Post crash Fairing Repair

Discussion in '6th Generation 2002-2013' started by barleymashers, Mar 24, 2021.

  1. barleymashers

    barleymashers New Member

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    In late 2014 I got hit, went down sort of hard, much harder than the bike. It handled it fairly well, but the left side fairings were scraped up and the left front was cracked. Had to replace mirror and shifter, but the bike started right up after being laid down for an hour or more and a few days after being upright. Did not ride again until 2016, had to deal with a few surgeries. The bike worked fine, looked bad. I purchased a complete fairing kit in the same color from China, figured I would give it a shot. It came, was not the same color. It was slightly off. Plus the kit just felt flimsier than OEM. I decided to try to fix my fairing. I researched ABS repair and embarked on the task.

    Dremeled out the cracks. Put the ABS cement in, clamped them down and waited for them to harden. I did the 3 cracks at separate times because they all were in hard places to clamp. The biggest one is not 100% aligned correctly. Moved during the curing. Started the sanding tonight, looks like it could work out. The goal is to get is to a "6 footer" because I am pretty sure I will mess up the painting process. As long as it looks ok from a cursory glance I will be good. If someone gives it a close inspection... oh well.

    While I have it apart, I am also updating the electrical with the VFRness and adding a front/rear dashcam ( the police were no help with the accident report, they were just worried about clearing the area as I rode away in the ambulance – plenty of witnesses, people stopped to help me but they didn’t take one name down other than mine and the person who caused the accident ( but the report didn't lay blame on either side ), had to sue. )

    Bike with the front removed
    [​IMG]

    The cracks, not too large but it would shake more while riding. plus a mount for the blinker was broken, and that would move around. I was able to cement that back on as well.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Had to rig up a way to keep the pressure on the corner crack while it dried.
    [​IMG]

    This is how that corner turned out
    [​IMG]

    The other two after being cemented and then sanded down. Still needs a little filler and more sanding.
    [​IMG]
     
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  2. skimad4x4

    skimad4x4 "Official" VFRWorld Greeter

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    Thanks for the well illustrated post.

    A few thoughts.

    Many others have reached similar conclusions regarding Chinese fairing kits, which sadly vary widely in quality and fit, so if you can repair OEM it is usually a better choice.

    When repairing plastic repairs on cars, they often advise you can stop cracks extending whilst being repaired simply by drilling a small hole at the end of the of the existing crack - something to do with ring forces - which means that any flexing will no longer be focused on the end of the crack and should significantly reduce the chance of it extending further.

    If you have to make repairs in areas subject to significant flexing or stress (mounting tabs) you may also want to add reinforcement on the inside of the panel with mesh or other material. If you need to fill missing material plastic cable ties are usually made of the same sort of flexible plastic and with care can be bonded into the OEM to allow a neat finish. This video explains better than I can.

    Even if you cannot find OEM paint to match your bike, most large towns will have a repair garage with a paint booth and colour analyser which will provide a decent match with other panels on the bike.

    Finally carrying out electrical upgrade whilst the bike is in bits is a good idea, but personally I would not bother fitting the VFRNess, on the 6th Gens the important thing to replace is the Regulator/Rectifier with a decent Shindengen RR. Sadly there are fakes on the Bay so you may be better getting one from RoadsterCycle.com - just remember to ask for an extra foot of cable which will make installation a lot easier.

    Looking forward to pictures of the finished article.



    SkiMad
     
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  3. raYzerman

    raYzerman Member

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    Agree with the above, although melting nylon zip ties is iffy to me, need native material if possible. Another option is to put a layer(s) of Permatex Plastic Epoxy on the inside surface, that stuff is tough, can be sanded, etc., can fill any hole used to stop crack migration.
    I'd also go the full Shindengen route.
     
  4. barleymashers

    barleymashers New Member

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    Thanks. That soldering technique is interesting. I will look into the rectifier. For my crack repair, I went with ABS Cleaner, followed by ABS cement and then an ABS slurry to fill in the missing plastic. I read that using the slurry ( abs scraps and acetone ) is better than bondo or fiberglass because it is the same plastic and really becomes one with what you put it on ( assuming you do it right ). We'll see how it works out. So far the cracks look good. I saw the drill out the end of the crack, but I saw to dremel it out an use the slurry. That what I went with.

    As for the paint, to give you an indication of how much I have been procrastinating on this, I purchased a paint kit from https://touchupdirect.com/ in late 2015 with the intention of doing this fix.

    Here is the kit ( Honda Force Silver ) with a jar of the ABS slurry on the right.
    [​IMG]
     
  5. barleymashers

    barleymashers New Member

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    Making slow progress for various reasons, most not related to this project at all... Anyway, filled, sanded and primed. Only to look at it primed to see areas that were still noticeable - scratches and places that at first I had no intentions of fixing. This was after all, just to get it back into looking decent, not like factory. Then I said to myself, I am doing this, I might as well fix them. So I did. Several iterations. I finally had to stop and say, stick to the original goal.

    Just with the coat of primer, it look so much better. Is it perfect? No. But I can live with it.
    [​IMG]

    The left fairing also is looking much better. No cracks on this, but some gouges that needed to be filled with ABS and then sanded. This took several days to let the slurry cure, than sand, only to find out I had to build it up some more and then sand down again.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2021
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  6. skimad4x4

    skimad4x4 "Official" VFRWorld Greeter

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    It looks like you are making progress and having fun. As they say the quality of the final finish is is all in the preparation.

    Is the bike sponsored by Apple or is the logo staying?
     
  7. Diving Pete

    Diving Pete Member

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    He has removed the sticker
     
  8. barleymashers

    barleymashers New Member

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    The sticker is gone. Here is the front cowling. I have 2 issues with it. The first, denoted by the yellow arrows, is the paint. It seems to shoot out specks ( those were the biggest, but there are many smaller ones ). I googled it. The most common causes were the nozzle being clogged ( it wasn't ), your finger actually being to far forward and into the paint stream ( it wasn't, I was clean of paint ) and the can actually being too cold. I had not thought of that. So after the first spray where this happened, I sanded it down with 3000 grit. warmed up the can in warm water for 10 minutes. Still got specks shooting out. Maybe it is the product itself. Debating what to do. Thinking maybe just a light wet sand again to get the specks off and then clearcoat? My second issue, the red arrow. You can see it looks slightly raised. This is where the biggest crack was. I thought I got it down so it was even. I know it was smooth, but I guess it was not even enough or the pain is lifting. It seems firm. At this point, I am thinking of just leaving it alone.

    [​IMG]
     
  9. barleymashers

    barleymashers New Member

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    Got delayed for a bit. Back working on it. Need to get this done because it is cutting into riding time now that is nice out ( really it has been nice for a bit... ugh ). Ran into a problem during the sanding of the clear coat. Saw Orange peel in a section. Tried to lightly sand it out. That did not work, so had to sand it all out. As mentioned, this won't be any where near factory perfect but I just couldn't live with how it looked. The next issue is I am out of paint. Had to order more, that is going to delay this effort.

    [​IMG]
     
  10. barleymashers

    barleymashers New Member

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    It popped into my head last I could just install the side fairings from the kit I bought from China temporarily until I finished my fairings. This way at least I could ride and work on stuff. I got them out of where they have been stored, went to put it on only to find out they don't match up dimension wise as well as color wise. I got the aftermarket front cowl out to check, they do match up that way. But the aftermarket side fairings and the OEM are not that close. Oh well...

    Plus you can see China's version of "Force Silver" . Not nearly as metallic as the Honda color.

    [​IMG]
     
  11. barleymashers

    barleymashers New Member

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    Finally done. What a pain painting is. I got a lot of orange peel, and to sand and repaint a bunch of times to the point I was like F'it, it's good enough. If you just look at it from a few feet away, looks great. If you inspect it up close you will see a lot of defects. I just don't have the patience to do a lot of this work to make it look really good. After doing the crack repairs ( which came out great ) I probably should have had it professionally painted. Would have saved a lot of time and probably not that much more in cost? Not sure how much it would have been. Anyway, did an oil change, radiator flush, installed a front/rear dashcam and replaced the left side bar weight mechanism ( it seems it snapped internally when it went down ). That was a pain as well.

    Anyway, here it is
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Here is he installed dashcam display
    [​IMG]
     
  12. RllwJoe

    RllwJoe Insider

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    I had the same struggle with my painting efforts, kept the parts clean, clean, clean, and still had orange peel.

    From the photos yours looks great! Good job.
     
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  13. barleymashers

    barleymashers New Member

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    Probably should have posted this earlier, this is what it looked like after the accident

    [​IMG]
     
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