Exactly RimBender, I cut up strips of the bracing I cut out to use as "welding rod" . Jason thanks for the nice words, your right practice would get better results. I don't think I would ever get anything close to looking new though. I think my welder is shot, and for the results I got so far, I don't think I'll buy another one. These plastics are made of polyproplyne and there are no solvent type "glues/cements" for it. None that chemically melt this type of plastic. You either have to melt it with heat, glue it together with a mechanical glue, or repair it with fasteners like Neil did. After my repair I sanded down bumps and high spots. Sanding left a fuzzy finish. I took a heat gun and carefully used it to smooth out the fuzzy finish.
+1 the whole mess may get coverd up with stickers
Dan

 

I don't know about the fenders, but I used some liquid plastic stuff on the airbox. I drilled a hole so I could get a ratchet in there to take off the backfire screen. Then when I was done I put this liquid plastic stuff on. Its two separate chemicals, you mix them, then apply. This stuff was white. So I put it on, smoothed it out, and let it dry. After that I sanded it down, then took my paint pen and touched over it with flat black. You can't even tell.

 

OK well seems any type of melting ( or gluing I'm sure) is a temporary fix. Once its broken, it doesn't take much of a hit to re-break a repair right on the same lines. All it takes is one nap and your hard work is ruined. The franken stitch may just be the best way. Doesn't look tooooo bad and it will flex when impacted.
Dan

 

I tried that and everything else I could with the broken shrouds on my KLR. The plastic weld glue from 5 Minute Epoxy is junk. Crazy Glue mixed with baking soda is a really bad idea. CA glue did nothing, I can't remember what else I tried. Nothing worked. Finally, I tried JB Weld and it worked like a charm. I even made reinforcing fillets around all the mounting tabs and glued in the mounting nuts to make it easier to take apart and put together. It's been 2 years now. Still solid as a rock.

JB Weld is our friend.

 

+1 on the JB Weld.

 

Well, good to hear, I will have to try JB weld I guess. I'm talking about a repair that can take a pretty good impact though, and I can't imagine JB weld is any stronger than the actual plastic being melted together.
Dan

 

i think it actually IS stronger. I have used it on Exhaust manifolds in boat engines, outboard boat motor cases, my trucks integrated mud flaps, and now my '09 shrouds, and I think the area I fixed is stronger than the actually plastic. It doesn't look great (you can see the crack from the other side), but it is strong...matter of fact fell again last weekend on the same spot, and another piece of the shroud chipped off, but the repaired part seemed fine.

 

Still going strong.

 

OK, if you hit it hard enough to break some thing else and the repair held, that's good enough for me to give it a try.
Neil that's a nice clean repair. Looks like it will hold up to some crashes too.
I have the Bucky DS ride this coming weekend, so maybe I'll be doing some plastic repair next week.
Dan

 

JB weld is the bomb.
I have used it on underwater DPV's to fix cracks and missing chunks and it has not leaked on dives up to 100meters. I generaly beef up the repair either with small lenghts of stainless tig welding rod or just structuraly make it thicker and flare out where possible. I only use stainless to avoid rust in saltwater.

Cheers Jim

But I would like to be able to weld plastic so I may look into a plastic welder.

Nice job on the repairs.

Jim