What to do about scratched plastics?

[JDS]

I crashed my bike last week. Part of the damage was the upper fairing on the left side, right where the 'Katana' emblem is.

It's only road rash - it isn't cracked or anything, just scratched all to crap in that one area. The shop told me I could get some touch-up paint and some new stickers and it'd look like new, which I considered.

I got to thinking though, I want to do something a little different to it. Maybe different stickers or *something* to make it 'mine'. I figured I might as well take the opportunity to do something a little nicer since I'm going to have to do something anyway.

Now I don't want to go all-out to make it awesome looking or anything. I just want to do something a little different so that it doesn't just look like stock.

If anyone wants to, chime in and let me know what you think. Otherwise I'll probably just get some touch-up paint and some GSXF stickers or something...

[SweetLou]

You should burn it. Set it on fire. Thats what Corey and I would do, and you can trust us, were experts at that kinda stuff.

Maybe decals to cover the scratches?

[The CyberPoet]

If we see the damages, we can tell you better.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[JDS]

Once I get the bike back from the shop (hopefully later this week) I'll post some pics.

[ThAzKat]

If we see the damages, we can tell you better.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

I totally agree, if the are more like cuts then scratches then you will have to fill. Then chances are there are cracks lurking behind them. if it is a scuff then that is no problem.

[WildKat]

empiregp does some very good work, and they can hook u up if you arent planning on doing the repairs yourself.

[katman05]

You might find something here http://www.rsgraphics.co.uk/suzuki.htm also here http://dirt.tricktape.com/subcatmfgp...211&1=216&2=-1

[The CyberPoet]

empiregp does some very good work, and they can hook u up if you arent planning on doing the repairs yourself.

They've done good work on my gf's ninja fairings in the past as well.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[theKM]

do something "a little more" than stickers...

...I took to my fairings with a dremel (it even meant carving up a perfectly good fairing), to change it up a little. Carved out part of the holes, put in a gash, and added a little fiberglass... a little bondo to smooth it all over, and I've just about got "phase one" sorted out...



...always felt the designer was looking for a blade kind of shape in the fairing, but chickened out in order for suzuki to manufacture it easier. So, I'm just adding the blade to the fairing

[duff daddy]

...I took to my fairings with a dremel (it even meant carving up a perfectly good fairing), to change it up a little. Carved out part of the holes, put in a gash, and added a little fiberglass... a little bondo to smooth it all over, and I've just about got "phase one" sorted out...

how did you get puddy to stick to fiberglass 80% of the time it will not stick you need some kind of adhesion promotor or barrier from the puddy to the fiberglass or you have to buy a special kind of buddy for it to work,

and JDS, all you need to go is go to you local automotive paint store and get a 2 part epoxy plastic repair kit, you want flexible plastic repair, it should be black and white. now what you will need its a clean peice of plastic to mix this on(ie puddy board or something simmilar NO CARBOARD ONLY if you cover it with plastic wrap so the cardboard doesnt contaminate the epoxy) next you will need a 2 part epoxy gun. but thas about it. you just take the tip off and dispence the black and white epoxy mix and then apply to the damaged plastics. all you have to do to the plastics to actually prep them is sand with 60-80 grit, and whip or blow clean. next get a can of Adheasion promotor and this is the key. you spray this on 10-20 min b4 your gonna put the epoxy on. so it can soak in, just spay it on the area that you need to repair like the scratch. that should be it, once you spread hte epxoy on there your gonna need to sand and feather edge it, which is quite simple. so get your 80 grit again and 180 and thats all you need, when im at school today ill check the tool room to get the names of the products for you.

[The CyberPoet]

...always felt the designer was looking for a blade kind of shape in the fairing, but chickened out in order for suzuki to manufacture it easier. So, I'm just adding the blade to the fairing

That's superb

Now you need to score a real katana (sword) on ebay, coat the handle in clear spar urathane or clear epoxy (to make it weatherproof), cut it in half length-wise and attach it at the top of the fairing's blade -- that would simply be so very different and trick and tasteful... Definitely would get me to vote in KOTM for a change!

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[theKM]

how did you get puddy to stick to fiberglass 80% of the time it will not stick you need some kind of adhesion promotor or barrier from the puddy to the fiberglass or you have to buy a special kind of buddy for it to work

...large part of the fiberglass problem is that when it cures it glasses over and gets a slick barrier that nothing wants to stick to. Take to it with very rough sand paper, to rough it right up and take off the top layer. Biggest issue is fiberglass/plastic adhesion, which I did a similar thing, buy roughing the plastic right up, and carving grid patterns into the plastic with the dremel.

For fiberglass to plastic adhesion, I also went all paranoid, and where there's a transition from plastic to fiberglass, sanded down the outside face so that even when smoothed out, there would be fiberglass on both sides of the plastic before it went off on its own. Probably needs a diagram to explain properly

The rough surface brings more side area to the stuff you're putting on, and gives it a great grip. All-in-all, it may not be as strong as plastic bonded to plastic with proper plastic welding (not that I've personally seen such a thing either to really comment. All my fairing repairs have been with fiberglass), but it's plenty strong. I still use the blades themselves as hold points to carry and swing the fairing around like as if it was still stock.

[theKM]

...always felt the designer was looking for a blade kind of shape in the fairing, but chickened out in order for suzuki to manufacture it easier. So, I'm just adding the blade to the fairing

That's superb

Now you need to score a real katana (sword) on ebay, coat the handle in clear spar urathane or clear epoxy (to make it weatherproof), cut it in half length-wise and attach it at the top of the fairing's blade -- that would simply be so very different and trick and tasteful... Definitely would get me to vote in KOTM for a change!

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

I was thinking to run the sharp edge from the front further back to where it rolls out into the fairing, but as it is, the very tip of the blades are sharp enough and thought I shouldn't be wounding people if it ever grazes them

The paint work will have a hint of the katana "hada" pattern on the side of the blades (wavy pattern derived from folding the steel)... bike's going to become off-white with deep red, and the blade tips more of grey tone faded to the white.

There's also some other body mods similar to the blades. Front fender is currently gouged out ready for fiberglass mods, I've moved the key hole on the side of the bike to underneath (put in a mod how-to for this on KP just as the site was crashing).

I'm also going a custom solo-seat route, so that the solo cowl is more stream lined and with the flow of the bike... doing this by carving up a cheap second hand seat to get rid of the baggy padding, and adding a panel to carry my ass as well as to properly upholster the single seat, and build the solo cowl against.



There's a few other things, but can't give away it all until the reveal

[The CyberPoet]

The paint work will have a hint of the katana "hada" pattern on the side of the blades (wavy pattern derived from folding the steel)... bike's going to become off-white with deep red, and the blade tips more of grey tone faded to the white.

You might want to do the hada fold pattern as a decal applicae so it can also act as a barrier to protect the raised edge from possible minor future damages -- just a thought.

There's also some other body mods similar to the blades. Front fender is currently gouged out ready for fiberglass mods, I've moved the key hole on the side of the bike to underneath (put in a mod how-to for this on KP just as the site was crashing).

If you want to ensure this never happens again, pass it to me and I'll post it into the Katana section of MotorcycleAnchor.com and echo it on CyberPoet.NET... Then you can just post the link. No bandwidth limit, so feel free to use as many photo's/graphics as you want.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[theKM]

You might want to do the hada fold pattern as a decal applicae so it can also act as a barrier to protect the raised edge from possible minor future damages -- just a thought.

Good idea, except that I have an allergic reaction to vinyl My father is an old-school sign writer, and as vinyl cut signs came into the market and started pushing aside higher quality hand crafted signs, he got a little bitter. Soooo... war stories aside... if it going on my bike, it's in paint, and sitting under the clear coat

...but the idea leads me to the clear 3M protective film for the blades. Was thinking about those Kat kits you can get on eBay, or take it to a 3M installer, or just get a roll or something.

put in a mod how-to for this on KP just as the site was crashing...

If you want to ensure this never happens again, pass it to me and I'll post it into the Katana section of MotorcycleAnchor.com and echo it on CyberPoet.NET... Then you can just post the link. No bandwidth limit, so feel free to use as many photo's/graphics as you want.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

...thanks for the offer. Web space typically isn't the issue, but you can feel free to lift whatever how-to I post in here (you don't know if it's worthy advice as yet ).