120clown

:YEAH I've saw several requests for info on plastic repair methods & this prompted me to share my method for anyone who wants to try it. You'll need a spare piece of bodywork (old/busted & no good anymore). Go to Wal-Mart or any plumbing store & get a couple of those little bottles of PVC pipe cleaner. This is the stuff you clean PVC pipes with just prior to cementing joints togeter. If you read the can you'll see that it's just Acetone & MEK. This stuff will melt stock bike plastic easily. Now take your old body piece, sand most of the stock paint off it & bust or cut it up onto reasonably small pieces. Take the MEK & put it into a metal or glass quart jar & add the pieces of plastic. It will shortly desolve. Add enough plastic until you've got a semi-thick paste. This is your new plastic bondo.
Wherever your crack is: Remove the piece to be repaired & sand the inside/backside of the crack wider than the crack itself. Do this so that you can get down to the plastic so that your repair will stick & meld together with the original plastic, not just to the paint (do this to the backside only). Next apply the melted plastic, right out of the quart container with a tongue depressor or rubber bondo squeege. Immediately hold the two sides of the crack & work them up & down (apply more compound as needed) until the stuff comes out the outside/face of the crack just a little.
The MEK/Acetone melts the plastic pieces you put in to make the stuff...it'll also slightly melt the surface of the plastic around the crack when it's first applied. Within just a few minutes it's dry again (MEK evaporates really fast). Your cracked area is now repaired cheaply & really strong because you've fused the original plastic together with original plastic. I've used other compounds & most of them eventually get hard & brittle, then begin to come apart. The only other one I like is Epoxy Plastic Repair (in the two part tube, but must be marked as Plastic Repair). The MEK/Plastic stuff I just described absolutely won't crack in time because, within minutes when the MEK is dry, all you've got left IS original plastic. If it's just a small crack & you're not painting you can use a toothpick & some testors model paint to cover up the very thin dark line the stuff leaves on the outside/face of the cowling. If you're repainting the entire piece, just sand & prep as you would the rest of the cowling piece...afterall all it is...IS original plastic. :YEAH

works like a champ! :YEAH

aNskY

someone needs to figure out what else is made of the same type of plastic, so we dont need spare fairings.

120clown

you can get spare farings right here on stuntlife that have been broke in half for next to nothing! :YEAH

they should make this a sticky!

cali-is-4u2nv

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna give it a try.

120clown

4 sho post up some before and after pics!!

bigman

I personally prefer to weld the pieces together. Harbor Freight $29 for the welder, and United Plastic Corporation $9 for more than engulf ABS rod to last for the year.

Harbor Freight

US Plastic

Quik

thats sounds like a great way to fix it. do you have any pics of it

120clown

no i didnt take any pics in the process but i do have pics after it was painted.....

binder929rr

that's awsome.

only thing i'm concerned about is how fast does the paste dry and how quick do you have to take the melted paste and work it onto the plastic?

120clown

it for shure allows you enough time work it into the plastics if it starts to get thick on you just add more PVC pipe cleaner and it will softem fo you again :YEAH

danzx-9r

Thanks for the post about this. I'm in the process of buying some fairrings that have some cracks so i'm going to try it and take pics. Look for in a couple of weeks

120clown

dont forget to post pics up in this thread! :YEAH :YEAH

XDEVILMANX

Good idea for sure, but sounds like a lot of work...............anyone know of an easier way of fixing rashed plastics?

120clown

:YEAH it is just like using bondo its easy! :YEAH

bigman

You can buy a bondo like material called PollyFlex at most auto body stores, for about $15/qt. It is like bondo except it remains flexible after it is cured. However, I am thinking about trying the PVC solvent method, as an alternative method for filing in rash, but I will stick to welding for the cracks. As a mater of fact I am getting ready to weld a faring in a few minutes, as soon as I can motivate myself to go out into the cold to get it.

danzx-9r

So u got a plastic welder? Where can u buy one in a town at? We got a walmart, auto zone, advanced auto parts, O'Riellys and **** like that. My grandpa said he knows how to plastic weld but doesn't have one. He's done bodywork for years but that's the only thing he don't have. That sucks, but i was looking at buying one but don't know where to get one in town and how much they normally cost?

bigman

I got mine at Harbor Freight for $29, i posted a link to it above.

120clown

any updates?

FTPstunna

I see we have our own Macgyver up in this biatch! Im gonna keep this technique in mind, thanks for postin it!

covertwar

send that to cycleworld or motorcyclist and get a free t-shirt