hi, i haven't played around with maya for a long time and just got back into it. my statue as newbie still stands and require some help!

ok, i'm modelling the akira bike and am having some trouble modelling the body. i made an outline of the body and closed the curve. i could make it into a planar surface but i notice that planars are only for flat curves. when i move cvs for the curve on another axis the surface disappears and i get an error. i can't use loft or boundary since it's a single curve. so how can i create a non-flat surface using single closed curve??? hopefully the below picture will better explain what i'm doing. thanks