Plastic repair.

[gpineau]

Plastic repair?, anyone use the plastic repair kit sold on amazon. I was winterizing my bike in the garage and accidently tipped it over. Broke the fairing at the corner of the turn signal. Very upsetting. The bikes plastics were perfect up till now. There are several plastics repair kits sold on Amazon. Which one to buy?

[lather]

I have had good success with this one Hobie - Kc Welder Pro With Rod Stock - 72097001
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B004CGCY34/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I used it to plug holes in my Kayak and to repair cracks in my c14 fairing.  The plastic rods that come with it are not the right type for most motorcycles but I was able to buy the correct rods separately.

[George R. Young]

Acetone dissolves ABS. If you put a bit on the edges of the break, and then press the bits together, you should get a pretty good repair.

[gpineau]

Anyone tried the hot staples? The place where it broke is under a lot of stress. Its at the upper corner next to the turn signal. Broke all through and it is difficult to get the two ends to touch with hand pressure. Also the turn signal is loose inside the cowling

[Boomer]

You'll need to glue the posts that the turn signal screws to back on.
As for fixing the break, the hot staple method will probably be best.
I plastic welded mine but then I had to flat it off and fill it before painting.

[greenie]

I've had very good success with Plasti-Mend  http://new.plasti-mend.com/
If there's clearance behind the damage this repair laid over the back with screen pressed in provides a permanent repair. The can when opened gets frost on it. No mixing, just a little surface prep and it's easy. After the can is opened it will last for a year or so as long as the can is resealed.

[kkja13]

I used acetone and some scrap pieces of ABS that I had laying around to strengthen the back side of my cracked fairings (PO laid it down).  The cracks are still noticable from the outside if you look closely, but structurally it is strong again.  Good enough for me.

[gpineau]

kkja13,
I have a whole spool of ABS filament and some acetone. I think I want to try the ABS and acetone before I purchase an other tools.
so do you make a paste from Abs and apply with a putty knife.?

[George R. Young]

Here's a pretty good tutorial:

https://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/Plastics_repair_with_ABS_cement

I used this technique to stick a severely cracked Ninja 250 fairing together:

[Rick Hall]

kkja13,
I have a whole spool of ABS filament and some acetone. I think I want to try the ABS and acetone before I purchase an other tools.
so do you make a paste from Abs and apply with a putty knife.?

Location of crack in main fairing , next to the turn signal, is somewhat common.

If the metal fairing bits are all tweeked to the proper angle/spacing, the plastic bits will never see stresses that will break tabs and bosses. Keep this in mind.

ABS can be glued easily, and once fully dry it's as strong as the substrate. Key concept, fully dry. Glued repairs may take in excess of a week to be mostly dry, over a month to be fully dry.

ABS cement may still be available at your local plumbing supply house, or orange/blue Empire stores. If not, grate some ABS into a jar, add a smidge of acetone, cover, wait until the mix is a uniform consistency. Consider a stiff mixture as a filler, a somewhat liquid mixture as a glue for loose fitting parts, and pure acetone (or virgin lacquer thinner) as a cement for tight fitting parts.

Rick

[Stasch]

PlastiFix works well.  https://murphskits.com/plastifix-plastic-repair-kit-1/

I've used it to replace entire missing tabs along bottom edges of C10 main fairings.

Putty is used to form a mold from a known good part.  Putty is fastened with tape or other method to the main piece.

Using the dropper and powder, you create the missing piece out of nothing, drop by drop. 

My projects required some dremel grinding and sanding to shape the sides that didn't fit the mold after curing, then drilled any needed holes.

For cracked parts, I've used plastic welding using a soldering iron.  No additional product needed.  For higher stress areas, you can glue / weld a support a scrap piece along the back if desired. 

Adhesives don't work on polypropylene (C10 inner fairing and saddlebag material) but plastic welding does.


Safety Tip:  Work in a well ventilated area while plastic welding or using PlastiFix to avoid inhaling fumes.  I use a fan to blow across the work area.

[gpineau]

I Guess I have to try the plastic fix. I realize now the reason I have so much trouble getting the ends to touch is that there is a piece missing. Now if i can find someone local that can make me a clay mold of the corner I will use plastic fix to create the missing piece.

[ginzburg]

I have used ABS cement with some fiberglass drywall tape to reinforce the repair. I thought it worked well, but that fiberglass maybe wasn't the best.

This seems to work better than acetone, but MEK isn't the safest.
https://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-Hobbies/Model-Kits/Tools-Adhesives/Plast-I-Weld/p/146229

ABS cement is typically MEK, ABS and acetone.

On the C14, most of the body panels have a mix of nylon and ABS. I had good luck with the Permatex that is Methyl Methacrylate, there are some other brands like it.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Permatex-0-84-fl-oz-5-Minute-Plastic-Welder-84145/205905894

They used to carry this in the store. It looks like Napa has it still.

Some Methyl Methacrylate adhesives like this do claim to work on Polyethylene and Polypropylene, but I don't have first hand experience with that. Maybe someone else has tried this.

Some people use baking soda and super glue to fill gaps, so you might consider that method. I think it is similar to Plastifix, but I haven't used that exact product to know how they compare.

[gpineau]

Now I am looking for matching touch up paint. Its a 1999 Burgundy
.

[lather]

Now I am looking for matching touch up paint. Its a 1999 Burgundy
.

You can take a colored part in to some of the automotive paint supply shops and they will scan it and custom  mix a small batch of paint to match.
You can apply it with one of these:

[gpineau]

Darn, I just spent $47 at coloright nd $38 on plastifix. I'm not impressed with the plastifix. Maybe I need more practice. I'm having better luck with a slurry of ABS melted with acetone. Its a rough surface but it seems to be strong. Then I am going to finish it with something like bondo.

[Stasch]

Are you using Plasti-Fix to create a missing tab in a putty mold, or trying to use it as an adhesive?

I don't think the latter will work well.

[gpineau]

Worst repair ever.
Spent about $100 for a very ugly repair.

Not at all impressed with plastifix because it needs a near perfect mold and a steady hand. No luck with it at all

Very dissatisfied with Color-rite. The base coate they sent was BLACK and the other paint was Darker than the original. The repair is just ...UGLY but it is strong.

https://youtu.be/FjlxL49uL5A

[Boomer]

I've never had any luck at all with the paint "pens". The finish they give is garbage.
You are far better off removing the turn signal, mask off the area to be painted, give it several coats of spray paint, and then flat it back before clearcoat.
If you want the repair to blend in with the existing paint job, you will need to get the area painted professionally and "blended".
Personally, when I repaired my busted fairing, I resprayed the whole bike matt black.
After the 2nd time I replaced the fairing upper and sprayed the whole bike green.

[gpineau]

Green sounds nice. I was wanting to avoid doing too much to the bike because I plan to sell it in the spring.  I still have a half quart of Chrysler purple left over from my last motorcycle paint job.  Wonder if I could sell a purple connie?