it was 80°F until about an hour ago but it's already dropped down to 70°F, and by Tuesday it's going to be in the 40's/30's (°F) here again. I hate Michigan.

My dental hygienist is originally from MI. I was in there a couple of weeks ago and she was saying you might as well call it 6 months of winter and how you have to do driving time in snow before you can get your license. I said no thanks. I miss enough scoot time here mid-Atlantic.

[fly]

I got some business to finish in this state and then I'm out.

Thought I'd add this as a point of interest:

That's an '05 drive gear and an 08 drive gear for 2t NA bugeyes. The 08 is of smaller diameter, and that's the reason you'd need the center of the intermediate to run it. They all mesh. Even an old Jog drive gear meshes. But part of that is just the nature of involute gears, I guess.

Anyway, the final drive cover on my 04 is leaking anyway, so I'll pop in some 08's in that and nab that gear. I have an extra 08 drive gear, as luck would have it. Keeping my assemblies with gears already pressed, but you can still order 08+ gears, so I'll just pop a new assembly in there.

Gonna flip that 05. I was gonna keep it but I've got 2 Jogs and I really want a prebug. I saw a cherry one here for 1k and I just can't justify it until I get some stuff out of the garage. It had 2k miles on it, looked new, totally freaking cherry, and black plastics. 🥲

[fly]

Well. Had another little setback. I've used a dab of hot glue in holes before and never had a problem. outside under the heat lamp the cases were reading 150-170°F. However, in the oven curing at $195°, the hot glue did melt again. Thoroughly. luckily all but one were on the small side case. but it took a lot of doing to remove it from the areas where it had melted onto the paint. Which is a matte paint. in the end it took a soldering iron and 91% isopropyl alcohol used *in tandem*. I had to stir the alcohol with the dang soldering iron, scratching up the hot glue.

The Aluma-Hyde is remarkable. it stood up to soaking in isopropyl alcohol, being heated with a soldering iron, being scratched with a soldering iron and hot isopropyl alcohol, and scratching with the soldering iron in hot isopropyl alcohol. That's one of the big pluses of this stuff that I saw for an engine case, it's highly solvent resistant. and boy is it tenacious. I only managed to scratch through in two small areas that I really had to go after.

However, when I was spraying the cases there was some places on the exterior that I only hit very lightly that I did not notice. I've ordered another can of the stuff with the special spring nozzles. I'm not worried about oven curing it, I'm just going to touch up the areas after the case is assembled, they are out of the way and no big deal.

I also repainted, as was always the plan, the inside of the stator housing with a gray enamel. I use the same gray enamel on the interior of the variator side. but in a couple minutes that is going to get the non-stick paint. usually that is sprayed on enamel covering lawn mowers and stuff, and I wanted to make sure there was a good binder between the aluminum and the non-stick stuff.

hoping to finally freaking pull cases tomorrow, crank and bearings are in freezer.

I have a surgery on Monday for a deviated septum. That will entail an overnight stay in the hospital, as well. so I'll be a little bit delayed next week and I've been juggling quite a bit these last couple weeks. Hope to be back on a more consistent track after initial recovery. I truly never intended to fret this much about the cases. you find yourself spending that much time machining them, next thing you know you're trying to get little areas that nobody is ever going to see properly covered with a layer of paint. 🤷

Anyway, it looks like the temperatures are going to be 50s on up, hopefully from here on out. Michigan who knows maybe next week it will be snowing again. but yeah, assembly of the engine is pretty straightforward stuff for me. I'll spend some time making sure the cylinder is just right, though I don't believe I will be quite as thorough as 90Gt. That man has an incredible dedication to detail. For me, I'll make sure fitment is good enough, but most my attention will be directed towards perfect port alignment and squish.

I'm not anticipating any great difficulty fitting the radiators. I'm still unsure as to exactly how I will route the hosing, I'll need to see the radiators on the bike. but I do believe I am going to house the pump in the battery box rather than having it stick directly off the side of the head.

I've got a couple hours sunlight left, going to try and get these cases hit with the non-stick, and will throw up a pic of them test fit together so y'all can see.

can't wait to pull out the rest of the scoot. in the winter I was throwing around the idea of breaking down the whole frame and painting or having it powder coated gray, but at this point I am far enough behind where I wanted to be that is going to be a no-go. Really looking forward to doing the electrical. I've hated the stock wiring since the start, and I'm looking forward to running my own harness and power system.

[fly]

Well, that kinda sucked. I sprayed a first pass, and then when I noticed the paint was melting my nitrile gloves I said oh no, and I looked over and yes... it was dissolving the enamel paint that was being sprayed on as well. an area that had just the lightest spray it was all right. so dang it. but I let it dry for a bit, and there was no way I was going to take the time to wire out the entire inside of the cases again and start from scratch. 

Wire brushes in rotary tool were able to bail me out. doesn't look as good as it would have, there are some wrinkles and shit. Don't care. it's the inside of the freaking variator housing. 

not great light in this house at night, but here's some bad pics of the bad paint. really hard to show the non-slip paint, so close up for that. All they actually noticeable mess ups are getting covered with stuff lol.

thinking they should look pretty cool on the bike! just got to clean up the edges a little and GTG. start pressing stuff back in.