Plastic welding broken tabs on Fairing and lower front Cowling

InfinitySurf · January 2

Cold weather so been in maintenance mode on my RSV, so got another write-up for some plastic welding repairs I just did to 3 broken tabs...previous owner had put locktight on the 8 bolts that detach the front fairing/batwing for some reason and when I removed the bolts for 1st time back in 2021, 2 of plastic tabs cracked since they have the metal tabs that clip onto the ABS plastic which is fairly thin. Recently 1 of the center tabs to the front "batwing" broke off completely and the other one had cracks in the plastic tab where it attached to the metal clip so it would have broken off soon too (have before & after pics of this repair). Then on the lower left front cowling that protects your knees, the top tab had cracked when the bike fell over on its side one day while I was having a dumb moment, I didn't notice how bad it was then I guess but when I removed all the body panels to do all my recent maintenance, the entire tab column had snapped off flush with the body panel when I removed that bolt...just thankful all the pieces where still there so I could repair it! I didn't get a before picture of that one but have 4 after pics. That one was actually the most involved repair cause I had to re-attach the entire tab to the cowling.

Several different ways you can repair/weld plastic but I have a Polyvance MiniWeld Model 7 airless plastic welder that I have used for a bunch of other repairs in the past since myself and almost all my family members all ride quads and duel sport bikes, so plenty of crashes and broken plastics happen when having off-road fun! This plastic welder has saved thousands over the years by being able to repair vs buying new plastics, been a great investment.

On the front fairing/batwing, I decided to do a combination of plastic welding & JB cold welding since the plastic was broken and the metal clip had no plastic between it to hold it in place. Since plastic wont secure well to metal I ended up cutting up strips of metal screen, formed it into a U shape and melted it into the plastic both on the inside and the outside of the plastic tab column so the screen supported the metal tab both under and over it...then I used JB cold weld to weld the metal screen to the bottom and the top of the metal tab with extra underneath it on the sides to add additional support. I used some ABS plastic to weld over the areas where I melted the screen into the tab to help strengthen those areas. Its cured and re-installed on the bike now, feels totally solid so we will see if it holds up long term.

On the lower front cowling, I cut a bunch of strips of metal screen, held the broken tab in correct orientation and then started melting the screen into the plastic. I did a crapload of metal screen strips on that one since there are ridges/supports around that entire tab and I wanted it to be super solid. After the screen was all melted into place I used plastic strips called fiberflex (works on many different types of plastic) & welded that over all the screen strips. Looks pretty ugly looking at the repair on the inside of the cowling but you would never know it was repaired from the outside and I bet its stronger now than it ever was. The last 4 pics are of this repair.