----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
well today I'm starting my plastic repair and I figured I'd write up a how to for Plastex since I'm sure we can all use it at one time or another . Plastex can be bought from Plastex canada http://Plastex.ca/ I'm in virginia and shipping was really fast . any way here goes the ....tutorial I guess . in my case the lower right hand fairing has a piece busted out where the wheel hit it when the po tried to use a curb like a ramp , I want to keep my graphics so I started looking for a donor chunk , which I got from bootsie (thanks again man ) . my measurements were alittle off so I had to use some of the extra plastic to fill the gap , after cutting out the pieces to fit into my fairing I took a razor blade and cut the edges of the piece so that when places into my fairing there is a V along the crack . then I held the pieces together with scotch tape .
my fairing
the 2 pieces I'm going to patch it with (with a V cut into the crack )
scotch taped together
then I added the Plastex , I found it's alot easier to put just the powder in the crack and then add the liquid than it is to drip the liquid into a cup of powder and then pick it up in a little ball like they show on their video , I used the clear and my camera sucks but here it is as one piece
this concludes part 1 of how to Plastex . each piece I fix I'll post pics of , and maybe I'll get someone to take pictures while I fix them so you can see me applying the Plastex . the next step will be attaching this piece to my fairing . stay tuned folks .
many horrible razor blade cuts , a little less blood , alot more beer later , part 2 : attaching first side of patch piece (this time with alittle more application pics )
I sand papered the piece up so when I paint it I won't screw up any of the original paint ...or stickers....or whatever , here it is scotch taped into the fairing with a small piece of plastic taped to it for support
all taped in , applying the Plastex powder
putting on the Plastex epoxy
the finished product (well the bottom of it ) (oh , an note I used the clear , an hour later it's thick strong clear plastic , I love this stuff
this stuff goes on really easily , and it's strong as hell , I'll keep fixing parts and posting them , and I'll update on how they stand up , but as it sits right now I think this is pretty amazing stuff . plaztex rules !
the first piece I Plastex'd together I put a bunch of pressure on and it didn't break if I have enough left after fixing all the major cracks I'm going to use the fiberglass that came with the kit to reinforce that big chunk that was missing . but yeah , it's really strong , it actually turns into plastic and seems to flex fairly well , it's as strong or stronger than the stock plastic .
this stuff will mess with paint and stickers if you use alot of the Plastex liquid , or if you let it run everywhere and don't wipe it up . but from what I can see this is awesome stuff , totally lovin it . on hairline cracks I've been using a drill to sink a small hole (not all the way thru) and fill with Plastex
fixing the upper
fiberglassing
and here is my right side tail piece that was missing a chunk , it's clear now but thats all plastic .
they give you enough fiberglass to do a few feets worth of cracks , and most auto parts stores sell it too . I finished up all the work on the plastics , I put all the plastics on my bike , check it out , just waiting for pay day to paint the repairs .
oh yeah , this Plastex stuff goes a LONG LONG LONG way , I did all this stuff with the promo kit and after all of those cracks I still have 3/4 of the kit left , maybe more , I thought for sure doing the fiberglass part would run me low or out , nope .
new mirrors too
ok , well this is pretty much the last update untill later down the road when I give a "how it stood up " report .
all the plastic is back on , I painted it (went alittle crazy with the blue trying to copy the dot matrix fade out on the graphics , but oh well , it's good enough for me ) I just used duplicolor touch up paints and a can of "flash red" duplicolor car spray paint . I couldn't find a pearl white touch up pen , so it's white white , but it's a close enough match that I don't care
this is probably the most obvious repair , sadly it's in an easy to see place , but from 5 feet you can't see it
heres is that piece on my tail that wasn't there (along the right edge at the back )
there was alot of chipped paint here , now not so much , not a perfect match but better than it was
well I guess that wasn't the last update ... I kept staring at this
it really started to piss me off since the rest of the bike looks so nice . I kept trying stuff and then sanding it off till I got something I'm happy with , it's still not perfect by any means , but it's way the hell better than that crap I first did
.... Id only use plastex on small jobs on low traffic areas, and replacing missing tabs...