Working with Iris: Evie, Ava, Maren
Monday, February 10:
We worked on assembling the swing arm, which required us to hard press two bushes, a spindle and a shim inside.
There were no available shim parts, so the Assembly Group headed down to the Work Shop to make our own. We began by taking measurements of the swing arm, to find the needed diameters, then programmed our numbers into CAD. Using a water jet and the CAD design, we were able to carve a shim out of a piece of scrap metal.
Wednesday, February 12:
We then attempted to press our spindle and shim into place, but pressing the bushes into the frame had caused them to compress in size and the spindle was unable to fit. Using a ream, we enlarged the diameter of the bushes, and were then able to press in our spindle and shim into the swing arm. Finally, we attached the swing arm into the main frame and completed the first major step of our assembling process.
*We’ve spent the following classes searching for parts and sanding down pieces with emory paper for the front wheel assembly.
Wednesday, March 19 – April 16
The Assembly Group worked on the front and rear wheel assemblies. This was an arduous process, as majority of these pieces required lots of cleaning and sanding to remove rust and debris. We spent time ~2 days assembling the brake plates specifically, as the tight screws inside were very difficult to lock into place.
We are currently working on the front wheel brake assembly, continuing to clean out parts and remove rust from the handbrakes.
Remainder of Class
We removed rust and sandblasted the fenders and fuel tank. Bondo Body Filler was used to fill some holes and dents on these parts. We had to combine the polyester resin-based filler with a peroxide catalyst. This allowed the filler to harden.
Once it set for 24 hours- and all dents were repaired, we sprayed the parts with primer to get a smoother and cleaner finish before painting.