The repairing the bike mission!

[John Banks]

At the moment the damage is:

Fairing - cracked in places, one part has come off (I still have it) and the holes for the indicators need to be repaired. Damage from the road will probably need to be bogged, sanded and painted.

Indicators - gone - I've got a couple of temporary ones from Frosty (thanks, mate!), but I'm going to see about getting some proper replacements and handing those ones back.

Forks - not straight? :slap: This is the worrying thing. T.I.E. came over and checked them out, gave them a bit of a straighten but can't be sure if "close enough" will do.

At the moment I'm trying to do this for as little $$$ as possible, no matter how bogan it looks, so I can get back and riding again when my cast comes off (it may even be this Friday). I may end up doing a proper job with the cosmetic damage before I sell it, but I'm not so worried about looks.

I've heard good things about taking a soldering iron to it for plastic welding, but I'm going to take the fairing around to some shops to get a quote on how much it will cost... I'm not willing to fork out too much.

As for the indicators, the only real option is to buy them. Not much surprise there.

I'm worried about the forks, especially since I don't know how to tell how straight they are. Anyone know how much they cost to get straightened?

[Sketchy_Racer]

hey John..

your best be with the fairings is using fibreglass..... it works 50000% better than plastic weld etc etc..... and you can get a kit for $40 from placemakers or something.... i used it on my ones and i had BIG bits missing.... cant even tell now

Glenn

[John Banks]

Sounds good... what should I be looking for? Fibreglass repair kit, or something like that? How does it work?

[Hoon]

Yes something like this.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/structure/auction_detail.asp?id=42273746

Can be found at hardware stores (Bunnings, Mitre10 etc) or Automotive Paint shops.

Instructions included.

[Sketchy_Racer]

yea something along those lines..... its really really simple...

get an angle grinder with a coarse sanding disk... or just really coarse sandpaper will do, On the back of the fairing sand up the crack so its really rough so the fibreglass will stick,
'
mix up the epoxy (instructions will be on the bottle)

its a two part resin and hardener kit.

put some onto the fairing then put some fibreglass matting on and then some more epoxy and then another piece of matting.. about three mats will be heaps.

leave to cure for 24 hours :)

it is awesome stuff and is stronger than the plastic, provided you get a good contact between the platic and the fibreglass :)

sand off any epoxy that has seeped onto the front, and away you go

Ps- the more epoxy the better, the strength is in the epoxy

[John Banks]

I've grabbed a fibreglass repair kit from Mitre 10... cost $15, can't really beat that. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Sketchy_Racer]

awesome :) you wont be dissapointed. Just remember, its all in the preparation ;)

[FROSTY]

ya need to pull the fairing off and pull the brackets straight -otherwise its always gonna point to the right.
Ill skinny forks like yours are pretty easy for a shop to straighten--especially bent as little as yours are.
Check ya wheel alighnment --the forks coulda just been twisted in the clamps