Side Cover Repair

[Coyote]

! have a side cover that is cracked on the tab that accepts the screw. I tried to repair it once with super glue but it didn't hold. The hole itself in not cracked but the part that encompasses it is. About half way around the hole. What' my best shot at fixing it? It's a 74-77 380/550 cover. The plastic seems to be impervious to everything.

[merckid]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SUZUKI-74-GT-55 ... 35b7a438a6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

just buy this one, its cheap and in good shape. it will save you the hassel of trying to fix yours over and over again

[Coyote]

I screwed up. It's the left side.

[Wingspan]

I've never had luck gluing cracks together. I used to ride with a guy who ran a business repairing fairings and he taught me a different technique that has really worked well for me on several bikes. He used a plastic welder, but I've had the same results with just a soldering iron.

Here were the cracks I had in my T500 side cover:





The first step is to get some screen material from the hardware store. Lay the mesh over the damaged area on the INSIDE of the panel then lightly press against it with a hot soldering iron. The mesh will sink into the plastic and provide a great deal of reinforcement. Here's a pic of a piece of the screen material and you can see where I've already melted a square into the cover:



Once you've reinforced the crack, use the soldering iron to "weld" the crack together on the outside of the panel. If you have any scrap fairing pieces around you can use the material as a "welding rod" to fill the crack and damage. Weld, sand, repeat until you've closed up the crack and have the panel ready for prime and paint. These pics are of the repair in progress, I forgot to take a pic of the completed repair prior to primer.









A few years ago I picked a fight with the rear end of a pickup truck while on my VFR750...I lost:



Repairs in progress using the previously described method:



Finished repair in primer:



Completed repair:

[Coyote]

Wingspan. I appreciate the photo essay. Seems like you had that posted once before. Man I wish I could post photos now that my very usable web space is gone. I joined Photobucket but I have yet to figure out how to use it. I have tried several times, but all I get is a little square box. I'm not talking about the typical black box with the red X in it. This is very different. It's small, square and looks like hieroglyphics. Any pointers?.

[Wingspan]

I've never used photobucket. I keep my stuff on Smugmug.

[TLRam1]

Chris,

Run your cursor over the photo you want to post up, a box appears under your photo with link options, Click the Words or Link IMG CODE, paste that link in the message box (where you reply) on the forum and you should be good to go.

As a test you can paste each link on the forum and you will see what each link does.

[djfisher22]

I fixed the fairing on my ZRX with plain old ABS cement you'd use for plumbing. V out the crack a bit and brush on cement. That fiberglass screen would probably be good insurance too.

[Buffalo-guy]

Hey Chris.
The best plastic fix material I've found, is Devcon Plastic Weld. Available at most auto part stores. It's a two part epoxy material, but made specifically for plastic. The stuff I've used it on, has stayed fixed. Cheers.
Fred

[oldjapanesebikes]

I found this useful - and also have found the tie wrap trick actually seems to work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7GRNvPSf7k" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;