First Project Questions/Ideas

Anything goes in the world of fiberglass and plastic



Settled In
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Mar 06, 2019 9:05 am

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 9:14 am
Hello, I am working on my first project in my garage and have a few questions/just want to make sure I am going the correct direction. So I have a 2007 Suzuki GS500F that looks a little rough, blinker mounts on the front upper fairing are broken/cracked and the front lower left fairing is broken/cracked in a few places. I have had the bike for 5 or so years and bought it off a friend really cheap and just never fixed the issues but I thought it might be fun to fix it up. I already have all the fairings off, stickers removed, and cracks reinforced on the back sides with a fiberglass cloth and resin. So to get to the point I am wondering on my next steps for prep and paint, I just wanted to see if I was missing anything or anyone had a better idea for what I should be doing.

1.W&G remover, Sand the areas with cracks with 80 grit, feather 120, dremel a shallow valley through cracks, clean with W&G remover, spray poly adhesive promoter, apply Poly Flex putty, sand with 180 block, adhesive promoter, putty, guide coat, sand. Repeat till level/smooth

2.W&G remover, guide coat, Sand entire Fairings with 400 (wet sand for better consistency or just dry?)

3.W&G remover, Tack cloth, adhesive promoter repaired areas, scotchbrite scuff, and primer repaired areas 2-3 coats, guide coat, sand again. Wet 600 grit.

4.Tack clock, adhesive promoter, scotchbrite scuff, Sealer (flex sealer for plastics) 2 light/thin coats. (I have read in the sticky post on here that you don't have to have sealer with dark color and I plan on painting black. But I figure just putting the sealer on anyways for extra protection and practice. So should I just do the sealer and be on my way? If no sealer then just stop at adhesive promoter?)

5.Tack Cloth, Paint 3ish coats depending on color consistency (Plan on using a single stage black mid/high gloss and just running it. Would I be better off running a 2 stage and clear coating?)

6.Hopefully I can get a good lay on the paint and don't have to worry to much about cut, buff, and polish. Don't need to look like a show bike just a respectable bike. But if I feel like it needs it I will.

Any information or ideas that could be helpful would be greatly appreciated, I hope to get more into auto body work in the future with more projects, I just thought this would be a decent place to start. If anyone has any links to other great resources I would be more than happy to receive those as well.

Thanks,
Darcy

User avatar

Board Moderator
Posts: 6672
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2004 7:00 pm
Location: central Ohio
Country:
USA
PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 11:58 am
Darcy, welcome to the insanity that is plastic.....
Okay, first, before we talk methodolgy here.... what type of plastic are we dealing with here? You are talking like this is fiberglass kind of but then you mention adhesive promoter so I am a little confused......
Metal, wood, fiberglass, we work it all... www.furniturephysicians.com We can restore the irreplaceable!



Settled In
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Mar 06, 2019 9:05 am

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 12:04 pm
No it is plastic, honestly not sure on the actual material composition. I just used a fiberglass repair kit with fiberglass cloth, resin, and hardener on the back side of the plastics where it was cracked to hold it in place/reinforce the compromised areas. I probably should have looked into a plastic welder a little more but this was the route I decided to go. Thank you for the welcome and fast reply.

User avatar

Board Moderator
Posts: 6672
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2004 7:00 pm
Location: central Ohio
Country:
USA
PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 2:03 pm
Okay, yeah, I went ahead and looked up your plastic. Looks like it is marked >PP< which indicates polypropylene. That type of plastic is almost always best welded. You could leave that fiberglass patchwork in place until you weld it from the front, but honestly that stuff all needs to be ground off. If you don't want to do welding you could use something like Polyvance's Plastifix for the repair work. Anywhere you are going down to bare plastic an adhesion promoter is appropriate.
Once you are past the raw repairs I would recommend USC's Body Icing rather than the Poly Flex. I do use a lot of the Evercoat products however when it comes to plastic Body Icing is easier to feather and flexes much better.

Okay, so let's look at a few other things said here.....

1.W&G remover, Sand the areas with cracks with 80 grit, feather 120, dremel a shallow valley through cracks, clean with W&G remover, spray poly adhesive promoter, apply Poly Flex putty, sand with 180 block, adhesive promoter, putty, guide coat, sand. Repeat till level/smooth This is okay, I'd just use Body Icing as already said.

2.W&G remover, guide coat, Sand entire Fairings with 400 (wet sand for better consistency or just dry?) No need to do W &G, just hit with a tack rag, 400 dry is fine....

3.W&G remover, Tack cloth, adhesive promoter repaired areas, scotchbrite scuff, and primer repaired areas 2-3 coats, guide coat, sand again. Wet 600 grit. No W&G, just tack and go. You can do 600 if you are going with a metallic however 400 would be fine if you are shooting solid colors.

4.Tack clock, adhesive promoter, scotchbrite scuff, Sealer (flex sealer for plastics) 2 light/thin coats. (I have read in the sticky post on here that you don't have to have sealer with dark color and I plan on painting black. But I figure just putting the sealer on anyways for extra protection and practice. So should I just do the sealer and be on my way? If no sealer then just stop at adhesive promoter?) Well, I don't think a sealer is needed as thinner films are better on flexy surfaces so why stack the extra mils. And, you don't need an adhesion promoter because you are not on bare plastic.

5.Tack Cloth, Paint 3ish coats depending on color consistency (Plan on using a single stage black mid/high gloss and just running it. Would I be better off running a 2 stage and clear coating?) It is like this...you've got a small project here so single stage is fine, however if you don't get it to lay down right or have problems you'll be starting over. With base/clear you can fix things in your base, you can fix things in your clear, etc., etc. Novice shooter find base/clear easier to work with.

6.Hopefully I can get a good lay on the paint and don't have to worry to much about cut, buff, and polish. Don't need to look like a show bike just a respectable bike. But if I feel like it needs it I will. I would definitely try to get the best flow out on your job as cutting and buffing light weight parts like this just encourages things "slinging" across the shop.
Metal, wood, fiberglass, we work it all... www.furniturephysicians.com We can restore the irreplaceable!



Settled In
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Mar 06, 2019 9:05 am

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 2:51 pm
Alright, I appreciate the help. I hate to ask for to much more but would you have links to the specific kind of plastic welder and USC body icing to use? Looking around there are a lot of different variances of materials and tools, would it be better to use something like a hot stapler kit or a legit plastic welder that melts and adds filler materials? Again thank you so much for the insight.

User avatar

Board Moderator
Posts: 6672
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2004 7:00 pm
Location: central Ohio
Country:
USA
PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 4:24 pm
Sure, let's see what we can do....
USC's Body Icing comes in a tube or pump-tainer
This is what you want and you can get it at a lot of places, usually even locally....
https://www.autobodytoolmart.com/usc-ic ... 10969.aspx
Okay, so nobody beat me up or yell at me for this but.......this is a nice little welder for the money......
https://www.harborfreight.com/plastic-w ... 96712.html
Yeah, yeah, I know it's Horrible Fright but it's cheap and works as well as some welders I've used that were in the $200 to $500 range. Combo it up with their rod assortment.....
https://www.harborfreight.com/50-piece- ... 41602.html
Oh, and I've seen plastic staplers demo'd but have personally never used one or felt the need to have one.
So, the key to plastic welding is just practicing with it. Since you've got some stuff there that is torn through, the logical place to experiment is on the back of those items. A good place to watch quality videos and go through their learning center is over at www.polyvance.com Watching guys actually doing it really helps.....
Metal, wood, fiberglass, we work it all... www.furniturephysicians.com We can restore the irreplaceable!



Settled In
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Mar 06, 2019 9:05 am

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 4:53 pm
Awesome, again thank you so much. I am not afraid to spend a little money( I looked at some that I thought were nice plastic welder kits for the $250 - $400 range), because like I said I plan on doing more body work and learning more about it. I just wanted to pick some peoples brains that had more experience and knowledge in the field, I have been lurking around the website for a little over month just reading and see what people are doing and how they are doing it. I will be around and possibly ask more questions in the future as I come across problems but this is a pretty cool place you guys have going here. Thanks again!



Top Contributor
Posts: 1396
Joined: Thu Jan 27, 2011 2:16 pm
PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 5:31 pm
if you dont post pics of the bike and the project, it never happened. :happy:
on that step 6- reads like you have a compressor/gun already? size of the compressor and quality of the gun can make a huge difference in how easy and how good the paint goes on.

cut and buff on a fairing can be very time consuming.



Settled In
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Mar 06, 2019 9:05 am

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 5:48 pm
@tomsteve Yea that's kind of what I was afraid of being that the fairings have so many curves and angles that I don't even want to mess with it. I have a 26G 2.5hp compressor in my garage but I work in a diesel shop that has 2 very large industrial compressors and I plan on making a small "booth" for myself with some sheet plastic, fan(s), and 2x4s so I can paint there, my boss has no problem with us bringing in weekend projects as long as we don't leave a mess or things in the shop for extended periods which is really nice. I don't have anything to special as far as a gun yet but have been looking at a few different options and might just go with the Eastwood Concours Pro set. As far as pics I will post some I have been recording the process and will continue to as I work through the job, I just haven't been in a big hurry since it has been negative Fahrenheit temps still here but should be getting above freezing in the next week and hopefully continue to improve from there(not holding my breath just being wishful). But I will make a post with finished product and details and pictures when I am finished.

User avatar

Board Moderator
Posts: 6672
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2004 7:00 pm
Location: central Ohio
Country:
USA
PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 7:04 pm
Definitely try to do your work at the shop. Your home compressor is okay for smaller stuff but big compressors mean constant clean air flow (CFM) probably with advanced filtration. You might want to also jump over on to our Tools/Supplies section with questions about gun recommendations. Not saying the Eastwood guns are a problem but you could do better and cheaper.......
Metal, wood, fiberglass, we work it all... www.furniturephysicians.com We can restore the irreplaceable!
Next

Return to Fiberglass and Plastic

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 40 guests