Plastics repair recommendation

[Pasta Burner]

Hey Strangers!  Been a while since I checked in, fall came and I checked out.  Hope you all had a great holiday season and are keeping busy in the off season, which brings me to my topic.  I have no idea when why or how but as I was working on cleaning the garage this past weekend I noticed the horizontal part of my fairing has a complete clean break in two.  The horizontal location of the piece that goes from the lower behind the radiator and up where the vents are.  My first instinct is to fiberglass it back together.  But any suggestions are encouraged.  I’m still dumbfounded on what caused it and when.  Rock maybe?

[RDawson]

Several posts regarding this. Search in the library. It’s ABS plastic, you can make a putty with ABS and MEK for patching, I used ABS sheet and ABS plumbing glue to fix a broken saddlebag. There are commercial products available Plastex being one. Fiberglass really isn’t the answer. 

[Pasta Burner]

Thanks RDawson.  I did a search but wasn’t coming up with any relevant hits.  Gotta figure out this new forum interface.

[RDawson]

I think you’ll find some in “poor mans tips” and 1st gen tech. May take a little searching. There are some really good ideas scattered around. I haven’t had to do much plastic work so hopefully a few of the gurus will chime in. 

[saddlebum]

I swear by plastifix also known as plastex rebuilt my bike with it 13 years ago and still holding up. Here one of the pieces I rebuilt including adding new tabs. I used white plastifix to build the tabs only because I had it and was running short on black. I embedded a couple layers of fiberglass drywall tape into the back side to add strength. The other beauty is yo do not need spot putty it sands out beautifully and you can keep adding and sanding until you have a perfect paint ready surface.

Edited January 29, 2021 by saddlebum

[bostonlawman2003]

I have used a product called "plasti-mend" in the past and I can't say enough good things about it. When I bought the little cargo trailer I pull behind the bike the bottom of it was cracked on both sides by the wheel wells. I ordered this with limited hope and was more than pleased with the results. That was 6 years ago and it is holding up rock solid to this day. It did take about 48-72 hours to fully cure, but once cured it is as I said rock solid. The product was a bit more expensive than I expected, but given the results and durability it was worth every penny of it. Here's a link to the page where I purchased it if you are interested. I thought for sure I had pictures of the repair, but can't find them here at work at the moment. Best of luck whatever route you decide to go with it!

[Pro procrastinator]

Has anyone tried molding sheets of abs? Just wondering what it would take to vacuum mold new pieces. Would have to pick a weekend when the little lady is gone scapbooking or face the frying pan when she finds out what im thinking of using her oven for😇

[saddlebum]

25 minutes ago, Pro procrastinator said:

Has anyone tried molding sheets of abs? Just wondering what it would take to vacuum mold new pieces. Would have to pick a weekend when the little lady is gone scapbooking or face the frying pan when she finds out what im thinking of using her oven for😇

I can only guess at how this process would work but sounds to me you would be cheaper off searching for used parts. Besides using the wife's oven is risky they always find out. Trust me I know

[luvmy40]

Which side lower is damaged? I have a couple spares but I'll have to check to see which side and what color I have in good condition.

[saddlebum]

I attached a PDF of the pastifix I used and a PDF of an interesting document on plastic repair. You can also go to plastifx.com to see a line of other products they carry. Note Plastex and Plastifix are the same.

 

PlastiFix.pdf The Book of Plastic Repair.pdf

Edited January 29, 2021 by saddlebum

[Pasta Burner]

On 1/29/2021 at 8:16 AM, luvmy40 said:

Which side lower is damaged? I have a couple spares but I'll have to check to see which side and what color I have in good condition.

It’s the left side, like a metallic gray color.  
 

thanks for all the tips, my new found workshop is coming together nice so hopefully I’ll get to this soon.  I also want to repair some plastics on my duc the 20 year old idiot in me at the time thought some cheap ass flush mounts would look good🙄

[Pasta Burner]

In the interest of time and not committing to a paint job I decided to fiberglass the backside for now.  I will be investing some time into plastifix though because there are a lot of tabs broken off on this thing.

[saddlebum]

6 hours ago, Pasta Burner said:

In the interest of time and not committing to a paint job I decided to fiberglass the backside for now.  I will be investing some time into plastifix though because there are a lot of tabs broken off on this thing.

 

You can also use the plastifix with the fiberglass cloth. when replacing missing tabs I use multiple layers of fiberglass drywall tape and plastifix.

Edited April 19, 2021 by saddlebum

[Marcarl]

I can't really tell if you did, but, when using anything, plastifix, fiberglass, abs powder, what ever,,,, it is super important to remove the 'glaze' on the surface of the original piece. If you don't, things won't stick for long.

[Pasta Burner]

On 4/19/2021 at 6:37 AM, Marcarl said:

I can't really tell if you did, but, when using anything, plastifix, fiberglass, abs powder, what ever,,,, it is super important to remove the 'glaze' on the surface of the original piece. If you don't, things won't stick for long.

I didn’t remove all of the glaze, if you look close you’ll see a bunch of black squiggle tar snake looking marks under the patched area.  I did that intentionally to make this only a temporary but hopefully make it through the season patch. It’s not a structural piece so it shouldn’t have much other than wind stress.  I spent a handful of summers fiberglassing boat repairs in my teens so it’s often a go to product for me.  Wish I had done a little more looking around on ABS repair last year before I decided to fiberglass my trunk cracks when I first got the bike 🥴.

Edited April 24, 2021 by Pasta Burner