I have an 02 VFR800 I recently dropped. I hit gravel at 40 mph, there wasn't too much that was done but mostly cosmetic damage. The only thing that I cannot fix is the front upper cowl. It is split from the left side all the way down to the blinker. I have been trying to fins some for sale but all I see is damaged ones on Ebay and the OEM ones are way too expensive. Can anyone point me in the right direction to a good deal or website or knows someone that has an old one laying around. Please please please let me know I want my baby back on the road.
Sorry to hear about your off. It should be possible to fix it if all else fails. I used the bicarb(?) and super glue method, while others have had good results with plastic welding.
:welcome: to the madness :wave: Sorry about your mishaps, glad you are ok and tell the story. The best way is Fleebay and check VFRW and VFRD forum in classifieds section or creat a thread so other can read. Good luck hunting for the fairing. BTW plastic weld will work if you are handy.
I bet a body shop could weld that plastic back like new-my neon has plastic weld on it -just as good as new-which was more to fix. Sorry about your fall.
The bicarb and superglue is a great way to hold the various parts together for further repair either by thermoplastic "welding" , solvent "welding" or with one of the proprietary two component mixes. The bicarb aka bicarbonate of soda or baking soda acts as both a catalyst and an aggregate. Both the liquid or gel superglues are water soluble and will eventually fail even upon exposure to ambient conditions like fog. Not a great permanent repair medium. Oh Yeah! Work fast with the stuff. It makes bondo look like Mr. Tortoise. The use is experimental.. no specific ratios of each fraction. Or one can buy a kit version at cosmetic counters. The kits are used to fix split fingernails and even thumbnails of g guitar players. The rumor that this mixture is used to assemble Harley's is not true.
Some pix would help here. Done right even fairing parts in pieces can be repaired. Even a temporary fix will get you back up riding. It may not be pretty but it's mucho better than not riding.
If you get desperate, I have a new OEM upper fairing sitting in a box. You would have to paint it though so it probably doesn't make sense.
Getchyr 30-40 watt soldering iron and get to work fusing the sides of the crack together, using clear packing tape on the outside to hold things in proppa alignment while working slowly from the inside. It's really fun, but makes a terrible stink.
The bike is still at my buddys shop so I will have to wait for time off to take pics of the bike. I split the upper cowl to the right of the head light all the way down and broke the area where it holds the blinker. My buddy said it is not even worth trying to weld back together with how much I would have to do. He said eventually it would break. He has been working on bikes for 20 years so I am kind of stuck on his opinion even though I believe that welding back together was a good idea. And thank you guys I greatly appreciate it.
There are mechanics and there are replacement mechanics and then there are Harley mechanics but they don't count for much..
