Where to get Good Replacement Fairings

[TheMuffinMan]

Got an 24000 mile 2004 matte black abs VFR at the start of this summer and had no problems. Took her in this fall for some maintenance. When I went to test ride her, the tires gave out on the right hand turn at the stop 200ft from my house.

Damage is:

Light scuffing on the handle bars, rear view mirror.

Scratched transmission cover

BIG PROBLEM: Cracked and scratched the hell out of my rhs fairing

What is your experience getting this bike looking clean again? I don't have a lot of experience with body work stuff! Help a brother out with some advice?

Mainly asking: where do I get new fairings? is that possible still? What problems arise with that?

[Thumbs]

Get some ABS pipe adhesive, the stuff used for joining drain pipes 

 

ABS plastic sheet is available from eBay, 2 mm thick, cut into strips and glued on the inside of the fairing while you hold the crack together 

Acetone can then be carefully placed in the crack on the outside and then press it shut, hold for 5 minutes and repeat as required, I use a syringe to avoid problems 

 

I’ve repaired several panels that were in pieces and one had a 8” square chunk missing 

 

[WDIV]

I just bought chinese replica fairings on ebay. Definitely just ABS plastic and definitely get the job done. 

[TheMuffinMan]

Thanks for tip.

 

I'll try and repair it with the sheet and acetone as you suggested.

 

Some of the panels are pretty deeply gouged. Will the acetone help smooth that out. How will the color be affected?

 

OEM cowls I found for ~~ $450 a piece which is going to run me 30% of what I paid for the bike.

 

For the same price there's an aftermarket kit I found for the whole body. Any experience with those? Can I do half OEM half of that or would I do better just putting a whole aftermarket cowl on.

 

Thanks for the replies guys!

[airwalk]

Make a paste from acetone & abs bits/sawdust, it’ll fill the scratches. Build up a bit, sand down to finish. Amazing how well you can fix/rebuild by using this stuff, will work as thin glue or thicker filler. You might even colour match a little by choosing raw plastic from pieces of “Lego”, or anything that’s abs 

[Thumbs]

Once you have a structural repair then you can use whatever you want, I like to use cellulose putty to get the panel to the point where I’ll put paint on it 

 

If it’s OEM colour then you can get paint fairly easily 

 

Chinese fairings fit where they touch, basically a last resort 

[Ughandi]

AirTech Streamlining hooked me up. They make fiberglass/carbon fairings for nearly every bike in existence.

Made in USA, and the folks there are legendary for their work on speed record bikes.

They are located just outside San Diego

[ShipFixer]

You may be able to just get a new side fairing in that color from Partzilla or a used one from eBay, dont forget that.

 

I was able to get almost all new plastic for my 2002 in 2020.  A lot of those parts in R157 red are no longer available NOS in 2023 though.  Worth checking for matte black.

 

Repair and repaint with colors from Colorite is also a good option.  I did this for pieces I could not replace.

[3rdgenred]

With Plastic repair, please keep in mind the area in which you do the work. The smoke fumes aren't to be inhaled, and nobody else should be near you. 😁 as for the abs, don't use the solid core. Use the foam core stuff. It gets more pliable, and is easier to use. I've never used the acetone trick. I may try that. Good luck. From the sounds of it, YOU are ok. Nice job on bein a ninja😁

[Dutchy]

On 11/2/2023 at 7:05 PM, 3rdgenred said:

 The smoke fumes aren't to be inhaled, and nobody else should be near you. 😁