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Some of you may recall that Kristin had a little oops moment a few weeks back. I spent some time doing research on repair methods... and was planning to attempt to do some plastic welding... until I heard of this miracle elixir known as plastex.
Everything was in, so I went about doing the repairs. The kit is very simple, it comes with a bottle of powdered plastic and a liquid activator along with some random implements, a cheap eye dropper and a "molding bar" that the plastic doesn't stick to.
For ease of reading, I'll show the broken part, followed by the current state of repair.
First, and my biggest worry was the broken tab that attaches at the belly pan. As you can see here, it was mostly gone.
This rather blurry photo (sorry) shows the rebuilt tab area, along with the sharpie mark I made to guide grinding and sanding.
Here is the tab after the first round of sanding was complete:
Because of the dimples, I decided another round of filling was in order, that's drying right now.
Next, was the middle fastening position which is recessed. You can see that half the recess was broken right off.
And again after filling and sanding:
I decided to completely fill, and re drill this mounting point. That's drying now as well...
I won't bore you with the remaining fills etc. I noticed during pre-prep inspection that the windscreen holes were off... by a lot... so I opted to fill those as well, and they came out pretty well.
What I've learned so far... It's not too hard to work. Just takes a little practice and some patience. The tab area I built up over several iterations. I decided to "over make" it so that there would be a thick, strong build holding the fairing down.
I also learned that the plastic doesn't stick to aluminum foil, so I was able to make a kind of mold to fill in the recess.
I also kept a tack cloth handy for powder clean up. Stuff gets stuck in everything... finger prints... whatever... but the cloth pulls it right out.
The eye dropper that came with the kit sucks. In fact, it's broken already, so tomorrow I'll have to find another one on my way home.
The repairs themselves seem very strong, at least as strong as the plastic they are attached to. During the sanding the repaired portions sanded, cut, and generally worked exactly like the surrounding original material.
So far so good....
A tip on the after market replacement fairings... you have to drill them yourself... and nothing is marked except the location of the mirrors. Drill them out first and attach your mirrors, and I think you'll get a better overall fit.
Everything was in, so I went about doing the repairs. The kit is very simple, it comes with a bottle of powdered plastic and a liquid activator along with some random implements, a cheap eye dropper and a "molding bar" that the plastic doesn't stick to.
For ease of reading, I'll show the broken part, followed by the current state of repair.
First, and my biggest worry was the broken tab that attaches at the belly pan. As you can see here, it was mostly gone.
This rather blurry photo (sorry) shows the rebuilt tab area, along with the sharpie mark I made to guide grinding and sanding.
Here is the tab after the first round of sanding was complete:
Because of the dimples, I decided another round of filling was in order, that's drying right now.
Next, was the middle fastening position which is recessed. You can see that half the recess was broken right off.
And again after filling and sanding:
I decided to completely fill, and re drill this mounting point. That's drying now as well...
I won't bore you with the remaining fills etc. I noticed during pre-prep inspection that the windscreen holes were off... by a lot... so I opted to fill those as well, and they came out pretty well.
What I've learned so far... It's not too hard to work. Just takes a little practice and some patience. The tab area I built up over several iterations. I decided to "over make" it so that there would be a thick, strong build holding the fairing down.
I also learned that the plastic doesn't stick to aluminum foil, so I was able to make a kind of mold to fill in the recess.
I also kept a tack cloth handy for powder clean up. Stuff gets stuck in everything... finger prints... whatever... but the cloth pulls it right out.
The eye dropper that came with the kit sucks. In fact, it's broken already, so tomorrow I'll have to find another one on my way home.
The repairs themselves seem very strong, at least as strong as the plastic they are attached to. During the sanding the repaired portions sanded, cut, and generally worked exactly like the surrounding original material.
So far so good....
A tip on the after market replacement fairings... you have to drill them yourself... and nothing is marked except the location of the mirrors. Drill them out first and attach your mirrors, and I think you'll get a better overall fit.
. Maybe I'll get some use out of it soon when I start fixing the fairings ..... That's good to hear !
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