plastic used on Big Red

[frauke75]

What kind of plastic was the original Big Red ('85 250es) fenders made of?

I want to fix up the lower left of the one I just bought.
It is pretty cracked up and has one 3x4” part missing.

I want to look and see what auto body and marine adhesive and fillers might be out there.
… or plastic weld... but either way I need to know what kind of plastic this was made of.

I did do a lot of searches but have not found any definitive answers.

Thanks

[3wnut]

There are places that do "Plastic Welding" but also any Epoxy resin for fiberglass would work but it has to be epoxy for the best resaults. Call your local Honda dealer or a small bike shop that will take some time to talk about it and see what is availible in your area.

[frauke75]

thanks 3wnut, but I kinda wanta do it myself... this is not going to be a pretty repair just a functional one (that needs to hold up). I just got this BR and want to put it through its paces before I start worrying about cosmetics. I do not know when I will get to pretting this BR up or if I ever will but just want to use it and for it not to get worse and keep mud & snow off. I could buy a used on on ebay for (better than mine but still cracked or repaired) like $80 if need be and I don't think I could get a pro to patch it up for less.

I think I can weld most of it (cracks) with a soldering iron but some areas will need some kind of filler.
If I had some broken scrap pieces I would be set but I don't and think it would be hard to find that... so that is why I wanted to know what kind of plastic is... that and I also think there are a lot of new specialty adhesives out there especially marine ones that are supper strong but would want to verify there use with this type of plastic.. they seem to have different ones for different plastic groups.

Thanks again though!!!

[frauke75]

I still can't find any ref. to what type of plastic the OEM fenders were made of... I did every search I could think of and came up with nothing.
Thought there would be some ref to it regarding repairing or painting or welding but no... just that you need to use the same kind to weld it... but what kind? ...I guess nobody knows.

[aldochina]

you can always go this route lol!!

[frauke75]

yea... I was watching that one to see how it turns out. Looks good and I would do exactly that if I didn't have such a good right side fender (only one crack).

I think I am going just try to plastic weld it with a soldering iron.
What’s the worst that can happen... it's already broken.
I get practice welding...& if I fail... I will have extra plastic to weld with in the future.

...and then I will not have to worry about what kind of plastic these are.

[mi500]

have you tried taking a chunk or fender into a plastic dealer? if you got one anywhere near you they might be able to tell you what it is and give a good suggestion on how to fix it.