Plastic repair on side panels, mudguards and stuff.

My Pulse when I got it shows evidence of having been dropped, as the foot brake side panel was cracked in three places, the front mudguard cracked near the mounting bolts on the headlamp fairing scuffed. Now no way am I purchasing new plastics until at least I have had a go at repairing them, so I set about how to repair.

Well the side panel, that was the biggest issue, I sort of worked out the thing was made from a styrene based plastic by noticing the smell when heat was applied, I also noticed when applying the heat with a soldering iron the stuff melted so I effectively stitched the cracks back together by melting the plastic on either side of the crack on both sides of the panel and then filled the outside crack with fine body filler after smoothing down any rough bits. The result is satisfactory, I have not flexed the panel greatly to ascertain strength, but I believe the strength to be good enough for normal use.

I also noticed high strength cyanoacrylate glue ( super glue) is also effective on these plastics, but the thought has occurred to try and replicate the panels in a more durable plastic, glass fibre even as that is achievable with a modest home set up, or reinforce the stock plastics on the underside.

As the stock plastics seem to be a little fragile, has anyone tried to replicate the standard bike plastics in a more durable material ?

In China they would literally heat wires to ppoke them through the plastics and stitch a panel together like a cut. As a result, the bike looked kinda Frankensteinien but it had a lot of character. :icon10: Assuming you don't want to do that, some epoxy and metal could do wonders in key areas. I always save those small flat pieces of metal that often come with new horns because they make pretty strong plastic splints when bonded and backed by some strong epoxies.

As far as replicating plastics, your best bet would be fibreglass molding which would probably be more expensive than it's worth unless you plan on producing the parts for resale. Depending on how popular the bike is, it may not be a bad idea but surely time consuming. I've always wanted to learn how to work with fibreglass.

Also worth mentioning, the painted plastics that came on the motards were a little brittle. The exact same plastics on the Enduro version of the bike were very strong and flexible and were molded with the color in the plastics so scratches wouldn't show. If you see a set of enduro plastics around for cheap, they're worth picking up.

CC

I will look out for the stronger plastics set, but for now, I believe what I have done to repair and reinforce the stock plastics will do until I break them. I said reinforce, well, I have found the JB Weld is pretty good at repairing too, so all the stress points, corners and such now have a gob of the JB epoxy smoothed in to form a radius on the underside, radiused because I am aware curves are harder to break than angled corners. All the plastics have now been rubbed down, and sprayed with plastic primer awaiting the matt black respray.

Other stuff, well the bike is now naked, and has had a couple of coats of black Hammerite paint smeared all over the frame. A shock today, was when taking the tank off, the underside was well rusty, this area having missed the matt black spray paint, it was pretty bare under there and if this tank is anything like an old Suzuki GP100 I worked on years ago, they rot fast, my advice to others who have these machines, is get that area rust proofed, as there is nothing worse than petrol seeping through rust.

That's great work and sounds like you're nicely focused on getting it done. Be sure to take plenty of before and after shots. :icon10:

Should be a nice looking ride when it's all said and done. You gonna add any color or scheme to the paint when it's done or are you going with the rum-runner black look? :goodtime:

CC

Yep, I am sticking with the stealth look, gloss black frame and matt black bodywork. I have a set of spare forks, and I am thinking for a possible future modification, to strip the outer cover off the forks and get them re-anodised in red, to match the rear mono shock spring, also do the same with the Renthal bars. I am having no decals on the thing, just black, as I like to keep people guessing as to what it is. Another mod I did last night whilst bored, was to strip the paint off the rear grab handles and polish the alloy to a high shine before laquering with clear enamel, they look much better, as the paint job had peeled, this salt air no doubt. I have today finally finished painting the frame, my next job is cavity wax inside the frame and then out with the stainless steel fixings and put the thing back together again. I have decided, the nickables will be secured with tamper proof fixings in the hope to deter the little toe rags that go around at night around here, pinching indicators and batteries, oh I am going to fit an alarm too, and have already got ready for fittment one of those turning indicator warning alarms, as slow traffic in towns will be my daily drive.

Hi there ,

If i may take the liberty to say that replicating these parts in Fibre glass is a time consuming and expensive occupation. I replicate Side covers for some of the Honda Custom range of bikes, it has taken me two years to aquire the rare original covers and have them copied, i now make as sell a few every year on ebay..