Finally, another post about the J15! I think I’ve worked out why it’s been so long since the last one. In a nutshell I hate doing bodywork as it’s all so final and the slightest mistake has to be lived with for ages. Daft really because as soon as I stuff it into something everything changes. So, I’m trying to force myself to get stuck in.
To support my claims, here’s a photograph of lots of bits! If you look hard you can see a couple of struts sticking up in the middle of the suspension rockers. These are supports for the front bodywork (still can’t work out what to call it). Normally this bodywork would be hinged from the front suspension mountings but the splitter makes this nigh on impossible so I’ve just got the bodywork sitting in position. Obviously it needs a number of fasteners and so on. However, I don’t want to rely on the splitter itself as experience is that the shortest trip across the grass or gravel could peremptorily remove it. So, I needed something to support the bodywork in the vertical direction and these suppots should do the job. I’m intending to mount some bonnet pins on these supports to actually hold the bodywork in place.
One thing you might notice on the photo is the stain on the splitter over on the right had side. This is because the cooling system appears to be leaking which is a bummer. I think it’s coming from the bleed I put into the top of the radiator.
At the rear of the car the situation’s different and I decided to use Jeremy’s hinges to mount the rear of the engine cover. The photo here shows the left hand side of this arrangement. (I can’t show you the whole lot as I’d have to have opened the garage door and it was cold.)
The photos I got from Jeremy at the start of this long-drawn out process showed that he fitted some stiffening ribs inside the engine cover GRP. However, I don’t think I’ll do this. Instead I
‘ll fit some sort of support to the rear of the chassis that locates on the inside of the moulding. This is a better idea for me as if, more likely when, I fit a rear spoiler I’ll want something to which to articulate the downforce (or, more likely, reduction of lift). As such a bit of chassis directly under the engine cover will be a good idea. However, in the meantime it’s fairly stable.
Stable enough, anyway, to start chopping it about. The photo here shows that I’ve now fitted the rear struts to the roll cage and cut some slots in the engine cover to clear them. I’ve also opened up the little holes in the cars “shoulders”. However, you can see I’ve made a bit of a mess of things with the paint falling off. It’s clear that I didn’t do a very good job of keying the gelcoat on this moulding. I guess I’m going to have to molest it all and repaint it. Sigh. At least this means I 
can avoid being too careful with it and just set about it with instruments of destruction.
So, that meant I could close the engine cover, as you can see. However, as you will remember, the CBR1000RR has a socking great airbox/injector arrangement sitting on top of it and that’s clearly not here. So, I refitted that to the engine and I’m now going to have to cut a great big hole in the engine cover to clear it. I’m sure the Sylva purists are going to have heart failure.