[Stone859]

Hello:

I am new to the group, but have been reading the post for several weeks and find all the information very helpful. I recently purchased a 2006 Burgman 650 Executive with a little over 3900 miles. The gentleman I purchased it from let the scooter get away from him a couple of times and it has some "road rash" on the mirrors, the grab rails, and some on the tupperware underneath the floor boards. I believe I know how to handle the repairs to the painted tupperware (remove, smooth the scratches, prime and paint). However, while some of the painted tupperware was getting scratched it also scratched the unpainted black plastic panels along the edges where the painted panels and the black plastic panel meets . Also, the black piece called the "front box" on the right hand side is scratched and has a crack right where the lower right hand corner of the glove box is. I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to repair this "black" plastic to make it look good. Is there someway to sand it, or polish it to take it back to the stock appearance? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Scooter_Maniac]

Many (including myself) have repaired cracks with a couple of methods. After preparing the crack, you can either use heat and scrap ABS plastic to "weld" it (there are also inexpensive plastic weld guns with variable temperatures and "weld sticks" of various types of plastic) or, make a slurry with ABS shavings and a acrylic solvent (I had a hard time finding it but, finally did so at a local model shop). If you can get to it, it's advisable to reinforce the back side of the crack with extra material. For simple scratched areas, sand it smooth and then apply heat to the area with a clean flame. Done carefully, I found this satisfactorily renewed the semi-gloss look to it. Even areas where the scratches are too deep to get completely out without ruining the contours, the applied heat softens the edges of the scratches and makes them MUCH less evident. I have a 400 which came close to being totalled from a slow-speed drop which resulted in a number of rashed and cracked body panels and other cosmetic damage. Insurance estimate was about $4k. All I ended up paying for was a paint job on the repaired painted panels, new side wind deflectors and windshield, and new saddle bags. While not perfect, it's difficult to find remnants of the damage and the insurance payoff after new parts put us well on the way to buy a second '09 400 for my wife! YouTube has a number of videos on ABS repairs.

 

[Dave_J]

Welcome to the best of the best forums out there.

For cracks you can use a broad tip in a soldiering on the back side of the crack to heat it to the melting point and smooth it out. This takes a bit of practice. Use some black UV protected wire ties as filler and to add a bit of over layment on the backside of the crack. The plastic of the tupperware is ABS and it can be bonded with ABS glue but use it with caution as it can melt thru. Smooth surfaced ABS can be wet sanded but it takes time. The fake leather or pebble surface I have seen a body shop match it but I do not know how they did it.

Enjoy the Burgman 650. It has a few learing curves for ya but not too hard to master. Learn the engine braking and always add a bit of brake lever to put the rear brake light on as it can startle a driver behind you when your Burgman drops out of Hyper drive. Never get off the throttle in a slow corner or the bike will drop out from under ya, trail the throttle just a bit with some rear brake.

 

[Stone859]

Thanks guys these are great sugestions...I was hopping there might be something I could try to help clean it up with out buying new parts. I'll try some of these things out...sounds hopeful to me. Also, thats for the driving hints, I'll be sure to keep those in mind as I get some miles on the bike.