Ixion FAQ

How do I sort out damaged plastic?

>    So, the plastic is the hard, brittleish shiny type.  Do any of you experts
>  know what the best stuff to repair it is?  The split is pretty close fitting.
>  
>    I tried some superglue without much success.
>  

Be careful (try on an unexposed bit first?) as it will actually 'melt' the plastic if it's going to work. You don't want to overdo the quantity you use.

Chris Green

e.g.

Polyvinylchloride THF (Tetra-Hydra-Furan) try Vinyl Weld.

Perspex Chloroform, don't know if you can still buy this as it's an obvious solvent for abuse.

Polystyrene Acetone (I think), easy to get as Airfix model glue.

Anyone know of others ?

I'm not a chemist so above spelling is probably wrong.

Cheers MikeW.

From: Roger Ford < raford@uk.oracle.com> 
To: ogri@dcs.qmw.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Fairings and Breakers
>  Anyone know if the fairings made by "Replica Fairings &  Co." are any good? 
>  Or, as an alternative, what do other people do when they decide that their
>  fairing is shagged and not repairable.  Just patch it up anyway?

The 'glass was too thin - even for a race fairing, and the finish was pretty poor. Didn't fit that well, either.

I would go for one of the following:

• ARD - good, strong, cheap. Come in colours at little/no cost. Recommended by Dream Machine as being a good finish for painting.
• Mead Speed - woven glass, strong.
• Dennis Trollope Racing - suspect may be same as Mead Speed. Woven, strong. This is what I now have on the KR1 (cost me #45 from a racer at Brands after I splatted the other one).
• Harris - recommended by a racer in the US. Lightweight & strong.

Expect to pay around #85 + VAT, plus #20 for a screen. ARD are #85 including VAT, which is a bargain.

Regards,

Roger Ford

for fixing cracks/breaks in fairings.

I found something better (or at least cheaper and just as good) it's Bostic PVC pipe glue. It says its for sticking ABS and/or PVC pipe fittongs. I suspect that many/most fairings are made of ABS.

It has certainly fixed a couple of things on my GTR very satisifactorily. The most surprising was a little inspection cover about 3" square made of very thin plastic which had simply broken in half. Rather tongue-in-cheek I put some glue on it and held it together in the vice overnight. It's mended fine, as far as I can tell as strong as original.

Chris Green

A turn signal seems to get broken about once a year, and as replacing them is rather expensive, I always carefully collect all the bits, and find that modern glue technology is usually well up to the job of rebuilding it. But the MOT demands that your winker lenses have no holes in them, and sometimes the reconstruction leaves a few holes. So now I keep a stock of bits of orange winker plastic, easily collected in the streets and car parks. A little work with a sharp knife easily produces acceptable replacements for the missing bits.

I use superglue for the bits that fit together well. I use araldite for the crafted bits which don't fit together so well. A mix of crushed orange plastic in araldite fills small holes nicely.

Chris Malcolm