Bodywork repair...

[airheadPete]

Ok, I've got a '92 and the PO's managed to crack damned near every fairing piece on the bike. What I've got is ABS pipe cement from the hardware store and some ABS sheet stock from a plastics supply house. I've picked up a spare main fairing that has fewer issues...  Anybody been here before? I plan to reinforce and glue, and on some (big) cracks carve a V-notch and fill and glue, then sand. I haven't seen any repo decals for a '92, so I'm gonna try and save the exterior paintwork. Am I nuts, or just ambitious?

[fj12_rider]

well i dont think you are nuts but like you say its going to be ambitious , I broke the right hand screen strut off mine and i used a piece of steel down the inside (which you cant do on a main fairing part ) and contact adhesive . The adhesive is holding great . I then used a touch up brush to cover the thin part of the crack where the paint had gone and there was a white line . I have a black bike so it really showed . I dont know what abs is i`m guessing we call it something else here in the uk , we get fiberlass sheeting is it the same as that ? It may work , my guess it though that it`ll fall out over time , but I`m not an expert by any means.

Good luck with it !!

[rktmanfj]

Ok, I've got a '92 and the PO's managed to crack damned near every fairing piece on the bike. What I've got is ABS pipe cement from the hardware store and some ABS sheet stock from a plastics supply house. I've picked up a spare main fairing that has fewer issues...  Anybody been here before? I plan to reinforce and glue, and on some (big) cracks carve a V-notch and fill and glue, then sand. I haven't seen any repo decals for a '92, so I'm gonna try and save the exterior paintwork. Am I nuts, or just ambitious?

Pete, regarding the decals, contact: www.reproductiondecals.com

A few years ago, when I wanted tank decals for my '78 XT500, their site had about every one except that year.  I emailed them, and they asked for a good quality digital pic of the one I had, with accurate dimensions.  The one on their site now is from the pic I sent.  I'll bet they can do the same for you.

[fintip]

Be sure to let us know how it goes.

[bcguide]

I had some stuff on repairing abs fairings but lost it when my puter crashed, but what I rember was that you could mix abs shavings with abs glue or maybe mek
v out the cracks then fill with the putty of abs.  I think you can buy a mix like this from an auto body supply place
Maybe do some searching on the net and see what you can find out

Scott

[airheadPete]

Thanks for the input guys, especially repo-decals. I'd forgotten about them; black and gold looks really good but hearing that they'll do semi-custom jobs from digital photos is great. BTW, ABS is not related to fiberglass, it's an injection molded plastic, not a matrix of glass & resin. MEK though, ah the good stuff, yeah, I could probably grind up some shavings and make a good adhesive slurry. That stuff should melt it nicely, just like my brain... The biggest "challenge", (my wife loves that word), will be above the lh turn signal where a 2x3" piece was knocked out. (Compound curve, sharp edge, fit to turn signal lens... Yeah, it'll be great, (and obvious).)