Heads Up for Partzilla

I have had a few orders with partzilla.com, one I had an issue with.

I will tell you, that even despite an "incident" in which I felt their service could have been better, I have found them to be very worthy of my repeated business.

I ordered new, left and right "skirt" body pieces. Hesitantly, as body pieces are expensive. Shortly after install, the left piece developed a crack/break at the connection point.

Well, I figured my loss.

Out of curiosity, more than anything else, I inquired at their CS portal whether they agreed with me that this could be a mfg. defect.

Sent me a return label and a new part. No further interaction required.

Nice.

Be careful with the left side under cover that supports your left foot when riding. It does have a tendency to crack at the corner where the foot rest starts upwards. I have had two Swings that cracked at that location. Had to add ABS pieces on the underside to strengthen the foot rest.

As it happens, I have a repair job coming up on some Honda Hawk plastic parts. They're notorious for breaking about midway along. I'll photograph it and write it up. I intend cadding up and printing some new mounting bosses for it too.

Easyrider wrote:

The Dude wrote:

I have been using Super Glue but it's messy. So plastic model glue will work better I gather. Makes sense.

I use the ABS plastic cement glue to reinforce weak points. I try to use old broken Swing plastic pieces and cement it to the underside. That is the same cement used for ABS pipes. Careful in not using too much cement. It forms a chemical bond, which means that it melts the two plastic pieces together. You could also use drywall mesh tape and coat it with ABS cement. The webbing makes a very strong patch.

My front fascia probably has about <50% original connectors left. I am considering a $400 replacement, before they are all gone. The Dark Metallic Gray was only available one year (2008) so I have noticed they are disappearing quickly.

However, I am considering a paint job. I really want a "silver" Silver Wing. The silver of the foot peg assemblies, wheels and forks are likely the color I will be shooting for. In that case, the underlying color would not matter much.

But if I could repair the front fascia, that would hurt a lot less. I only wish I would have retained the skirt panels I replaced. That would have been a ton of raw material for repairs and reinforcements.

Quote :

My front fascia probably has about <50% original connectors left

Mine has less and I just drilled small holes around the edge and stitched it together with cable ties. It had a hard life on bumpy roads and then I came along and let my sidecar outfit roll back into it and knock it over and a few months later dropped it on a well lubricated farm track.

When I got it back up on two wheels at the farm, I really thought it had made its last journey under its own power. The faring was down on the ground, my new Givi screen was in little bits, the handlebars were twisted and bent and I had a bucket of ABS confetti.

The cable ties have worked great. It now rattles and squeaks much less than when I bought it.

The other thing I've done is fitted blocks of wood between the outer panels and the glove boxes and put bolts through. That really stiffened the whole lot up. The boxes sit on steel mounts and they carry most of the load from the faring to the frame.

sonuvabug wrote:

Dude, you can build new tabs and connectors using the Plast-Aid kit.  It comes with a piece of flexible silicone that you use to take/make an impression of a "good tab", then you use it as a mould to create new tabs etc.  

I've tried their approach and it works.  The tough part is positioning/fitting the newly constructed tab back into the same place with the right angles where the old tab broke off.  Check Windy Urtnowski's YouTube channel.  I think he demonstrates how to do this in one of his many videos.  Sorry I don't remember which one.

Cool, That's awesome. Thanks Bug. Yes I am looking for a more substantial repair for the front fairing. With the new skirts, the rest of the bike is fairly solid.

smellybeard wrote:

Mine has less and I just drilled small holes around the edge and stitched it together with cable ties. It had a hard life on bumpy roads and then I came along and let my sidecar outfit roll back into it and knock it over and a few months later dropped it on a well lubricated farm track.

When I got it back up on two wheels at the farm, I really thought it had made its last journey under its own power. The faring was down on the ground, my new Givi screen was in little bits, the handlebars were twisted and bent and I had a bucket of ABS confetti.

The cable ties have worked great. It now rattles and squeaks much less than when I bought it.

The other thing I've done is fitted blocks of wood between the outer panels and the glove boxes and put bolts through. That really stiffened the whole lot up. The boxes sit on steel mounts and they carry most of the load from the faring to the frame.

I do have hardwood blocks at the main dash points near the glove boxes as well. I also have some areas stitched together with cable ties. The cable ties do seem to loosen up after awhile, but you can get them pretty tight and avoid any rattles.  They are barely noticeable and quiet effective.

I'm gonna look into the "Plast-Aid" and see if I can't come up with something. I seem to have the fairing off a lot to work on this and that, so it would be nice to have something a bit more permanent than the wood blocks and cable ties.

Well, Partzilla sent the "right" (not the right) skirt.