Repairing the bodywork, known as coachwork in some areas:

OK, why bother?

Let’s start with the paint quality, and trying to match the stock paint.

Honda Goldwings, from day 1, had the best paint on them that Honda could product. I have had many trial samples done by many different professional paint-shop entities, and the best of them can’t truly emulate the Honda paint to match up one piece that is mounted next to another stock piece. You will always see the difference. The only variance to that is NH1 Black: that is easy to match, because it is simply black. A good sequence of clear coats, and you won’t notice a difference. Any other color: well, no chance. I have spent a lot of money to have that fact proven.

A codicil to the above statement about black paint on your Goldwing: I bought a new 2014 GL1800C Valkyrie, with the mandatory 1 mile on it. At 1030 miles as crotchety old lady hooked her sleeve on the front brake-lever while she was walking by. She turned around, and whacked my brand-new gas-tank with her cane: and dinged it. I refused a re-paint. The insurance company and I battled for 6 weeks. I finally got statements from the service managers of two Honda Power-sports shops that stated there was no way it could be matched properly. They bought me a new tank: $1200 plus installation. That black had hints in it that were NOT pure black.

Why is that statement true about not being able to match the paint properly?

Let’s take a relatively new bike, that hasn’t had time to start to fade due to ultra-violet rays from the sun. I have a client who is the owner of Western Paint in Burnaby, BC. They specialize in exotic paints, automotive and otherwise. Ed explained some of the reasons why Honda’s paint is so hard to get a true match on.

The base: not so difficult, but the job really needs a proper color base paint coded by either US Paints or Pittsburgh Paints, dependant on the year: and then the trouble begins. You must obtain the proper base for that particular paint-code. Then the base must be laid on in particular temperatures, specific number of coats, set for a specific time before the color-coat goes on.

The color-coat again had it’s particular application method and timings and layers.

Then the clear-coat(s): If the temperature is not close to perfect, then you get orange-peel, and differences in depth.The number of coats, when they are applied between coats for setting and blending, how thickly they are applied: all makes a difference in the outcome of the ‘shading’.

Now lets take a look at the older bike, one that has seen the sun for many miles, and is a bit faded from the original. Again, it would take Houdini to match it. Especially so if that older paint still looks great due to your superlative maintenance: but the fading will be there, regardless.

If you are lucky, and the part is available from Honda still, then you can buy a new piece of plastic, typically at insane prices, and it looks so good that you like it even though it is brighter and deeper than your existing bodywork.

Where is this all leading to?

Over the past 25 years I have had the occasion to either discard and buy new, or to repair dozens of newer or older Goldwing body pieces. Bearing in mind:

1) That the finished product must look good, and that is a given.

2) It has to match the existing body fading-extent: and if your are repairing the piece, then the fading-match is already done.

3) The repair, if made: will it basically ‘disappear’ when the piece is mounted when done? Can you can repair it from the inside and leave the exterior alone, and then finish it with a touch-up paint stick(s) and a shot of clear-coat? Will it at least be as strong as the original?

With those considerations in mind: then you have to make the decision to try to buy, or to repair the piece.

How to do it? Materials? Methods?

As mentioned above: over 25 years, I have repaired, back to at least as strong as it was originally: nearly every piece of plastic on a Goldwing, and nearly each and every model. That means fairings, windshield garnishes, fenders: both sections, both front and rear, trunk bases, trunk boxes, side covers, shelters, dash panels, meter panels, engine covers, and so on. Early on I had some pieces welded by professionals, and after viewing their work, I knew I could do it better, simply because I care.

There are two types of repairs that can be done on the body-work:

Physical welding: literally welding/melting the two pieces back together (typically using a soldering iron), or

Bonding: using a compound that creates a molecular bond between the two pieces with a ‘filler’ compound. In the early years I tried everything: ABS glues, fairing-kits, cyanoacrylate with different compounds added, and every compound that I could find and try, to obtain a truly good joint between the pieces. My conclusion: not one of them work. Then, I struck upon JB Weld Plastic Bond. Now, that, properly applied, actually does the job.

Welding: methodology:

When to use? When you have a piece that is broken off of a body part when the repair may be visible and it is a clean break, then that is a candidate for welding. A cracked piece which is NOT broken right off if the perfect candidate. It is in-place, and you don’t have to tack it. Just ensure that any gaps are fully compressed together when you are welding it.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you are welding ABS you MUST be in either open-air, or have a VERY good ventilation system. That stuff throws off gases that will definitely make you sick, and probably tweak your DNA. Keep a fan on, outside, and be cross-wind of your work.

The Approach:

You must bear in mind that you are using heat to melt the plastic. Therefore, unless you are VERY careful the heat will injure the exterior paint. Test this out a couple times on scrap ABS, preferably a piece from the same era of Goldwing. Each ABS used over the years has, I believe, a slightly different molecular structure, OR perhaps it reacts differently as it gets older: vibration-fatigued, and/or age and ultra-violet creating brittle ABS plastic.

Method:

For a cracked piece:

Think of it just like welding metal. Heat a fine-point soldering iron until it is full heated. While it is heating, get some plastic and tape it over all the paint except the area to be repaired. Use packing tape and tape over the crack from the outside. You must use a transparent tape because you want to keep a very close eye on the paint. At the very first hint that you are overheating, that will show up in the exterior paint, and you do not want that at all.

When the soldering iron is fully heated, run the tip along the crack, gauging the depth into the plastic to at least 1/2 the thickness, and a little more if you have lotsa guts, good eyes, and good hands: to create a “V” in the material between the edges of the crack. Where the crack stops, this is where you really must be careful: because you are going to melt nearly through the plastic by pushing the tip into the very end of the crack, and create a ‘stopper’ on that crack. Essentially, at the very end of the crack. Otherwise, with vibration over the years that crack may continue to spread.

Get a piece of the scrap ABS you hopefully have on hand (or send me a note for some), wire-brush ALL of the paint from it, and cut a thin strip (3/16″or so) of it a couple inches long. That is your ‘welding stick’.

Very carefully start to melt the ‘stick’ into the “V” you created, to above the level of the crack at first, starting into the good plastic just before the ‘stopper’ you created and filling the crack fully: CAREFULLY. Don’t have the heat on the piece constantly in one spot. It’s better to put several layers on thinly making sure they are melted together, than to try and do the whole bead at once and create too much heat which which damage the exterior paint.

A tip: melt the plastic with the iron until is is about ready to drip, then make push it into the “V” with the tip of the iron. Rub the tip back and forth a couple times to make certain that you are melting the ‘new’ plastic into the old plastic. You must do that anywhere that old and new meet, or you won’t have a welded bond: you’ll simply have new lying on top of old, which is useless.

When the bead is done, then what happens next is dependant on where and how the piece is mounted. If at all possible and the ‘bead’ created doesn’t interfere with the mounting of the piece, then the next step is to reinforce the bead you melted in. Cut another small strip of the ABS, this time about the length of the crack, and covering the end of the crack where you put the ‘stopper’ bead. Tack that at the sides and both ends, then carefully melt the edges of that reinforcement piece into the plastic, again paying attention not to create too much heat in one spot. Better to do a series of small tacks, and ‘walk’ around the piece filling in spaces between the tacks until you have it all done. Do that carefully, and you are done. You can mount the piece almost immediately.

For a piece that is fully broken off:

Essentially the same processes are done as above, with the following exceptions. If you have the piece that broke off then yahoo! it makes the job that much more simple.

If the piece is there, then inspect it for deformity. If it was bent while breaking off, them a bit of heat with a heat gun can be used to put it back to proper shape. That typically will occur, of it does, right at the edges of the break.

If the piece is nice and straight, then (again with fully heated iron) tack it back, from the inside, to where is belongs, on both ends of the crack and in the middle, ensuring that you are compressing the pieces together while the plastic is still moldable, holding it there for a minute.

After that is done (and this almost always is mount-tabs that are broken), gently place the piece to where it mounts on the bike to ensure it is correctly positioned with the tacks.

If all is well, then proceed with the instructions, verbatim, above in ‘cracks’. “V” it out, use ‘sticks’ But work slowly from the middle of the break out to the ends, in steps. Reinforce if you can do so by any means. Where the repair might interfere, I have gone so far as to create the reinforcement strip added onto it, then carefully grind down and trim the thickness of that strip down to a thickness of about 1/2mm. It won’t really interfere much, yet it will add structural strength. (See below: Bridging the Crack for Reinforcement”, and make the decision now as to whether you think the piece you are repairing needs that step.)

IF you don’t have the broken tab: make one. You’ll see by going to Fender Repair how that can be done. And that was the most finite and demanding repair that I have ever found it necessary to do.

Bonding Pieces with JB Weld Plastic Bond:

Again, going to Repair Fender will give you ideas on how that should be done. Essentially, with any piece you are bonding back together, there’s a few things to keep in mind.

It won’t be as strong as welding it unless you do add layers to reinforce it. You can reinforce it quite easily by using pieces of clean strong wire (guitar high ‘e’ string is very useful) for bridging-reinforcements. Failing that a good large-size paper-clip cut into appropriate lengths will do.

Regardless what materials you use, you must have Isopropyl alcohol on hand. Every piece that is to be bonded must be wiped thoroughly to ensure it is clean: free of debris, free of finger-oils.

Method:

For pieces that are clean breaks and you have the piece that broke off:

Mix a small batch of JB Bond, and after cleaning the mating surfaces, and letting the JB set up a little (that can be 8-15 minutes, temperatures dependant): put a very thing coat on both pieces to be mated, and let them sit until it is nice and tacky. Push the pieces together, wiggle them together to ensure that you are forcing the bonding into the tint fractured areas. You should have put enough between the pieces that it is obviously extruding from the crack, but overly so. Leave it for 5 minutes. Then wipe the Bond off of any (exterior) painted surface that will show, right down to nothing but the hairline crack.

While that is setting a little more you can find materials to clamp the items together in any way possible. I have used many methods, depending on the shape of the piece: from bungy cords to C-clamps, to Vise-grip clamps, to pieces of sturdy twine that I ‘net’ the pieces together with tightly.

Come back and check the positioning of the mating pieces, and if good, then mix up another small batch of bond, lay it over the ‘bead’ of extruded JB, inside. Compress them together again, and clamp them together. Let it sit: preferably for 4 hours or more. I usually do this late evenings, and let it sit overnight. That’s the best effect.

Bridging the Crack for Reinforcement

Now, this is where the thin wire (‘pins’) comes in. With a dremel tool or some such (soldering iron will work, but be careful about the heat factor): cut little “V”s across the line of the remaining crack, every two inches or so, deep enough that the little pieces of wire will drop into them and not extrude from the surface. This means you will be going deeper into the ‘bead’ you created with the JB Bond, down to the same level as the cut into the surface of the inside of the repaired area that you are creating.

Mix another small batch of JB Bond. Clean the pins with alcohol, as well as the surfaces and “V”s of the repair. Wipe the pins in the Bond, make sure they are coated, add a very thin coat to the “V”s you created, use a clean set of tweezers or whatever (clean needle-nose pliers) to push the pins into the “V’s” ensuring that they are truly embedded. Then add another good bead of JB over each of the little pins, above the level of the repaired area, and all over the repaired area as wide as the pins are long plus 1/16 inch.

(Bear in mind this ‘pinning’ works the same, and frankly better, if you have to bend the wires to conform with ‘breaks’, roles or curves on the surface of the repaired area. Just make sure they accurately conform)

After this is all completed, and set for at least another 4 hours, then you can take your Dremel or similar tool, and clean up the area. Try to leave the center bead extruding on the interior of you can, and grind the area flat and clean, but with a 1mm build-up all over the repair area.

Again: if you want to see this in action, go the the Fender Repair. It doesn’t get more complicated that that process.

The End Result of your Labour:

Paint: Primer, Base coat, Color Coat, and Clear Coat can all be purchased from Colorite.com. It is always handy to have the necessary ‘sticks around for little rock chips and things like that. Practise on pieces before doing your own bike. That is important.

Generally for bodywork repairs on your Goldwing:

Be careful. Think it through as you are doing it. Do NOT be hasty, or your work will be in vain.

Done right, you will have restored a piece that at the least is very expensive, and at the worst is simply not available.

Done carefully you can do it so that a little touch-up on the exterior to make the hairline cracks disappear (which again can take practise), and you will be on the road, again proud of your Goldwing: regardless of the year and model. Way to go, bro/sis Winger!

Ride safely.