repairing side panels for vinyl coating

Decided it was finally time to do something about the side/ rad panels on my SD.

They are scuffed, one from a bike a bought damaged the other from lending a bike to my mate for a trackday !!
as you can see they are a bit of a state






so I started by V-ing out the cracks and superglueing them up






then I sanded off the face of the panels, removing the superduke logos ( I also used scotchbrite over the lip of the panels to help the vinyl stick)



Little bit of filler



and I'm going to lunch, rest will be done later

Hope your better than me at them dude. I had to do mine a few times to get them acceptable. It's a trade in itself to apply that shit.

This is the bit now where you rub them down perfectly, then apply the vinyl ans it shows every teeny little imperfection in the panel you thought was perfect. Spent a full day prepping and covering mine, only to have to rip it off and start again.

The panel with the lip for the rad cap is an utter pain in the ass.

Any bubbles and ripples come out with a hairdrier .

Think we should start taking bets on this.

Is Jody.................

Still hunched over the kitchen table sweating and swearing and throwing the hairdryer about. 8/1

Gave up and painted them instead 12/1

Handed them in to a graphics place to get them done 15/1

You could always try Dynoc - the carbon vinyl covering from 3M. It's really easy to apply and you can reheat it and peel it off easy as well. It is thicker than graphics vinyl I think so will mask a bit more imperfections. Depends if you can live with the "fake' carbon look though. There is a matt black version too though I think - isn't this what all the poser Ferraris round central London are done with?

But anyway, repairing plastics for paint is not so bad - you just have to be patient and keep on sanding down and spraying and eventually you'll get there. I spent my mispsent youth respraying bike tanks and filling in the dints and gashes from crashes. The worst tank ever to repair by far was the Yamaha aircooled RD coffin shaped tank because it was made up from loads of flat panels and small radii and was a bastard to get right. The easiest was the smooth teardrop shaped tanks like the KH Kawasakis because they were just one big surface of curve and you could get away with a lot of error and it looked good. Modern plastics are just crack filling - back then you had to use a kilo of filler to repair a dented tank.

Good luck Jody.

Well believe it or not I've had to work yesterday and today so not touching the panels till the weekend !!