View source for One man's fairing repair

[[Category:Bodywork & Frame]]
I finally decided to get around to taking care of the damage my fairings suffered when I went down. I had done a temporary job at the time with plumbers putty for the worst part of it and plastex for the lighter damage. Sick of how ugly the fairing looked with the putty and scratches, I was looking into just replacing it, but that is an expensive prospect. I found the [[Plastics repair with ABS cement|ABS fairing repair]] in the FAQ, and after checking it out, I decided that as long as I was willing to repaint afterwards, this was the perfect solution. 

Make sure that you have a well-ventilated area for the noxious fumes to escape from. 

I was re-fabricating a pretty significant piece of fairing... Here you can see the damage. A huge piece is just GONE. If I had noticed at the time of the accident and been in a better state of mind, I probably could have recovered it... but I did not. 
  
[[Image:SO fairing1a.jpg|150px]]  [[Image:SO fairing2a.jpg|150px]]

I picked up ABS cement at my local Canadian Tire and set to work. Using non-drying modeling clay/plasticine I molded around the area I needed to fill in. Then I simply poured in the cement and let it be. 

[[Image:SO fairing3a.jpg|150px]]  [[Image:SO fairing4a.jpg|150px]]  

The next day, I peeled away the clay and checked it out. After an examination, I put the clay back in place and reapplied cement to fill some small gaps and make up for shrinkage. 

The day after that I removed the clay again, did a bit of trimming with a knife, and now simply have to do some sanding to smooth it out and make a nice transition between the original plastic and the repair. 

[[Image:SO fairing5a.jpg|150px]] 

I am VERY impressed with this repair method. I have also applied the cement to some minor cracks, and currently at home I am reforming a broken tab. I am sorry that I ever bought plastex for repairs; this is much better and much cheaper!