Repairing a Vetter Fairing?

[sparkfly88]

I found a fairing, but the fairing has a hole in the side of it...

I know it wouldn't look perfect, but how could it be repaired?

[sparkfly88]

[natemoen]

Plastic welding. That's about it. Get a sheet of abs and cut it to match (or clean up the edges on the fairing) the hole in the fairing and weld it all up. You will need to repaint anyways and could use bondo to smooth it all up after.

[skids]

I don't know how to repair cracks. I suspect you would need to dremmel them open for a repair.

For the hole, I would find a piece of sheet ABS and patch that in.

I have a faring that had a completely broken right corner where it attaches to the frame (one hole on the broken corner) and around the black portion by the right knee. I used a mixture of chopped fiberglass matting and epoxy. First I filled the edges of the break with straight epoxy. Then I smeared the mixture to make a base for fiberglass matting. Place the fiberglass matting and top it with the mixture. All of this was from the inside. I also put some mixture along the break on the outside for strength. I did that 2 winters ago and it made a good mechanical repair. This is pretty tough stuff. Don't mix the epoxy too hot.

This is kind of messy and you would need rubber gloves to smooth the matting and mixture around.

I wouldn't build it higher than you need to so that you can bondo the repair.

[natemoen]

I personally wouldn't use epoxy, they are not meant to bond together all that well.

Don't dremel the cracks open either, the more material you leave there the better when it comes to plastic welding. Also find the end of any of the major cracks and take a 1/8 inch drill bit and put a hole right in the end of the crack. This will stop the crack from continuing.

Whit plastic welding you are basically just melting the old material and allowing it to melt back together.and adding in some new material where needed.

[Jerry]

Craig Vetter has a repair kit on his web site at http://www.craigvetter.com which includes a specialty glue and some material. Click on the Vetter Fairings link then the Repair a Vetter fairing link to see the kit and get some idea of how to use it.