Plastic welding advice

[philbut]

Hi there peeps, hopefully one of you org-ers will be able to help me out. My bike (not the SV) has a broken upper fairing. A large section has completely separated from the main body. It has not shattered, and is fairly intact. The previous owner had glued it, and bolted it in two places for strength. Whilst workin on the bike, i removed the fairing and the glue gave way. It's ok to ride as it's held on by the bolts, but it looks a bit rubbish. I could just aroldite it on, but I was wondering about the price of plastic welding. Its a clean crack so should be OK, but it is quite and uneven shape. The bike is a GPZ500S 1999.

How much should it cost to get a plastic weld done. The total length of the crack must be around 30-40cm. Also, will it need to be re-sprayed after or sanded?

If anyone knows of a good place to go in the Thames valley too that would be great.

Thanks

Phil

[timwilky]

Weld it yourself with a few cable ties and a soldering iron (Behind the plastic of course) then stopper the crack, sand and paint

[philbut]

Weld it yourself with a few cable ties and a soldering iron (Behind the plastic of course) then stopper the crack, sand and paint

OK. So i assume that the cable ties are the "solder" then, and I melt them - do i also need to melt the fairing slightly go get a decent bond?

[northwind]

What I use for the "welding rods" is a broken bit of the same sort of plastic- you need to use the same basic sort or it won't meld properly and instead of having a weld you'll have basically 2 pieces glued together. It's dead, dead easy though, you can of course make a terrible mess of it but if you're careful and patient you can get good results without any particular skill. Mine look like **** but they're rock solid.

[philbut]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll have a crack at it over the weekend then - I think I have a belly pan just begging to be sacrificed! :smt023

[Ed]

I have a small crack in my lowrs and I had a quote fro £130 to get it plastic welded. WTF??? A new panel was £120 so I told them to forget it. I bought a fibreglass repair kit for a tenner and patched it up behind. It looks pretty good.

[Grinch]

My lodger is a 'bike medic' he can do fantastic things with smashed panels, like it never happened.

[SoulKiss]

My lodger is a 'bike medic' he can do fantastic things with smashed panels, like it never happened.

I have a fairing with a small crack and a rear panel - whay kind of money are we talking about.

And, if he can do it minus electricity - would he mind demo-ing in Soho Square one evening :P

David

[Grinch]

I'll have a word, as he hasn't got all his kit with him at the moment.

[shelleyamy]

I'll have a word, as he hasn't got all his kit with him at the moment.

I work quite local to Portsmouth,and could do with a lower welding,so when his ready!!!!

Mike

[Keith1983]

Grinch, do you realise that you have volunteered your mate for all orgers jobs! He will either love or hate you for it!

[SoulKiss]

Grinch, do you realise that you have volunteered your mate for all orgers jobs! He will either love or hate you for it!

I would say Love

At the rate we are chucking our bikes down the road in the Soho Massive, it will keep him in beer money for ages......

[Grinch]

Right, have been told this -

I could demo plastic welding but is ugly when left unfinshed. Leaves a think line of black plastic instead of the crack, needs to be smoothed and then filled + painted. Which I don't have with me at the moment.

[SoulKiss]

Right, have been told this -

I would consider just the "putting it back together" process to be valuable on its own.

Dont know about anyone else?

David

[Grinch]

I'll ask and see what he want to do as his bikes off the road, he snapped something off the fuel line last week and the parts rather hard to get. Thats Aprilias for you.