Polycabonate/lexan sheeting

[FROSTY:Me]

The nasty beast has a busted fairing blade. The beast beeing the GSX1100g
The good news is that the blade is essentially flat 4mm polycarb sheet with a lip at the end to simulate the lip in a K100bmw fairing.
Would you use lexan or polycarb to replace it?
to get the curve into it . Can ya use the old heat gun to soften the "plastic" and drape it over a suitably curved surface?

[FROSTY:Me]

Any Ideas here guys?

[Blakamin]

whats a real one worth?? i know the people we deal with for plastics aint cheap.
postform plastics, lower hutt

[FROSTY:Me]

real one ? lmao-- yea right --no such thing -as in unavailable

[bungbung]

You can make a plastic bender out of a piece of fibrolite with a slot cut in it about 8mm wide (or two pieces clamped 8mm apart) and a single bar heater with the grille removed. The heat coming through the aperture is focussed on a narrow area allowing easy control over the bend.

Acrylic plastic is easiest (and cheapest) to work with, but will scratch easier than polycarbonate.

[merv]

I've used acrylic plastic sheeting a number of times for headlight guards and the like and it comes with the peel off paper protection attached and I've found just cut the stuff to shape and size using a coping saw or similar, and then pop it in the oven (don't let the missus see if she has a thing against you using it like that) at 100 degrees C for just a few minutes, then get it out and it will bend to the curve you want. You just need the right shape to bend it around - on the bike where its going to fit being preferable, else you'll need something else to bend it around. It cools reasonably slowly so you have a few minutes to do it but use oven gloves or something to hold it as your hands won't stand it. Then peel off the paper covers and there you have it - not scratched at all and looking sweet.

[Zapf]

The nasty beast has a busted fairing blade. The beast beeing the GSX1100g
The good news is that the blade is essentially flat 4mm polycarb sheet with a lip at the end to simulate the lip in a K100bmw fairing.
Would you use lexan or polycarb to replace it?
to get the curve into it . Can ya use the old heat gun to soften the "plastic" and drape it over a suitably curved surface?

don't think you can do it for poly carbonate, as it has a kind of crystal structure that makes it so hard. As for Lexan, most people for cage applications use ribs behind it to shape it to what they want, almost kind of like making a sail.... but that is for thin lexen that I have seen. Perhaps you can do that with thicker ones. Try it on a small bit perhaps?

[pete376403]

I made a new fairing blade for my Gs1100GK out of lexan, bought from Mulford Plastics in Petone. Cut with a jigsaw, using the old blade as a template. It only curves in one plane so I didn't bother with heat, just screwed it on and it follows the curve of the fairing. Doesn't have a lip at the top so haven't got a solution for that. It's lasted pretty well (4 -5 years), starting to get a bit scratched and a crack has developed from one of the screw holes, so I'll probably be doing another one before much longer.