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F650CS Scarver - Tank Plastic Bars / Handels

29K views 39 replies 11 participants last post by  Snodvan 
#1 ·
Hi,

I am looking for any users who might have some ideas as to where I might be able to get another pair of plastic tanks bars, plus the other parts near the headlight too, sas they are all cracked and would bring the bike back to life with new ones?

I have done a little research into having a set cast, but there must be someone who has a set that they no longer need or could put me in touch with a place I could get them?

Thoughts and ideas please?

Many thanks
 
#40 ·
No replies so - I repaired the broken tank rail. My experience may help someone else.

What happened was I stopped/ engine off outside my garage. Dismounted and opened the garage door. Then I sit astride the bike and "walk" it in towards the left side with enough space that it can clear the garage wall when it is on the side stand. Problem - there is an old carpet on the garage floor. the tip of the side stand must have caught the edge of the carpet such that when I leaned the bike onto the side stand - the stand folded and the bike lurched to the left and towards the garage wall. At that point, by instinct, I tried to grab the bike - and grabbed the plastic rail ---- which promptly broke in two places.

I managed to get the bike upright again but was left with a plastic rail broken in two places

I NEVER GIVE UP. The material the rail is made of really needs a methacrylate adhesive but that is normally only available in quantities that cost far too much. I tried a "hard plastic" epoxy from B&Q but it was rubbish. Faulty batch I think because it had not hardened after a day - supposed to be 5 mins!! An epoxy by Rexxan AG seems to be very good. However, being a belt & braces (and bit of rope) sort of person I >>

a. Used a router bit on a Dremel to cut 4 fairly deep grooves in each part of the broken bits. I then cut a length of strong metal rod (shaft of pop rivet) to fit in the groove. With the broken bits of plastic rail bolted to the bike fairing (with some cardboard from a Cornflakes box as protection for the latter) I heated the metal rods and pressed them into the grooves. As I had hoped the plastic of the rails melted temporarily and then set. I then filled in the grooves with epoxy and when that had set enough and hardened properly after a couple of days the rail could (with great care) be removed from the bike.

b. With the rail off more of the Rexxan epoxy was then mixed, applied to the rail and everything warmed (hairdrier) so the epoxy became runny and ran into the small gap between the broken parts. I then left things for 48 hours for the epoxy to really harden

c. Next I looked in the scrap box and found some 3"x1.5" stainless steel sheet about 1-1.5mm thick. I cut pieces of this (angle grinder cutter then Dremel sanding) and did my best at panel beating these to fit the rail contours. Using the router head on the Dremel and a file I cut back the rail plastic by about 1-1.5mm so that the shaped metal would end up reasonably flush with the plastic. The shaped pieces were drilled and fixed to the cut-back underside of the rail with self tap screws after application of epoxy to the rail and plate surfaces. Round the front bolt hole of the rail I put a plate on each side. Again I left things to cure for a couple of days

d. The self tap screw heads were gently ground off and a bit of conventional Plastic Padding type body filler has been used to fill out the various gaps - and after wet sanding it looks OK and I think will be quite sound

Next step will be to spray both rails with silver Plastikote, which a colleague who repairs cars tells me is very good. So, allowing for about £6 each for the epoxy and the Plastikote and a few odds and ends the repair will have cost me about £15 total.

I feel appropriately chuffed. More pics when they are painted

Snod

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