Heat and Plastic Warpage

[Addiction]

Been reading everything I can about painting. My Katana has sad evidence of being dropped a few times. I mulled around buying a Chinese fairing kit but figured with a little time and determination I could restore the original plastics.

What I hadn't noticed before I started sanding off the weird shrink-wrap custom job a PO had put on, is that the right side large fairing piece has a large amount of warping from heat. It's right at the seam to the bottom fairing piece. The bottom piece is unaffected.

Now the question. Did the shrink-wrap (I don't really know what it is... gasoline had melted the stuff off of the gas tank and it came off like saran wrap.) trap heat, warping the ABS? Is there an inherent problem with the air-cooled Kat? Is there a heat shield maybe someone removed when they had the custom job done?

[Kreylyn]

Been reading everything I can about painting. My Katana has sad evidence of being dropped a few times. I mulled around buying a Chinese fairing kit but figured with a little time and determination I could restore the original plastics.

What I hadn't noticed before I started sanding off the weird shrink-wrap custom job a PO had put on, is that the right side large fairing piece has a large amount of warping from heat. It's right at the seam to the bottom fairing piece. The bottom piece is unaffected.

Now the question. Did the shrink-wrap (I don't really know what it is... gasoline had melted the stuff off of the gas tank and it came off like saran wrap.) trap heat, warping the ABS? Is there an inherent problem with the air-cooled Kat? Is there a heat shield maybe someone removed when they had the custom job done?

Not knowing the history of the bike can lead to all kinds of conjecture, but the most common reasons...

Heat from the engine warped it due to 1. overheated engine, or 2. bike was dropped/layed down on that side pushing it against the engine.

It doesn't take much heat... 400f will make the abs fully "pliable". As such, you can normally take out those warps with a heat gun and careful manipulation.

Krey

[Addiction]

Gonna have to go with #1 then. It got dropped on the other side.

Do ya think a heat protective blanket material would protect the plastic at all? Or might that reflect heat back at the engine. My CBR is filled with some kind foam that seems to both deflect heat and redirect it.

Thanks for the reply.

[Stumpy]

My lower fairing and inner cowling melted from the GF learning to ride on it, at slow speeds in a car park.

Back end of the front mudguard too

When I repainted I put some ducting aluminium foil on the inside to try and stop that happening again. So far, it's holding up

[MEngineer]

Gonna have to go with #1 then. It got dropped on the other side.

Do ya think a heat protective blanket material would protect the plastic at all? Or might that reflect heat back at the engine. My CBR is filled with some kind foam that seems to both deflect heat and redirect it.

Thanks for the reply.

Could't hurt. If you're riding the heat reflected wouldn't matter.

[Kreylyn]

Yes, you can insulate the inside fairing surface to reduce chances of heat causing warping in the future. The fairings do nothing for making the engine cool better/worse... As long as you do not block the air flow around the engine including the holes in the fairings designed to allow for that.

There are lots of places online and auto stores that sell self adhesive stick on heat shielding. Some is used already on key points on these bikes.

Krey

[stukat]

same thing happened to me

same thing happened to me. any idea what caused this? just got off the bike after commuting to work. Noticed the side fairing warpage (on both sides). this blows. ran it only about 17 miles, granted there was some traffic on secondary roads so I never made it over 45 mph.

suggestions? possible cause? exhaust leak? fixable?

anything i did?

bike is a 2006

[Addiction]

Yeah, that's what mine looks like. Same spot. I was more puzzled that it didn't affect the lower piece as well.

I'm going to try a heat gun to smooth it out. My plastics are all stripped and sanded at the moment anyway. Maybe I can design some stylish heat-releasing Speed Holes. Definitely putting some heat protection right there.