my new (in a very old way) GPX

well here is the learner machine and despite people telling me not to replace the fairings, they do shake alot when going over quite bumpy roads, so im considering it, or ill at least get a fiberglass repair kit *theres like 2 breaks in the fiberglass.

Great first bike Chris

Just go out and ride it and have some fun.

Mate easy way to repair panels if you dont care how they look is to zip tie them.
Just drill holes either side of the crack and zip tie it together.
See pic for what i mean.
It might not be the best looking fix, but it will last a while and does the job.
As you can see if you take your time it can be neat and tidy

Attachments

repair.JPG (18.2 KiB) Viewed 4208 times

Always carry some zippies around, you would be suprised what they can be used for....

Harder erections.....

Can't you just plastic weld them.

Harder erections.....

That could get messy

plastic welding is possible, but if the plastic is fatigued from general use, then plastic weldong on its own may not be enough...

Before i discovered plastic welding (fark its good stuff), i used fibreglass to reinforce the front wheel guard on my gpx, i thoroughly cleaned & sanded down all the paint to the plastic underneath the bike. Then used a needle file and stanley knife to open out the edges of the cracking so that the glass could penetrate

Then used a boat repair kit (use woven, not chopped fibreglass, as the splinters from chopped SUCK) and put 2-4 layers of glass on, depending on the stress levels i anticipated the area getting. The trick is to get the ratio of curing agent to glass just right, oh and regardless of how much you use, it helps keeping the item in front of a heater for about 6 hours to really assist the glass in hardening thoroughly.

Oh and it helps to have your missus away for the weekend when you do this, as FARK it gets smelly & messy.

[edit] oh and i did all this on the underside of the wheelguard, so you cant tell that it's been done just from looking. though it does have that slight "orange peel" dimpled effect in certain lighting conditions on the top as i resprayed the lot to fill & cover the cracks.

Then used a boat repair kit (use woven, not chopped fibreglass, as the splinters from chopped SUCK) and put 2-4 layers of glass on, depending on the stress levels i anticipated the area getting. The trick is to get the ratio of curing agent to glass just right, oh and regardless of how much you use, it helps keeping the item in front of a heater for about 6 hours to really assist the glass in hardening thoroughly.

Mike mate, I've thought about offering you a job dude but after that desciption I'm gonna give it a miss, sounds like ya a softcock who's scared of a couple o splinters , oh and catalyst ratios usually run at 1-2.5% dependant on product and ambient temp and humidity.

In all honesty the best way to go is use epoxy as this adheres to ABS better than polyesters, if ya gonna use polys then pepper the panel with holes(approx 2mm) around the repair site to give the resin something to grip into. After completing the repair to the back dish out the face to a depth of .5mm and skim with polyester bodyfiller and flat back to a 240 finish, primer area with high build primer to fill any porosity and flat back to 800 w/d finish, for a top finish w/d complete panel if paint is sound, if not base prime complete panel and flat back with w/d again.
When you are 100% sure of the finish, then and only then topcoat after washing panel down with prepsol/wax and grease remover.
Apply paint as specified by supplier, usually two light wet coats and allow to tack, if 2pac ya can double up at this point and allow a few hours to dry before touching, I only fit after a few hours if it is an emergency as paint is still not fully cured and can quite easily mark with finger prints etc, I always leave my paint 7 days at gun finish before chopping back flat and polishing that way ya know its hard
Good luck with ya learners mate

The other thing you could use is Plastex. If you use fibreglass matting behind the crack, the repair can be the strongest part of the fairing even with old/fatigued plastics.

lockwire em!!

greeny pretty good with lockwire...

lockwire em!!

greeny pretty good with lockwire...

Nothing you can't fix with lock wire