FZRSupport: the FZROnline Archive

What you need:

Thin plastic, around 1/8th inch (i used a piece of an old rain gutter)
Something to cut with (i used tin snips and a razor knife)
Cheap radio shack soldering iron
Super glue for holding the pieces in place
50 grit (or similar) sandpaper
Pliers
and most importantly, you need PATIENCE and a steady hand

also, it's not a messy job, i did it inside my living room as you can tell.

First of all, I've tried plastic welding before with a bernzomatic propane torch, and it didn't work as well as I had planned. So, I left my soldering iron sitting on a metal pair of pliers on my toolbox, but then bumped the toolbox without knowing it and the iron fell onto the plastic. I came back to find my soldering iron had melted a hole through the tool box. Then I remembered how the_finch was telling me about how easy it was and how it could be done with a soldering iron, so I thought i'd show an example of my FREE 05 r6 tail i got that was crashed.

Forgive me for being lazy, plus I don't have 3 arms, so I just put a bunch of pictures below and I'll try my best to describe how it's done, so you can look at the pictures and understand after you read through, it's very very simple though. Technique, very simple(i stress this), if a chunk is completely missing, cut a similar size plastic piece to shape, superglue it in place(i use duro brand super glue, it's in a pic below) now cut strips as tiny as you can cut them, 1/8th X 1/8th X 2 inches or longer works fine, these will be plastic welding rods (or you can buy them from harbor freight, but eh, i make my own) and then take the tip of the soldering iron and push down where you want the plastic to melt together, just press straight down like you're making a little hole, now while the hole is still warm, stick the plastic strip in the hole and melt on top of it, then do this down the whole seam of the plastic piece and the fairing. Smooth it out as flat as you can get it with the soldering iron to keep from having tiny holes or pieces that stick up. Sand it with 50 grit sandpaper. If you just have a crack, this is easier, and you can follow the same instructions that are mentioned above, you just don't have to cut out another piece of plastic. Melt the crack together. Just make sure you do the same thing on both sides of the plastic. If this is done right, it is just as strong as it was to begin with, even the little tab for the undertail that is in the bottom of the very last pic is strong enough to grab and pull and the fairing bends instead. Anyway, now on to the pics!!!

Main materials:




Before:




During:








After:

looks good. you will have to tell use how it holds up after you get it back on the bike

good, now by these r6 fairings and repair them
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2352

shredex wrote:good, now by these r6 fairings and repair them
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2352

naaa..i know a guy with two crashed 03 - 05 R6's. I'm gonna try to get that stuff from him for cheap.

And i still have an 04 R6 front fairing that I picked up a while ago, i might just do a full R6 conversion.

mike94fzr600 wrote:looks good. you will have to tell use how it holds up after you get it back on the bike

I don't even have to have it on the bike, I can tell right now, this is a lot stronger than I thought it would be. Once it's welded, it is as strong as the plastic was. Even with the plastic from the rain gutter being 10 years old....this is really strong.

wow, this would have really helped when I was repairing my r1 front fairing...I fiberglassed the two pieces together but its not very strong...

shredex wrote:wow, this would have really helped when I was repairing my r1 front fairing...I fiberglassed the two pieces together but its not very strong...

Oh yeah, this would have been at least 10 times better. That small tab that is in the bottom of the last picture above, i tested the strength by grabbing it, holding the tail fairing up by it, then first shaking it gently, then more and more violently, never broke off, bent or shifted. And that was a 10 yr old rain gutter... I'm thinking about putting out a wanted ad online locally for crashed fairings to use on this stuff instead of the good ole' rain gutter. And I talked to the guy that i mentioned above that is parting out the two crashed R6's, he wasn't at his house but he says he still has the fairings, and he's checking later to see if he has both right and left uppers and lowers. So that rocks! hopefully he has everything, and it's not like he'll sell those anyway, so i should be getting them for pretty cheap...hopefully..

yup, I just repaired my fairings using the plastic welding technique.
its very strong as long as you do it right. I had to make a connector tab that had completly broken off that connects the side to the upper...The thing is only connected by less than 1 centimeter long, 1/8" wide and it can hold the hole damn side fairing up on that little bit!
Im going to be adding pictures of all the plastic welding I just did to my FZ-R1 project thread....

SOMETHING TO ADD!!!
BE CAREFUL!!!
SOLDERING IRONS GET REALLY HOT!!!
I have a few burns on my fingers now...

nice..i guess you're never using fiberglass ever again either?

match417 wrote:nice..i guess you're never using fiberglass ever again either?

I will need to use fiberglass to make something, such as when I get my hands on a r1 fender then I can mold it and add to my current fender...
once I get my hands on the 04-06 r1 tank, then Im going to make a fiberglass mold of it with the tank cover on and make an 04-06 r1 full tank cover just like the one crazyc used on his bike, but is going to be a couple hundred dollars less in price...

p.s. I added to pics

shredex wrote: once I get my hands on the 04-06 r1 tank, then Im going to make a fiberglass mold of it with the tank cover on and make an 04-06 r1 full tank cover just like the one crazyc used on his bike, but is going to be a couple hundred dollars less in price...

p.s. I added to pics

OR, you can get an account on r1-forum.com or r1messagenet.com and ask for someone's crashed tank, offer $30 (or less) for it, then pay whatever shipping would be, chances are it will only have a few dings. Should cost $50 after everything? I dont' know, i don't know how shipping is for you guys from the mainland to the mainland. Just post something saying you're looking for a tank for stunting and need a dinged/roadrashed one, and that you don't need the fuel pump. I wouldn't say anything about your R1 conversion though, I'm not sure how the R1/R6 guys feel about us turning our bikes into an underpowered older version of theirs. They probably don't care, but who knows, you might get some guy with that attitude and he has just what you need. When I put an ad up for the fuel pump, there were like 5 guys that replied to the ad, all for pretty good prices.

Oh and i saw the pics too..nice job, but how strong is it even after using the plexiglass? I noticed the welds turned light brown.

match417 wrote:
OR, you can get an account on r1-forum.com or r1messagenet.com and ask for someone's crashed tank, offer $30 (or less) for it, then pay whatever shipping would be, chances are it will only have a few dings. Should cost $50 after everything? I dont' know, i don't know how shipping is for you guys from the mainland to the mainland. Just post something saying you're looking for a tank for stunting and need a dinged/roadrashed one, and that you don't need the fuel pump. I wouldn't say anything about your R1 conversion though, I'm not sure how the R1/R6 guys feel about us turning our bikes into an underpowered older version of theirs. They probably don't care, but who knows, you might get some guy with that attitude and he has just what you need. When I put an ad up for the fuel pump, there were like 5 guys that replied to the ad, all for pretty good prices.

Oh and i saw the pics too..nice job, but how strong is it even after using the plexiglass? I noticed the welds turned light brown.

I went to the r1 forums looking for crashed fairings...
a guy has a perfect condition 04-06 r1 raven tail that he will sell me for $70 shipped...they are about $190 not shipped on ebay...
I only showed that one guy it and he said he liked it, he has a bunch of stuff that he can hook me up with
I just need money...
I only have about $60 bucks and thats all going away today when I ship out the three orders I have...

its really strong after using the plexiglass...as long as you get it good and right then it comes out nice and strong. I did little swirls in the plastic to mix the weld well too..

I need to do a minor bond on the upper corner of the right fairing. The plastic is cracked just above the top vent.
I assume the plastic welding needs a painting after it's done, so I'm looking for a good glue, as I'm not looking to paint anything.
Any ideas? Perhaps plastic weld from the backside, leaving the front clean?

WSM wrote:I need to do a minor bond on the upper corner of the right fairing. The plastic is cracked just above the top vent.
I assume the plastic welding needs a painting after it's done, so I'm looking for a good glue, as I'm not looking to paint anything.
Any ideas? Perhaps plastic weld from the backside, leaving the front clean?

Darrin (ragedigital) did a write-up on fairing repair using Plastex, a two part plastic glue. He repaired a fairing that had a chunk knocked out of it, didn't paint it, and you couldn't even tell it had been damaged. It's perfect for minor chips, cracks, etc. Plastic welding really should only be done on things that will be painted later or in out-of-sight places.

The write-up on Plastex is in the Wiki.

Rockso is the one who did the write-up on the Plastex. I did use it and it worked very well. We also gave a kit away here online at one time.

I had a before/after photo of mine up on Plastex's (of Canada) website, but the site seems to be down right now.

darrin

I can only find a few shops out in CA that sell Plastex. Anyone know any distributers on the East Coast?
Even the $14 eBay deals comes up to $25 with shipping...