TIME TO GET A FEW CANS IN.
Working from home, because of the Corona Virus suits me just fine, well, for the time being anyway. There has always been a shortage of time for me and Ritchie when it comes to getting a bike ready to race. Now the lighter nights are here and we don’t have to suffer the hours of commuting from door to door, it’s given me a bit more energy to get cracking on making the ZX10-R look a bit more like a Team 71 ZX10-R.
To keep our costs to a minimum we always try to do everything ourselves, and painting is no exception.
We made a start just before Bemsee’s first round at Brands Hatch – probably the only meeting to run anywhere this year so far – but because we couldn’t finish it in time we had to run with the blue fairing the bike came with. It was a big effort to get the bike ready, only to be thwarted by the fact that the paint supplier sent us a matt finish instead of gloss!
It looked great when it was wet…but when it started to dry I knew something was up!
Anyway, with deliveries and working hours all over the place we managed to get the paint supplier – Riolett UK – to send us replacement paint with the correct gloss finish. They were really good about it in the end and I’d recommend them, even if there was a bit of a screw up at the start.
The fairing is well made but did need a bit of attention to make it fit.
Before I could spray the body work though, I had to get the fairing panels to fit and it took a bit of manipulation and trimming before I could even think about painting it. I can never understand why things like this don’t fit. Anyway, after a lot of swearing and pulling fibre glass splinters out of fingers, it looked pretty good when it was all bolted up and attached to the bike.
Fairing panels are from the A16 body shop, once fitted they looked a treat… at a decent price too.
Trying to buy a mask for spray painting was a problem too; everywhere had sold out because everyone bought them up as protection against Corona Virus. The weather had been so dreadful and very cold, so I had to wait to get out doors to do it. It made completing the job impossible in time for Round 1 at Brands Hatch.
This old garden gazebo has been used more times as a spray shop than it has for garden parties.
With the first sign of a decent day, just before Easter, it was out into the garden with a makeshift spray booth from an old gazebo to get the job done. The paint is a two-pack type, where the hardener is mixed inside the can. Pulling on a small ring at the bottom releases the agent, just shake it up and off you go. You’ve got to use it all up in one go though, because there’s no saving any leftover paint for later!
Well, I was the one having all the fun on this job as we all have to keep apart and stay at home for the time being. I kept Ritchie up-to-date by sending him pictures every now and again. It was great to see the bright yellow colour transforming the bike into something that would be more like ours next time we see Ritchie on it. I’m no expert at spray painting, but I was really pleased with the result, just a few minor runs; hardly noticeable.
Altogether, a nice glossy finish…
Once paint had hardened for a couple of days it was time for me to apply the black vinyl details. I thought that the pin-striping would be the hardest bit, but it was the other way around when it came to sticking it down over larger areas.
Nice and sharp, the front fairing was definitely looking good with the thin black retro stripes.
How these guys manage to cover whole cars in this stuff is beyond me. You watch them on YouTube and they make it look dead easy. In the end it wasn’t too bad, I think the vinyl I had was a bit stronger and tougher than the stuff car guys use, A lame excuse, I know, but it went on OK eventually; followed swiftly by a few of our sponsors logos. It was beginning to look very much like our lovely ZX7-R, which is what we were all after.
Looks familiar?
So, with everything ready for the bike, the next stage was the bit we’d all been waiting for. Back into the garage to swap over the moody blue for the bright yellow. We’re still short of numbers for the bike and as we might have to run 711 – like we did at Brands hatch – so we’re not sure what to do right now, but this is the final result.
The clean lines of the modern Kawasaki ZX10-R really suit the retro design from the 90's.
Overall, the idea was to tip a hat, with a nod, to our Golden Era Superbike Championship winning ZX7-R and we think it does exactly that. With a modern shaped Kawasaki showing a retro design made us a bit nervous at first, but I reckon we’ve pulled it off a treat.
Our two-times Golden Era Championship Winning ZX-7R, maintaining social distancing for now.
Hope to see you soon at some of the Bemsee MRO Powerbike races …whenever that will be. Stay safe everyone.
Bernie Thornton
