Fixing fairings
 

First off a big THANX to Tim for the fairing.

Anyone got any sound advice, problems/solutions/experiences to fixing pannels.

Cheers

Are we talking, plastic, glass fibre or carbon. What is the damage and are you planning on painting it afterwards?

Its glass fibre, photos will follow shortly and damage wise we are talking a hole and a few cracks, and it will be painted afterwards.

Cheers

Dave

Two ways that I know of.

Most car shops will now sell glass fibre matting and cold cure two part resin. Wet lay the glass fibre matting on the back of the crack / damage and make sure there is plenty of overlap so as to reinforce the damaged area. On the front side use the resin to fill the damage and sand it back, if the crack is too large then fill with normal car filler. All ready for painting.

Alternative is to find a local manufacturer of glass fibre components, not necessarily fairings, and offer them some beer money to sort it out for you.

send it to me i am a whizz at fixing bodywork....

as long as you dont want it looking pretty mind :D

On the back of the pannel it has been painted, does that require roughing up or will the new glass fibre bond to it still?

Cheers for the offer Lil, but I'm going to give it a go myself. Can't wait to get plasered in glass fibers :bouncy:

I'd be tempted to get some fairly low grade sandpaper on the inside just to give it a good key to grab hold of as such. Think most of the process has been covered by the sounds of it above.

Yep, abrade the surface to give the new glass and resin a good key ..... basically sand the surface back to remove any shine, silicone etc just as you would if you were painting the surface. After sanding wipe the surface with a cloth and thinners to degrease the surface prior to applying the glass and resin.

Cheers for all the sound advice ladies and gents, will let you know how I get on.:burn:

antonye did a detailed post on panel repairs a couple of months back. Worth looking for as he'd added photo's which help understand what the hell he's on about :)

That thread is over this way:

http://ducatisportingclub.com/xmb/vi....php?tid=18159

:D

Cheers Antonye, the fibre glass has now been applied

Lets see if mister c:ock up has visited my garage today, let you know later:smug:

Before

During

and another

Last one....for now!

Not bad at all!

All you need to do now is get some filler on the outside and get it smoothed down nicely before paint.

Cheers Antonye, I thought it wasn't bad for a first attempt.

Soon as the panel is dry (just washed it) I'll get it filled, hopefully I've foud someone that can paint it for me.

TTFN

Nice Job. Not so difficult is it ?

I painted mine myself, using PlastiKote Bright Red #1120 as that's a very close match for Ducati Red.

If you use their matching grey undercoat and laquer, you get a very nice finish.

The trick, as said before, is to get the panel as good as possible before painting - sand, fill, sand, fill, etc. Then primer it and work out any imperfections. Then paint it, and again sand it down where it needs it. Finally finish off with some laquer.

Don't rush it and it will look good - leave plenty of time before coats of paint otherwise it will run and you'll be back to square one.

PS. PlastiKote is about a fiver a tin from B&Q, and you'll need about 1 can of primer, 2 cans of paint and one of laquer for a single panel.

Antonye
 

Your mood says 9th in the championship.

I thought you might be predicting promotion for Norwich for next season:lol::lol::lol:

Sorry that was evil after the pain of relegation:devil: but i've been there many times myself as a Sunderland supporter

[Edited on 18-5-2005 by dave996]

Don't know what happened there:puzzled:

As I was saying thanks again, was going to get someone else to paint them but he was after £150 maybe more! and that was ment to be a backhander, so I think I'll give it a go and see what happens.

Cheers to everyone for the advice and I'll let you know how it goes.

Dave

Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Even if you paint it yourself and don't like it, you'll have only spent 20-30 quid on paint. It's not a huge amount and it's actually quite difficult to get wrong!

Post some more pics as it's looking good so far.

How much rubbing down do I have to do before I paint, ie does all the red paint need to be removed or do I just need to rough it up so that the undercoat will bond:puzzled:

Just put the last coat on the bellypan, now do I rub it down then laquer or rub it down polish then laquer or just laquer:puzzled:

I think you just need to rub down, clean and lacquer, it'll look flat before you lacquer it but as soon as the lacquer hits it - BLING!

Cheers JP

Not yet laquered

Does it matter that the water pump (I think) on the left hand side is touching the fairing~~? :puzzled:

Don't think so Dave, the track day fairing I had for the Bostrom has a section on the inside of that panel that is thicker than the rest of the bodywork which I guess is a point of contact if you throw the bike down the road, you will get the panel rubbing slightly as the bike vibrates/moves so might be worth putting some gaffer tape etc over the water pump housing

Fixed and undercoated, just need the red paint now:roll:

Built this fill in piece as the missus didn't like the gap between the fairing and the air tubes.

One minute you want to know how to repair a panel, and the next you're effectively making your own design changes :D

Looking good though

Yeah I know, I couldn't help myself:sing: