ABS body, tabs and pin repairs.

[Snaggletooth]

Like this hasn't been dicussed before! Ha!

 

Last December when I stored my bike I removed all the plactic and bought it into my basement shop with the intention of making all the repairs needed on the tabs and broken or missing pins. Oh yeah! And the headlight cover .... or replace it.

 

So a good cleaning and a long look at everything showed me I had more work to do than I thought and I needed stuff to do it right. A really good epoxy and some ABS flatstock to replace or create new tabs and build up cracked areas on the fairings.

 

Ok..... a couple of things. I tried 5 different epoxies over the winter. All dual chamber, 2 part dispensors for hard plastics or ABS listed on the package. I bought one "quick set, short cure time" and well, not worth it. All of the ones I chose were about 24 hours cure time. But from what I found, and tried a lot of different ways of testing the end repair, that they all seemed to have the same result with proper prep of the plastic to be repaired.

 

As for repair materials.........you find things in the strangest places some times. I found all kinds of ABS flat stock at a grocery store. For FREE!!

 

The store was doing a reset in the pop isle and all those plastic bin and shelf sliders are plastic......ABS plastic. Got to talking to the manager and they had ordered all new signage for the isles and displays and had stacks of sheets of plastic on the back waiting to be thrown out. Checked it out....three different thicknesses of ABS sheets. Some were 3 ft square. That should hold me through the testing process.

 

But anyway I wanted to share some of my ideas and the way repairs were done. I know the head light covers suffer from cracked screw holes on a lot of the bikes and mine had really gone South so I'll start with that.

 

The mounting holes in mine had given out and were missing pieces. So I tried this.

 

Grind or sand out any rough edges and rough up the remaining surfaces with sandpaper. I wiped it all down with alcohol to remove any loose particals and oil.

 

Next I packed the areas I wanted to keep open with modeling clay. Better than trying to reshape it later.

 

I wrapped the front of the head light cover around the repair area with wax paper to shape the outer side of the repair. Attach it firmly with masking tape and create a cup for the epoxy.

 

Fill the area with epoxy and let it cure. It's going to be thick so a couple of days would be plenty of time.

 

Peel off the tape and wax paper. Most the paper will peel off and what sticks is easy to sand off. Remove the modeling clay and you will see the basic repair.

 

I used a Dremel with a sanding drum to shape the epoxy rough and then used a sanding block to final shape it.

 

Mask off the corners again and give it a light coat of primer. You will see any defects that need to be fixed. A light sanding and another thin coat of the epoxy to fill the defects and after curing it's ready for the final sand down, primer and the new paint.

 

The paint is the tricky part. Still waiting for the color matching to work out and then the air brushing will be done.

 

So far......installed it......and it took a good tightening with no cracking.

 

So much for the head light.

 

Next......the side panel pins.

[Snaggletooth]

Ok...this is common and easy to fix. If the pin is broken off at the base just using epoxy to stick it back on just doesn't seem strong enough to hold.

 

Some guys have drilled out the top of the pin stand and inserted a bolt with a nut on each side to hold it in place then cut the bolt to the proper size. That works and it is strong.

 

I drilled out the top of the pin stand and cut a section of fiberglass rod to fit. Inserted it into the hole and ground the bottom to match the shape of the side panel. A dose of epoxy inside the stand and a coat on the new pin and hold it in place for a few minutes until the epoxy begins to set. When the first coat cures you and apply epoxy to the top of the new pin and shape the head to match the ole one.

 

Again.....make sure you rough up the surfaces to bond and clean well with alcohol.

 

And then come the tabs......

 

And make sure the new pin will align with the grommets before it sets up.

[Guest seuadr]

http://www.plastex.net/index.html

 

i'm gonna give this stuff a try.

 

i am in the same boat, couldn't find an epoxy that didn't completly suck. i found a permatex product called plastic doc that works ok, but isn't sandable, so really only suitable for small cracks.

[Cougar]

I did this almost same thing this winter to my 2nd gen fairing

but added glass cloth to the epoxy resin and JB Weld Combo as well. it is very strong now.

I re-did all my broken holes and even went over the old holes

that have not broke yet.. I think I am good to go now

VERY STRONG !

[ATTACH]42745[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]42746[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]42747[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]42748[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]42749[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]42750[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]42751[/ATTACH]

I think with having the XXL Clearview that over time (4 years now)

make more pressure on/in that area. that is just my thinking.

 

Jeff

[Snaggletooth]

Ok......there are a lot of them. And most of mine were bad when I got the bike. Either cracked, split, broken off or just plain gone altogether.

 

I found that using the different thicknesses of the ABS sheets I got the the best results by layering them where I could creating a laminate. Where I had the broken off pieces I trying to use then if they were not cracked too badly or simply built a new tab if they were.

 

The beauty of this bike is most all the tabs are pretty well hidden by other panels. You can get away with a lot because of that. Build the layers up and don't worry about the holes for now. I cut new holes with a step drill in a low speed drill as I lined them back up. No binding with a step drill that might crack the new tab.

 

If you use the process of layering and you run into clearnace problems because to the thicness simply sand it back down. After I fitted all mine I "painted" them with a coat of JB Weld to harden the surface and help prevent future cranking of the new tabs. The gray of the JB Weld blends in to the background pretty well without standing out. You see them if you're looking for them.

 

I just posted the pics rather than explain each one. You guy know what you are looking at.

 

Just remember to get the best bond ..... clean it .... rough it up .. clean it again .... epoxy it .... clamp it (not too tight) .... LET IT CURE!!!

 

 

So I hope the helps somebody along the way.

 

Mike

Edited March 14, 2010 by Snaggletooth

[dingy]

First two pictures are the repair I made to a couple of broken tabs.

 

I used 1/8" aluminum. Drilled holes and cutout center to match size of tab opening.

 

Used epoxy to glue in place.

 

 

Below is writeup from another site about fabricating the pin shown in last 3 pictures.

 

Well, I'm not sure what you call them, but the things that stick out and grab the rubber donuts and hold the side panels in place. When I got my 87, all were broken but one. I got some aluminum screws, turned the head down to .390 on my drill press. I took masking tape, made a loop around the top and put some JB weld on top. In the drill press again to round it off. I drilled a hole where the tab was, put a nut on, put it thru and put a nut on the bottom. Eyeballed the height and tightened up.

 

Gary

[Snaggletooth]

Gary. That is a nice fix. But you know what excited me the most in those pics?

 

The Green Grass!!!!

[Black Owl]

Or, you could just purchase 10mm shoulder bolts from McMaster-Carr. Saves a whole lot of time and effort.

[Bill W.]

Been fixing all of the broken plastic with Plastex. I had a lot of missing/broken tabs, cracked holes, split joints, I don't know what was holding it on the bike! Seems to be working well, the hard parts were building new tabs. Haven't put it back together yet, waiting for my battery cables to arrive.

 

Plastex is easy to work with. Just grind a groove in the crack, fill it with the powder, and wet it with the supplied liquid. Welds the plastic into one unit, so simple that even I can do it. Even works in the cold! I'll give a report on the effectiveness of the stuff later in the summer, once I put a few hundred miles on the repairs!

[Guest byekryam]

I fixed a pin on the side cover today by gluing it with Q Bond. It glued right to the old placement and held pretty good

 

Woody

[Shorty]

Here's what I used for my trunk repairs and building studs for the covers. I get it at Auto Zone for less than $5.00, I use it with fiberglass cloth.

[Trader]

Plastex is really easy for repairing stripped screw holes. Just coat the screw with WD40 and put some wet plastex on the screw (enough to fill the hole)

Once it cures just remove the screw and VOILA! you're done!

 

I've used it to rebuild several tabs, and repair cracks.

I would recommend it to anyone...but as stated...clean and sand the area to ensure it sticks!

[Evan]

I had a side cover pin that broke off and I tried to glue it back in position. Mine didn't hold either. I ended up moulding a new pin with Plastex and mounted it, again using Plastex. That was two years ago and it is still holding. However, if I had seen the pictures in this thread, I would have tried to follow one of these fixes, which look good.

[Condor]

Or, you could just purchase 10mm shoulder bolts from McMaster-Carr. Saves a whole lot of time and effort.

 

 

Takes less than 5 minutes....

[bald josh]

got a philister head bolt with about the same diameter as the pin at the hardware store, drilled out where the pin was and put a nut on either side to hold it. no muss no fuss, and the head is really snug in the rubber grommet.

[Condor]

OK, after double checking Russel's size of the ball stud it turns out to be 5/16"thread with a 10mm ball. It can be found at McMaster-Carr and is Sku#9512K73. Attached is a pic, and it makes the best replacement I've seen, and it's because of Russ's diligent searching... Many Thanks..

Edited September 24, 2010 by Condor

[Snaggletooth]

Hey Jack,

 

It's that sku# 9515K73 supposed to be 9512K73?

Just checking.

[Condor]

Hey Jack,

 

It's that sku# 9515K73 supposed to be 9512K73?

 

Just checking.

 

Of course it is.... Don't want to give away all the secrets... ain't editing great....

[Snaggletooth]

Yep, I think Russ nailed this one. Great fix. I've only got one pin still intact and three that I repaired. I ordered a set of four and am going to redo mine this winter.

 

Thanks to Russ and Condor for the info.

 

Mike

[Trader]

what about the rubber grommets. I remember there was some suggestions for them in another thread....but I can't find it

(OK....so maybe I'm just too lazy to look too hard!)

 

So....at the danger of repetition....where can you get replacement rubber grommets for the first Gen.?

[Rocket]

 

So....at the danger of repetition....where can you get replacement rubber grommets for the first Gen.?

 

I just got some, for the side panels, from Partshark in august, amongst the other stuff I ordered.

[Condor]

what about the rubber grommets. I remember there was some suggestions for them in another thread....but I can't find it

(OK....so maybe I'm just too lazy to look too hard!)

 

So....at the danger of repetition....where can you get replacement rubber grommets for the first Gen.?

 

Get ahold of Rick at Buckeye. That's where I picked up a batch of them.

Double check but I'm pretty sure the part number is:

90480-13398-00 or 90480-13014-00(repl) $2.30 $1.59