The fairings on my 2014 Honda VFR800 Interceptor have seen better days due to some road rash on the left side, which caused inside tabs to also break off. The previous owner had spray painted it, but I wanted to see if I could get it back to factory shine.
Good Side:
Bad Side:
Tools Needed:
-Sandpaper for block sander (I used 400 grit)
-Paint (R334 Honda Victory Red)
The first thing to do is to remove all of the plastics from the bike. I know this seems obvious, but some people try to do the repair on the bike and tape stuff off. Don't do it. Take the time and remove all of the fairings.
Once off the bike I planned to fix all of the broken tabs first. I did this by first using the carbide bits and the Dremel to rough up the surface around the tab, this will help the epoxy bond.
Next, place the tab in its location, sometimes this requires trimming and bending as the plastic may have stretched when it tore off. Once in the location use the plastic welder to melt it slightly in place, do not use filler plastic with this. Only melt it in place so it holds its position.
Next, mix the two-part epoxy and spread it around the seam. It will settle, so keep the plastic fairing as flat as possible.
Lastly, cut a very small portion of the fiberglass cloth and push it into the epoxy, before it dries, which can be quickly. Work the fiberglass cloth in and apply more epoxy if needed to cover the fiberglass cloth. You can trim the excess fiberglass cloth after the epoxy dries.
Next step was to repair the road rash and missing sections of the fairings. My method for doing this is two parts:
Fill missing sections with the plastic welder, utilizing the wire mesh and filler rod.
Coat with two-part filler/bonding epoxy.
I did it in this manor as the epoxy will not hold a form very well and can't span large areas, but the plastic filler is not the best surface for sanding. I found a combination of both was the best. I used this method on a few different sections, which I will cover below.
First thing to do, as always in sand and create a rough surface for best adhesion.
Next, use the clamps to hold the mesh in place while "tac'ing" it in with the plastic welder.
Slowly work more and more plastic filler into the mesh and fill the gap until it is the form you are looking for. You do not need to fill the hole flush with the surface, that will be filled with epoxy filler.
After this, I made a mold out of aluminum HVAC tape to keep the epoxy filler in place, placed the panel on its side and added the epoxy filler.
You can notice in this picture where I had also added the plastic filler over the road rash scratches on the panel.
Next, I used the plastic welder to reform a corner that was lost due to road rash.
Same as before, "tac" in the wire mesh and fill the rest with plastic filler. One done, sand down and shape it with the carbide Dremel bits, then coat with epoxy filler.
This part is not painted and is a matte black on my bike. It will be very hard to hide the repair on an unpainted part and very hard to get the plastic back to matte black. Based on this I plan to vinyl wrap this part.
Next, take all of the plastic panels and fill the scratches and blemishes with the plastic epoxy filler and let dry.
After they are dry sand them down, leveling the plastic epoxy filler with the orbital sander and finish with the sanding block.
After this was done, I examined the fairings and saw a few spots I missed. So, I added more epoxy filler and waited for them to dry and repeat.
The next step after the panels are sanded and smooth is to start painting. I am using a Sharpe FX3000 (Snap-On Branded) paint gun with a 1.4 tip. Spraying with a HVLP paint gun is the best way to go, but it is expensive to get the equipment. There are cheap HVLP guns out there, but a large air compressor is still needed. There may be other options out there, but I have the HVLP gun, so I am going that route. Some people have had success with spray paint.
The first step is to apply a plastic adhesion promoter. This is very important to make sure the paint sticks. This should be done after sanding and after cleaning the panels with acetone or similar. Next apply a coat of primer that can be sanded down. First block sand with 400 grit followed by wet sand with 800 grit.
Next, I cleaned the panels and applied the flexible primer. I used an aerosol spray for this simply because my HVLP gun only has a 1.4mm tip and a 1.8mm tip cost over $100. I did three coats with about 8 minutes between coat and then let them sit overnight.
Once dry the next step is to sand the primer down. I was not really happy with the surface and thought I may have to go back to epoxy filler. I sanded down the panels with 320 grit followed by 400 grit. After sanding down it appeared that I may be able to get away with additional coats of primer instead of epoxy filler. The primer accentuated the unevenness and errors I made in my prior repairs with epoxy filler, but with aggressive sanding it looks like I can get away with additional coats of primer and additional sanding.
I was able to apply additional coats of primer and aggressively sand them down. It was very hard for me to get a smooth primer coat. I constantly got "orange peel" which required a lot of sanding. Even though I am using a high end HVLP gun I would suggest going with the aerosol for the primer and HVLP for the base and clear. Its more expensive in the long run, but way less time and lays down much better.
Next was to mix up the base coat, I mixed 2:1 paint to thinner. I use these disposable paint cups with this adapter for my HVLP gun. I highly recommend them! Saves a lot of time on cleaning, no vent hole to clog (container collapses), and has a much larger strainer that won't clog.
Next, I set up the panels in a way so that I can assure the sides that are visible will receive basecoat.
Based on the paint's directions I did 3 coats, 7-9 minutes apart. It was very important to set up the HVLP gun properly to get a wet looking base coat. After those coats it looked great!
I waited 30 minutes, per clear and base coat instructions, and applied 3 coats of clear coat. For the clear I waited 10-12 minutes between coats.
Unfortunately, as I am sure anyone reading this will notice, I do not have a spray booth. Due to that there was a bit of dust and lint in my clear coat. Unless you plan to do another coat, do not, DO NOT remove the dust. Simply let it dry and then go through a wet sanding process. My clear coat stated it was dry after 12 hours, I waited 24 hours. I did a bit of trial and error with this, and this is what I found worked:
800/1000 grit wet sand
2000 grit wet sand
3500 grit wet sand
5000 grit wet sand
Random orbital buffer with orange foam pad using a polishing/rubbing compound.
After this method they were super smooth and received their shine back. I will point out that the clear coat, although dry enough to sand, is not hard. This takes weeks to months. I found this out the hard way when I laid a panel down on a piece of cardboard and ultimately had to reapply clear coat. Keep this in mind. The panels can be reinstalled but be careful of sharp or continued pressure on the new clear coat.
This is what they looked like after the sanding and buffing:
All that was left to do was install them back on the bike.
Overall, I was very happy with how they turned out. I would say my cost was around $300, mostly in paint. If I could change anything it would be to use aerosol primer instead of HVLP primer. More money but would have saved a ton of time on sanding.