Author Topic: Dot 4 on the fairing = foul language (Read 3004 times)

JayRo · « **on:** October 18, 2006, 11:53:03 PM »

Just a reminder to those who don't know how bad brake fluid can effect plastic. I was bleeding my brakes and clutch about a week and a half ago and had a little mishap when I was bleeding my slave. I forgot to set on the cover over the resevoir for a couple of pumps before I saw the small stream of fluid shoot up when I pulled in the lever.

I wiped it up as soon as I saw it over the left side of my fairing but I obviously didn't get it all. This past weekend I was wiping the bike down the night before I was going on a ride up to the mountains when I saw parts of my fairing looking like a jigsaw puzzle. There were multiple cracks in about 5 different places. I shined a flashlight so I could see on the inside of the fairing and saw the fluid tracks where the cracks were. I was cursing myself out for about an hour after that.
I had to laugh though when I met my brother the next day with my freshly glued up fairing. His FJ1200 was missing its chin fairing due to a leaking slave. It made me feel a little better, but not much. I'm seriously thinking about going naked now.

Jason

Sven · « **Reply #1 on:** October 19, 2006, 12:20:47 PM »

Wow, sorry you had to go through that, but it did answer my curoisity whether that warning on the bottle was just being overly-worrisome. IO had an auto shop repaint a piece of plastic for me, and it wasn't that expensive, so you might want to get an estimate.

Be careful bleeding your slave...doing it once in a while is good for keeping them "motivated", but doing it too often results in them being tired and unable to work as many hours. (har har)

Say, I'll bet you are getting some beautiful autumn color out in Winder...or have they managed to pave over everything between Athens and Atlanta?

stormi · « **Reply #2 on:** October 19, 2006, 05:26:22 PM »

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IO had an auto shop repaint a piece of plastic for me, and it wasn't that expensive, so you might want to get an estimate.

I had a tail piece ,.. for the bike, guys,... minds out of the gutter... painted at an auto shop too. They were willing to take cash, if I was willing to wait til they were painting something else that was black.

I'm sure if you can get the brake fluid off it, you can find someone that will prep and paint it for a good deal, especially if you're willing to wait.

JayRo · « **Reply #3 on:** October 19, 2006, 11:13:07 PM »

When I took off the fairing to put some epoxy in the cracks, a few pieces actually fell off. I cleaned glued the pieced back on but it just doesn't look right. A new left side fairing for my G1 I saw is a little over $200. That is without any decals or anything, which is why the naked thing is sounding pretty good to me.

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Say, I'll bet you are getting some beautiful autumn color out in Winder...or have they managed to pave over everything between Athens and Atlanta?

Not much color change here yet. There wasn't even much near Suches, where I was riding last weeked. I hope to get another ride in up there before the leaves, make it too dangerous.

Jason

Sven · « **Reply #4 on:** October 20, 2006, 12:10:47 AM »

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Not much color change here yet. There wasn't even much near Suches, where I was riding last weeked. I hope to get another ride in up there before the leaves make it too dangerous.

Yeah, Tuesday, after a solid day and a half of rain, our ride in and around Land Between The Lakes was a little scary at times. Not so much leaves, but pine needles in huge heaping piles, and always on a curve. I also learned a new road hazard on Sunday (prior to the rain) when we entered ILL: corn! In our area, cotton bolls in the road aren't slippery, but the equipment is as wide as as a two-lane road. Up there, they have been harvesting the corn, and there was spilled grain, again in a curve. Navigated around it, but it would have been like loose gravel to ride through. As for autumn color, we are in the wrong part of the country for anything other than green, yellow, and a bit of yellow, except for when someone has planted a tree in their yard that gets a nice deep red.

Your story just gets worse...the plastic actually BROKE?!

Sven · « **Reply #5 on:** October 20, 2006, 12:20:09 AM »

Oh, and you might try buying the right piece on ebay, and then having it painted. Overall, that might end up being *reasonable* if not *cheap*. Keep us posted on which way you go, and if you mod to naked, take pix to post!

stormi · « **Reply #6 on:** October 20, 2006, 12:58:04 AM »

You could also have it "plastic welded". A number of shops do this, it's usually not -too- expensive. Then have it painted, or leave it with the "War wounds"

edit* - Also,.. there's a compay that sells a "fairing repair kit" http://www.quarical.com I've seen it in action, and the shops here are starting to sell the kits for about $40Cdn. The guys are often at the motorcycle shows and seem like pretty good guys. They're in Calgary, AB, Canada, but I don't fault them for it.