Any Ideas on a Repair Method?

[desrik]

So I bought a 1999 Ninja 250 with some crash damage. Bike mechanically is perfect. I fixed all the cracks in the upper and lower fairings. My problem is that the upper is missing a chunk around the clutch-side mirror mount. I have been pondering this for a few days now and the best idea I have come up with is to find some ABS sheets. I have no idea where to get that around my area. Any other options?

Sorry about the picture breaking the layout. Not quite sure how to scale it down a bit.

[krolinked]

Look up "plastex" its what i use to fix my fairings. youll have to figure out a way to make the shape of it though,

[desrik]

Yeah that's really the reason I was considering the ABS sheets. With those I could at least eyeball it. It really doesn't have to be perfect. When the fairing is fixed it's getting sprayed down with bed-liner. I just want that hole filled in. :P

EDIT:: I looked up Plastex and it seems to me that it's just a fancy ABS cement. I know I can get ABS cement and thicken it up with scrap ABS to mold parts, but I have nothing to make a mold from.

[adouglas]

That piece looks past redemption to me.

It will cost you less in the end to buy a good used fairing, or maybe even a new part.

First Principle of DIY:

By the time you're done, every project takes a minimum of twice as long and costs three times as much as you thought it would.

This comes from experience… not in doing a repair like yours per se, but from decades of DIY. It NEVER goes to plan.

(PS: I have repaired cracks in my fairing… use ABS cement… see the DIY in the newgen tech section)

It's still worth doing for the personal satisfaction… but if you're trying to save a buck, you're barking up the wrong tree IMHO. If you're more interested in riding the bike than screwing around trying to fix the plastics, you're DEFINITELY barking up the wrong tree.

True story from three days ago:

I'm selling my 08 and to recoup as much money as I can, I'm taking off various farkles. One of these is a set of preload adjusters. That requires the removal of the snap rings and plugs at the top of the fork tubes. You unweight the front wheel, push down on the plug with a big screwdriver or something like that, fish the ring out with a small screwdriver, remove the plug.

So after jury rigging a front end lift from a ladder (I don't have a triple tree stand) and spending two hours beating my hands up trying to get the #$#@)@ clips out I just went to Harbor Freight, bought a cheap gear puller to press down on the cap and some dental picks. Returned and the job was done in two minutes.

Estimated time: 20 minutes, including setting up the ladder. Estimated cost: $0

Actual time: Three-plus hours, including the trip to the store and countless failed attempts. Actual cost: About $20.

How much is your time worth?

[Motofool]

Yes, Donnie, it is a complex shape with holes for anchoring the mirror and the windscreen; hence, I agree with adouglas' post above.

I would use aluminum (conformed with a rubber hammer) or fiberglass (using a mold) to mimic that missing portion.

[desrik]

Ok I will see what I can come up with. If I fix it I will post a pic of the repair and how I did it. Thanks everyone.

[cookiebug79]

Murph's kits sells APS sheets if you still want to go that route.

http://www.murphskits.com/catalog/pr...roducts_id=465

[Z-Trob]

expanding foam maybe, lay the piece on something and spray enough on the existing fairing to be able to shape the foam to the missing chunk's shape as best as possible. then lay some fiberglass. any way you look at it its still going to be a decent repair job. just wire up a single headlight and be happy with the weight you're saving.

[cookiebug79]

Also, I used a hot glue gun to hold things in place when I was repairing a chunk of my fairing once upon a time. That really helped!

[Kevin1956]

If you need plastic with bends in it, head for the auto wreckers. The body panel skins of Saturn cars are plastic, as are old Pontac Fieros and Aztec mini vans. They use the same type of plastic found in M/C fairings. You may find something very close in shape to what you need. To further bend (or straighten) the plastic, if the piece isn't too big, lay the piece flat in a large evenly heated cast iron frying pan at very very low heat. Cabinet shops have heat tables, maybe one can help you out. They use them to heat Formica and form it around the edges of counter tops, around columns etc, and are capable of holding very large pieces. I had a friend who worked in a cabinet/counter top shop. He helped a guy make a plexiglass windshield for an old boat. They took the old windshield, made a paper pattern and cut a new piece of flat plastic in the same shape. The plastic was placed on the heat table until it became pliable, and they hand formed it to fit in the windshield frame. It came out perfect.