Belly Pan Restoration

[markbo]

thought i'd show you all my winter project - i bought the 2 lower fairings from watty with the intention of restoring them
i've never done this before so any help and advice will be gratefully accepted!

when i got the lowers i phoned watty for a bit of help and he steered me in the right direction to start off so thanks for that
this will be a pretty long term project so i'm going to (try to) take it slowly and hopefully do a good job
having had experience of the dreaded yellow paint i think i'll go for a diferent colour when i finally get there - probably black, maybe gold?

here's the 2 fairings as i received them



the yellow one was in good nick but one side was split at the back and the 2 halves bent away from each other quite considerably



watty advised me to use a heat gun to bend it back to shape so that's what i did and i then joined the 2 halves with plastex
it didn't seem very strong to me tho so i added a straight bracket using the 2 holes that were already drilled into the fairing - i'm assuming they're not for anything cos they didn't look like neat factory drilled holes!? i then filled over the bracket as well with p38





here's the join in profile



that's as far as i've got with that one... next step will be to rub the 2 halves down, fill any holes with p38 and get it prepped and ready for priming

the red one had a long crack along the underneath and several splits in it in various places





as this one is fibreglass watty reckoned i'd be best off repairing it with fibreglass matting

looking on the internet the "experts" say to cut away the brittle crack and get back to solid fibreglass so that's what i did using a dremel



i also used the dremel to gouge away the other points where the fibreglass had split



then i stuck the fibreglass matting on underneath and filled the holes in using p40 once it had set





next step with this one will be to fill over with p38 and smooth it off then rub the whole thing down ready to prime

i'm pretty busy over the weekend with the grandkids so i don't think i'll have any chance to do anything before next week.
any comments/advice gratefully accepted - remember i'm a novice at this so very open to suggestions!!

mark

[VTRDark]

Mmmm I can smell the P40 from here.

Your doing a mighty fine job there so far. Just remember, the better the prep the better the finish.

(:-})

[Watty]

Bloody hell mate, you've wasted no time , looks like a good start to me

[markbo]

thanks Carl - that's what i keep telling myself too!

hi watty - i had a couple of free days last week so i got stuck in!
i did think i'd bitten off more than i could cope with to start but once i got over the initial hurdles (the crack and the bent halves) i started to feel i could actually do it!!

[kev64]

+1 for prep, get it all flat !!

[gabi81]

Good job but remember that the thin section of the belly pan that you've done in filler is close to the exhaust which will burn of from heat
Put the pan on the bike and using some soft aluminum redesign that bit so it clears exhaust
Just a thought though don't have to if you don't

[markbo]

Good job but remember that the thin section of the belly pan that you've done in filler is close to the exhaust which will burn of from heat
Put the pan on the bike and using some soft aluminum redesign that bit so it clears exhaust
Just a thought though don't have to if you don't

thanks for that - i was going to put some heat resistant material on the bits that are close to the exhaust, that should do the job? i didn't realise filler would burn off - what sort of temperature will cause that?
might be an idea to put them on the bike and see which bits are close to the exhaust then bend them well away using a heat gun as an extra precaution - i'd better do that before i sand and smooth them down!

cheers
mark

[Watty]

Good job but remember that the thin section of the belly pan that you've done in filler is close to the exhaust which will burn of from heat
Put the pan on the bike and using some soft aluminum redesign that bit so it clears exhaust
Just a thought though don't have to if you don't

thanks for that - i was going to put some heat resistant material on the bits that are close to the exhaust, that should do the job? i didn't realise filler would burn off - what sort of temperature will cause that?
might be an idea to put them on the bike and see which bits are close to the exhaust then bend them well away using a heat gun as an extra precaution - i'd better do that before i sand and smooth them down!

cheers
mark

As long as you put some good quality heat protection on there you should be fine Mark

[VTRDark]

Filler would most likely crack over time with the heat, but that is a design flow in them lowers. They all go there. It's going to get heat damage and bend there over time anyway. All you can do is try to prevent/put off the inevitable. Foil is the best one can do to prevent it.

My one is in the same state as that, actually I think its a bit worse as some of the plastic curled over and eventually snapped off. I have always liked the style of powerbronze lowers but the rear has always niggled me. I also don't like the way they are not designed with checking the oil window in mind either, unlike the Skidmarx. I cut a hole in mine to make that a little easier.

(:-})

[sirch345]

Looking good Mark keep up the good work

Chris.

[markbo]

i put the yellow lowers on this afternoon to see where they touched the exhaust and they definitely need bending away on the RHS.
also not 100% sure where i bolt 2 of the brackets on - they didn't line up onto an obvious bolt.
i took some pictures, perhaps someone can explain which bolt i'm aiming for?

on the RHS looking over the brake pedal - am i aiming for one of these bolts?
or have i got the bracket in the wrong place, i couldn't find another obvious way of fitting it?



on the LHS - is it going onto this bolt cos it doesn't really reach... ?



thanks for any help....

mark

[Watty]

i put the yellow lowers on this afternoon to see where they touched the exhaust and they definitely need bending away on the RHS.
also not 100% sure where i bolt 2 of the brackets on - they didn't line up onto an obvious bolt.
i took some pictures, perhaps someone can explain which bolt i'm aiming for?

on the RHS looking over the brake pedal - am i aiming for one of these bolts?
or have i got the bracket in the wrong place, i couldn't find another obvious way of fitting it?



on the LHS - is it going onto this bolt cos it doesn't really reach... ?



thanks for any help....

mark

Without going in the cave and checking Mark, can't remember where the right hand bracket goes but the left one picks up the threads on the back of that bolt, but it doesn't look like the bracket has ever been fitted. Hope that helps

[sirch345]

Yes I agree with Watty for the left side bracket, you'll need a fine pitch bolt that screws into the back of the side stand bolt thread as shown below





The right side bracket looks like the right one to me going by your photo, that is meant to bolt to another bracket from the front as below



The front bracket fits as below



Chris.

[markbo]

thanks watty - i think it'll reach with a bit of a squeeze! i've cleaned the brackets up with sandpaper, they were a wee bit rusty before, came up well tho...

on a positive note i did an hours ride in the sunshine this afternoon - got off the bike walking like john wayne!!

now going out for a 2 hour rehearsal without having done any practice, oh well the drummer's pretty loud so can't hear much else anyway.

[markbo]

brilliant thanks Chris

i'll take a good look at your pictures tomorrow and take the laptop out to the bike so i can figure it all out

you guys are soooo helpful!!

have you got the cleanest bike in the world??