Testarossa's 78 KZ1000 Fighter Build

As you can see, all the supports are crackin'. Here's the other broken one:

Now this tail had quite a lot of paint on it, and the previous body men chose to leave these broken supports. Opposite from the first picture was a sizeable low spot that was filled with polyester filler. I'll try and show how I fixed them. Here's the low spot in question:

Now the second cracked support just needed to be bent back into postion, and welded back in place.

Now the other break is a little more tricky. Rather than trying to re-use that broken and bent support, I chose to replace it. So first step was to cut it out:

Next, I cut out a cardboard template for the new piece. You'll notice that I'm using a clamp to support the side in the absence of the plastic support.

Then cut out a matching ABS piece that was scavenged from my scrap KZ750 tail.

Now weld it in place with my soldering gun:

Then, I welded in some ABS to fill the low:

Finally, I used a sanding block to level it down to the tail.

This type of repair will have some pinholes in the surface that usually become evident when you start to paint. These holes will need to be filled before the finish paint job gets applied. I just prefer to have that low filled with plastic instead of the two part filler. Who ever painted the skull on the tail was talented with the airbrush. The paint itself was well done, but not to my taste. However, there was so much paint that the accumulated thickness was just too much. It was flaking off in dime sized chunks. I measured one of these paint chips at 0.022". I'm not sure why someone would put that much work into a custom paint job and not prep it better. Their solution to deal with the flaws in the underlying paint was to apply a skim coat of poly filler over the whole tail. In some places, this filler was as much as 0.030" thick. It's all gone now.

One quick update tonight. I have the plastic bodywork 99% sanded and ready for paint. I can't feel my thumbs, but I'm glad to have that part done. Plastic parts are no fun to prep for paint. Give me some good 'ole steel bodywork any day.

I find that its not so much the plastic parts, its the SMALL parts that are hard to hold on to while you work on them. You cant clamp them in a vise, you cant put an pressure on them while holding and sanding, and it can still be difficult to get all the nooks and crannies when the part is mounted. Damn small parts On the bright side, you did a good job fixing those pieces. After your first couple coats of primer, if any pinholes show up use a razor knife or exacto blade to chamfer the pinholes and fill them with spot/glazing putty. A thin coat with more than normal pressure to force the putty into the pinholes while scraping the excess putty of the part