I stripped the radiator cowl off the bike this afternoon to paint the mesh/grille and was disappointed to find these tiny cracks in the fairing centre piece....

url=https://servimg.com/view/16818459/58][/url]



they are fragile but not completely loose...

Does any body have any thoughts on the best way to repair and reinforce this? It's a bit fiddly for fiberglassing I think.

88

Not too fiddly for fiberglassing, just pre cut all you matt to the shapes required, I would use a dremmel to V groove the cracks both sides, then start the repair.

maybe from the other side 88

what i would do is get some plasticene ....or craft clay and make a kind of cradle ,,,that would give you a mould for the resin and glass fibre to sit in whilst hardening .

once hardened you could grind it off smooth etc

did this on some fibre glass repairs not so long ago and it works

hope that helps

Moto smith posted a brilliant video under 'abs fairing repair'. Well worth a look. And our old friends Motobins have brand new RT rad surrounds, in white, for only £38.
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/motobinsbmw/_i.html?rt=nc&_sid=680191177&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1513&_pgn=2
Maybe some help.
Paul.

charlie99 wrote:maybe from the other side 88

what i would do is get some plasticene ....or craft clay and make a kind of cradle ,,,that would give you a mould for the resin and glass fibre to sit in whilst hardening .

once hardened you could grind it off smooth etc

did this on some fibre glass repairs not so long ago and it works

hope that helps

Interesting idea Charlie. Would you mould the plasticene then fibreglass (would only use surfacing tissue) and then put the plasticene back to hold it in place? Have I got it right?
88

charlie99 wrote: what i would do is get some plasticene ....or craft clay and make a kind of cradle ,,,that would give you a mould for the resin and glass fibre to sit in whilst hardening .

Years ago, I found a very cheap way to make a mould for fibreglass.....
Go to see your pharmacist and ask him for the plaster bandage used in the hospital to make a cast. This is cheap and works like a charm.
I made a full size fairing using this material for the mould

CF

roughen up the underside surfaces that your going to fiberglass (or the top section in this case ...the invisible part ) do your cuts into he edges so that you get a good bond at the break areas ...then just get a lump of plasticine to wrap around the lower side (the visible bit) and come up about an inch higher than the frame that your surrounding ....you may need to put a bit to make end stops so you like making a dish around the area that you intend to work on ...start off but a light coating od resin then apply the matting material cut to size of corse ...then dab and dab the material to get alll the air out of it and rally soaked with resin ...a little more resin can kinda make it all flush and take out the bumps ...whilst runny its kinda self leveling so best to find some way of supporting the main body at the right angle whilst it goes off ...shouldnt take long

after wards remove the plasticene and see what has happened and if you need to do the same on the under side ....you can get some billiant resuts this way ...with out all the mess ...of corse a rotary sander is good for cleaning up and getting it all smooth later shouldnt cost much either ....

Cheers Charlie. I have all the sanders etc here, just need the plasticise to give it a go.

This dropped out of the bike when my back was turned (with the grille removed)...



It's about 100mm long - can anyone identify it and where it goes?

88

Number 18? part diagram says, gasket,right side.



Inge K.

Inge K. wrote:Number 18? part diagram says, gasket,right side.

Inge K.

That's probably it Inge - although it's so squashed and bent out of shape it's hard to recognise. It was easier to see where it goes working from inside the fairing - It stops the air gettting into/at the bottom of the clove box pocket. Thanks for the diagram.

88

Here's how the repair worked out....

I broke out the loose piece of the fairing and use a dremmel/Hobby tool with a mini disc to open out the cracks and rough the surrounding area. Next, using Charlie's Top Tip above I used some modelling Clay/Kids Plasticene, mixed and rolled out flat with a bottle, to form a mould which I held in place with a little block of wood and quick clamps.

I applied some surface tissue (see description by Charlie99 above for technique) to the crack faces and replaced the loose piece before covering the whole area with pre-cut fine surfacing tissue. The idea here was not to make a complete repair at this stage. just to get things realigned and held together....

url=https://servimg.com/view/16818459/67][/url]

Once that had gone off (about 90 minutes) I was able to pick up the whole piece and flip it over. Working on the back I applied 2 layers of oversize tissue and worked out well past the edge of the piece. The outer bits are easy to trim with a good craft knife just before they have fully gone off...

url=https://servimg.com/view/16818459/68][/url]

Once trimmed back to the sides of the original Piece I let it stand for the resin to cure fully before finally tidying up the edges with the dremmel and redrilling the scrrew holes.



It's hard to appreciate from these pictures just how strong the repair is I roughly doubled the width of the material on mostly on the inside of the fairing. It's out of sight so I didn't bother repaining.

While waiting for the fiberglass to arrive I had stripped the grille and repainted the mash and surround and re-glued the rubber surround back in place. I also gave a light shot of satin black to the radiator fins so that they look better when seen through the mesh..

Here's the before, during and after shots...

url=https://servimg.com/view/16818459/70][/url]



There a bit of sanding dust on the mesh showing up in the flash an the last shot but it looks good as gold in normal light.....

url=https://servimg.com/view/16818459/72][/url]

All of this did me a favour because it led me to the tank leak which is now sorted too....but that's another storey

88KE

super result 88 !!!

good work

Superb mate - bet it feels good to have it sorted!

I'm liking the gold, have you got photos of the whole bike up somwhere?

Best
Dave

Dave...some pics HERE and HERE ..

I can't decide about this colour. Some days it looks great others really wishy-washy. I think that has to do with old pale metallic colours(especially silver) not ageing very well. I also think the seat would be better in two tone (black on the seat panels, beige in between) and it bugs me that the back rest is a different colour.

I'm considering a colour change when I do the full resto but that will have to wait till funds are more liquid!

88KE

I really like that colour 88, I'm a big fan of period colours on the whole. I guess it is a colour of its time and maybe a bit faded - but no worse for it IMHO. The matching pannier colour is very cool.

MT350Explorer wrote:I really like that colour 88, I'm a big fan of period colours on the whole. I guess it is a colour of its time and maybe a bit faded - but no worse for it IMHO. The matching pannier colour is very cool.

Yep I think the matching panniers are a very nice look. I think the paint and radio is the difference between the RT/LT and your point about "a colour of it's time" is the reason I'm dithering. There's merit in keeping it original.
88

88KE wrote:I think the paint and radio is the difference between the RT/LT.

.....and black footrest bridges and engine covers, comfort seat and top box.

From -88 on another windscreen (more straight up, wider and taller), and a dash in
top of the fairing with fuel level and water temp. instruments, power socket, c.lighter.
And a bigger top box bolted directly to the fastback (not on all markets).

Inge K.

Check on the engine and footrests on my 88 but not on the screen and dash etc. I guess it mist have been manufactured in 87 but registered in 88.
88KE

88KE,
If you look at your engine number the second set of digits give the week number and year which the engine was assembled. Eg '2388' would have been made in week 23 of 1988.
Cheers,
Paul.

Another option is....go to Realoem and type your VIN number and find out when rest of the bike did leave the factory.

Another difference between RT/LT was that the LT did have a Boge Nivomat shock
as standard, but not shure if this is valid for all model/years.

New member "Responder" did post a picture of his LT, which seems to have the
genuine screen that was used from -88, or it is one very similar to it.

Inge K.

Bingo! Aug 1987. That's a handy link thanks Inge. I saw the pick of responders screen I too thought it looked original.

Then you was close as it gets, the production of next years models (usually) starts in month 09.

Inge K.

sidecar paul wrote:Moto smith posted a brilliant video under 'abs fairing repair'. Well worth a look. And our old friends Motobins have brand new RT rad surrounds, in white, for only £38.
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/motobinsbmw/_i.html?rt=nc&_sid=680191177&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1513&_pgn=2
Maybe some help.
Paul.

I was very pleased with the results. Two cracks 3 inch and 6 inches long together with a re-construction of a missing tab for a bolt. I believe that it works with ABS and fibreglass.

Cheers, M

Good info Guys, thanks. Checked mine out using both of the above ways; engine built and bike assembled both in summer of 1990.
Best
Dave