Whats the deal with plastics?

[YBW]

I'm looking for a right side cover and right fender for my 250es... There are probably 20 LEFT covers on eBay, and one right one for twice what I can buy 2 new sets of side covers for.:wondering Kind of seeing the same thing with fenders. Why so many left covers, and why do people bother trying to charge 2 or 3 times what you can buy new plastics for?!

[83ATC185]

The right side is harder to find, being broken from the kicker or tossed by the wayside when the battery dies. The maier pieces don't fit or look as good as the OEMs.

[RUNMEDOWN]

Yup, I'm am in the same boat. I accidentally bought an 85 250es with snow plow last night. It needs the right side cover and right rear fender. The prices on ebay are ridiculous. I wonder how hard it would be to make one. I was thinking to shape a mold out of a solid chunk of wood by cutting out the pattern then melting a sheet of plastic over the top using gravity to pull the plastic into the mold, like a vacuum form without the vacuum. I may have to play in the garage this weekend.

[83ATC185]

I accidentally bought an 85 250es with snow plow last night.

:lol::beer this is my new go to!

[YBW]

As first I thought "snow plow" referred to a member of the forum, now I see what your talking about! Did you buy it for the plow or was it just a bonus? Yeah on top of the new plastics not fitting as well I'm reluctant to get them because then the rest of mine will look like junk.

[jeswinehart]

Well give me about 3 to 4 weeks and I will make you a roght side kicker cover :)
I'm doing a run of rubber products for a few members as well as other rubber products I have been out of (tecate intake boot's - bigred ES/SX rubber clutch adjustment covers) ,,,, sevral other rubber products no longer available in oem).
But got my 2nd. side cover mold wore out but it still works good enough.
So yeah,,,, shortly I will be switching over to plastic parts (side cover ~ right side only,,,, Tecate coolant bottles, tecate tool box,,,, lots of cool stuff the mrs. and myself do.
How about 65 dollars shipped stateside,,,, That work ?

[Queef Chief]

John, my brother will be in for a right side cover for 250es.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[YBW]

I'm assuming you meant RIGHT side kicker cover? That doesn't sound half bad, I was thinking of just getting some red plastic then heat gunning and super gluing and see what I end up with. Maybe even rigging it up so it just flips out of the way instead of having to take it all the way off? Hmmmmm....

[jeswinehart]

Oh gosh,,, yes right side. I corrected most all my goofs in posting

[YBW]

Looking at my fender, its really not too terrible. It has a couple of longish cracks and about a 1x2 inch chunk missing but that's about it. Is there a tried and true method of fixing that type of stuff? Epoxy? Fiberglass? Glue?

[Hair Bear Bunch]

Looking at my fender, its really not too terrible. It has a couple of longish cracks and about a 1x2 inch chunk missing but that's about it. Is there a tried and true method of fixing that type of stuff? Epoxy? Fiberglass? Glue?
On my machine, both fenders were broken with bits missing across the apex of the curve.
Unfortunately I dont have any good pictures to hand but what I did was to run a strip of flat steel about 1" wide and 1/8" thick and work it to follow along the inner edge of the plastic from the trunk down to the pegs. Once happy with the fit I drilled and pop rivited it to the underside of the plastic to give the shape some strength. With the seat and sidepanels in place the rivets are hardly noticeable.
Then I lined up the cracked / broken parts and 'welded' the cracks with a soldering iron. By 'welding' I mean slowly and carefully working the iron along the seam with a slight reciprocal motion which slightly melts both edges and sticks them together. This needs to be done on both sides as at this point I am not adding any extra material and this is far from a full thickness or full strength weld.
To replace the missing bits I used a broken ABS plastic storage crate (just so happens it was red!), cut out sections to suit the gaps I had and 'welded' them into place.
It's not a full strength repair and won't put up with a lot of abuse, nor is it invisible, but if you're a cheapskate like me then it's good in my book.
I did this at least 10 years ago now, and I've had the odd crack reopen which I've had to reattach but generally I've been very happy with the result.

Hope this helps...

[YBW]

Thanks Hair Bear, this is what I ended up with last night:

236794236795236796

I don't know if you can see, but the side cover had about a 1 inch split in the bottom. I cut this section of it off to have "filler rod" for the z shaped crack in the fender as well as patches for the section missing around the outside. I also ordered a sheet of Kydex in "EMT red" that I am hoping to make a new side cover with. The plan is to mold it in such a way the the kickstart folds on top of the cover in a recess, and then to insulate the back so the exhaust doesn't cause the Kydex to soften again. Right now I'm looking for a high power soldering iron and waiting for the Kydex, I'll report on how it pans out.

[YBW]

Well I borrowed a pen style iron with a temperature dial (which ended up being a really useful feature) from a friend and gave it a go.

236812236813236814236815

I started by stitching together the z crack and then cut patches for the chunk that was missing. After I got the patch tacked in on the front side I flipped the fender over and stitched everything on the back. You can see how tightly my patch fit on the back side--it really pays to take your time and carve out the perfect shape rather than trying to fill the gap, but if you weld you already knew that. To finish up I flipped back to the front and filled/smoothed as best I could without getting too crazy. It looks good from 5 feet away and should stand up to normal riding. I figure if the person I sell it to isn't satisfied I can give them whats left of the scraps and they can go nuts, or just buy a new fender. I am worried about how it will hold up with my wife getting on and off and resting her leg on it though...

[jeswinehart]

Pretty darn impressive imo !!!

Nice work for sure.
john

[YBW]

Thanks jeswinehart, like I said, it could look a lot better with some more time but that's not time I'm willing to put in. I got the Kydex in today and the color was pretty much perfect. In hind sight I probably should have used the "back" side of the sheet so that it matched the rest of the trike but live and learn. Overall I don't think it turned out bad, especially for $10 and about 10 minutes. The kicker folds up into it and the top kind of clips on to the rear fender, then I have a piece of wire holding it to the front mounting hole that I can untwist if I need to take it off.

237038

[Big G]

Okay, we know why the right side covers go missing (due to throwing them to the side when accessing the kick start, only to get lost in the shuffle and ending up who knows where), but I've always wondered why the rubber clutch adjustment cover goes missing on these so often?...Any theories?