Hey guys, just have a quick question.

I have a couple of small cracks on the fairing under the seat and I was wondering what is the best way to fix them. I have some good epoxy resin glue i could use, but i'm scared that it'll ooze out from the front and looking all ugly.

What i'm thinking is use a little bit of epoxy on the crack, as to make sure that it doesn't ooze out the sides, and back it up with a strip of fiberglass to stiffen it up.

Is glassing the back completely unnecessary?

Thanks a bunch!
-Paul

 

The only way I've been able to fix cracked fairing plastic is to drill a tiny hole through the panel where the crack ends at it's furthest point, Vee out the crack from both front and back sides, and then use a good epoxy to fill in. Let the epoxy set up a little bit before applying, so it's not too runny and oozes out of the repair before hardening. (put a strip of masking tape on the backside over the crack and apply the epoxy from the front first)

Don't build up the epoxy in a hump that sticks way out! It will be a beyotch to try and sand down level with the panel! Less is more. You can always add more epoxy if there's a slight concave dip, and if you use a spatula or putty knife, you can generally smooth the epoxy very close to perfect before it hardens up. I hate sanding that stuff.

If you are uber careful and pay strict attention to detail, you can do this with a minimum of mucking up the paint, and either try to colour match the crack repair with a paint type pen or spray paint as small an area as you can, and then blend/buff the section to try and make it as invisible as possible.

I put strips of masking tape as close as possible along each side the crack, to make sure I don't get epoxy on good paintwork, or accidently scuff out too far when prepping the crack itself for repair.

Personally I have always fibreglassed (or used carbon fibre) the back as well. I don't want to do all that work and have it fail!

I know this doesn't sound very appealing, and will require more work than simply trying to crazy glue the crack shut, (LOL) but I've never had a "simple" or "easy" fix that worked out.

There may very well be a dozen new plastic repair kits or methods that I am unaware of, that claim to "melt" or "weld" the cracked bits together, but I've never had that work for me either. In the end the damned crack always showed up again, or I made a mess and had a worse repair to try and fix than before!

Note: I am not a bodywork repair dude, so if someone replies with: "Just use Xzyron brand plastic weld repair, it works awesome" and they are a bodywork repair dude, then don't listen to me, and do what they say

Good luck!

 

I don't claim to be an expert, but I researched repairing a crack on my plastics just a bit longer than the one you pictured. Since the crack wasn't missing any pieces of plastic and the crack lines up nicely when pressed together, that a resin method could be used. I've repaired a few surfboards with a product called Solarez, and this did the trick for my bike too. I put some masking tape on the painted surface along the crack (to avoid any oozing issues) and applied resin to both sides of the crack, pressed together. The curing time is like 15 minutes using the sun(I have a uv light, but sunlight works too). You could add a piece of fiberglass cloth for strength if needed too. You may need to improvise these steps for your application, but my repair came out perfect! (even reattached a broken tab). Hope this helps...

 

im a body shop dude lol and you got it pretty much dead on cept make sure you use an adhesion promoteron your pieces aluminum tape on the front with a pocket over the top of the crack. apply the epoxy from the back i recomend 3m panel bonder it takes forever to dry but you get alot of time to work it.when you apply it push it thru the front and smooth it out really nice on the back to make it look nice. also when prepping it i like to take a drill and make little holes the entire length of the crack then pull th drill back carefully to connect them to open it up then take p80 grit paper to round off both sides. also 80 grit around it about an inch so it has something to grab on to nothing will **** you off more than your repair pealing right off the adhesion promoter is also important to prevent that.

 

Thanks for the replies. The drilled holes you guys are talking about, are they just shallow holes so that the epoxy gets a better grip?

And jk72180 what do you mean when you say "then pull th drill back carefully to connect them"

Thanks a bunch

 

kinda like you would use a router to connect the dots and you will want to go all the way thru so you have a good area for the repair material to flow thru and when you sand the edges of the crack you are going to want them to be rounded on both sides

 

Won't that ruin the paint then?

 

ya but if you want it fixed right its what you gotta do if you i guess you can use fiberglass repair stuff but it wont be properly done unless you do the front also soo im not really sure how it will hold up

 

There was a how to written on another forum that I found excellent. Course the other forum is acting a PITA right now so the tutorial isn't availible.

Woops, it's up again. http://cbrworld.net/forums/thread/195357.aspx

 

I can say that epoxy on the backside alone did not work. I have cracks on the tail fairings exactly as pictured. Over time the crack open/splits up again. Only sure way to fix is like everyone else says. You can also do it with plastic welding. Good Luck.