Anatomy Of Plastic Prep

Project 13 is progressing. While awaiting my modified shock from Jamie at Dmr Motorsports, I've been busy with the many bodywork repairs required for eventual hydrostatic dipping of the parts.

I wisely left the fuel tank repair to a professional. Both of these tanks were in pretty rough cosmetic shape — dents, scrapes and surface rust. The interiors are fine, so they're worth saving.

My painter, Bill, brought these tanks to the primer stage, and I'll choose one for Project 13. The other will go on the shelf for a future project. The dipper will begin the process by applying black paint to all the body parts as a base for the film.

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(Below) A major repair required for this project is to fill in the large turn signal holes in the OEM headlight fairing. I'll be using flush mount turn signals in place of the original stalk-type signals. To begin, I trace a template on stiff paper, then transfer that to some scrap ABS plastic from my stash. The patch is then cut out with the Dremel and carefully fitted to the hole by grinding and filing the edge. I also heat the patch and gently bend it to approximate the slight curvature of the fairing. (click on an image to enlarge)

(Below) Next comes the welding. After beveling all the edges, front & back, I weld the entire seam, front & back. The white colored seam indicates the ABS filler weld. An initial sanding with some rough paper prepares the patch for body filler. (click on an image to enlarge)

Here's a look at the backside of the patch. This is not visible when mounted so I won't put much effort into finishing the repair.

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Here the filler is being finish sanded on the left side. The orange filler is Bondo base filler and the blue is a finishing putty called Icing. Two of the three mounting holes also needed welded repairs to their lower edges, where the plastic had been cracked away.

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This headlight fairing required a few more spot repairs, including to the rearmost windscreen mounting holes, shown here. 

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(Below) All the body pieces needed some degree of repair. Here, the mid-fairings show off their welding repairs and are ready for body filler. I'm not as fast as an experienced professional, so to get these parts finished to an acceptable level takes a considerable time investment. But, in the end, I'll have a set of body panels that I know were repaired the right way and will be around for a few more decades.

The final step will be to test fit the fuel tank and all the panels to the bike. Then it's off to the dipper!