How to fix a badly broken plastic part

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ilkka

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Location
Kouvola - Finland
I had a badly broken neck cover which seemed impossible to find a new one so I decided to fix the old and the ugly...
For those who might be interested in plastic parts fixing I took some photos for the future help.

First you need some tools like scissors, soldering iron, tape, plastic putty and very thin aluminium net.
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Then you need a broken part :bang head:
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Same from the other side
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With soldering iron you can easily weld minor cracks. Just use the flat area of the soldering iron to melt the plastic enough to make it as one piece again.
You will get some welding marks on the plastic but they will disappear later.
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After welding work the broken part is already a bit more solid and easier to handle.
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To continue your work it would be a good idea to use some tape to keep things steady and firm.
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Now you should cut the aluminium net to cover those places where the original plastic has totally disappeared.
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When you are done with cutting you just start to weld again. Keep the flat area of your soldering iron firmly at the place until you see plastic melting through the eyes of a net. It is good to start from edges to keep the net on desired place.
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When the net pieces are well welded the broken part feels quite solid and you are able to bent it carefully, just to see that you have done a proper job.
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Just keep welding until you are happy.
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Now you are ready to put some plastic putty on.
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Don?t be miserly with the putty, use it enough and save yourself from double work after grinding.
Use the putty also to the background and leave that without grinding to keep it strong.
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Then do the grinding for the front side. My suggestion is to use very fine paper without water and the result will be awesome.
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After grinding you may spray any ordinary primer on the surface and after 30 mins do the final grinding.
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Next step should be the most fun... paint it and it?ll be as good as new :clapping:
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I hope this helps those who has desperately tried to find solid plastic spare parts without luck.
 

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Thanks for the great tutorial. I learned something new with your use of the aluminum net. Excellent pics and walk through of the process.
 
Great write up and craftsmanship.I'm sure this repair will come in handy for me in other areas also. Can we make this a sticky? Also, welcome to the fourum.
Steve-o
 
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I did similar work to a fender that Rusty sent. It was shattered really bad at the front. So bad that I used super glue to hold all the pieces together till I could get cloth and Epoxy on the underside. Actually, Rusty packed the fender in pieces of new T-Shirts. I used one of those pieces instead of running out for Fiberglass Cloth. It turned out great and is now on SkullDuggery. You'd really need to look hard to see it's been fixed at all.

You've done a fantastic job here and a fine write up of your process. Congrats on saving an otherwise scrap part...:clapping:
 
What kind of "plastic putty" are you using?
Hi Mike! I hope that my translation for "muovikitti" (Finnish) is correct as plastic putty, it?s always a bit of a challenge to translate technical words. Anyway, it is a two component filling stuff for plastic and fiber glass. It is made in Finland so I recon you wouldn?t find it in Alaska but probably something very similar. What I use is very quickly hardening and only 1% of hardening component is used in the mixture. I had to mix only what I was able to use in 5 mins because after that it is rock hard. What is nice with that stuff is that it is possible to start grinding it after that 5 mins and it feels very solid.

For all forum members I would like to say THANKS for your very nice comments about my plastic part fixing tutorial. I have already found many excellent writeups from other forum members and had instant help for several problems so I feel good to be able to help fellow Max owners.
Thank You! :You_Rock:
 
i " DUDE " POST A PICTURE OF YOUR SCOOPS ! .. THEY ARE " CRAZY COOL " ! . :punk:
 
i " DUDE " POST A PICTURE OF YOUR SCOOPS ! .. THEY ARE " CRAZY COOL " ! . :punk:
Ok Cop runner, here we come :punk: I guess this photo fits here cos it shows the neckcover at the place after fixing it plus it has a manual fan switch installed, thanks to KJ.
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Great pictorial on the plastic repair....that's going to come in very handy!

Love your bike, she's vicious....welcome to the forum! :clapping:
Thanks Dan! I?m glad to help. Ppl too often think that there is nothing you can do with plastic part damages but now I hope many will try some new methods. This aluminium net system / "welding" works well even for broken lugs and I think that?s quite usual problem. When fixing a broken lug you may use a piece of a net on both sides of the lug and carefully drill a new hole after finnishing the surface.
 
Thanks for the great tutorial. My V Max is fairly clean, but my TransAlp has some cracks in the plastics that have been bugging me for years. (Those of you familiar with the TransAlp know how rare replacement plastics are!) I can't wait to give this a whirl!
 
Awesome post my friend!! This will help me in a lot of projects that I seem to come by. Great description and pictures. Can you list exactly what products you used and where you got them from??
:clapping:
 

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