Quick and Dirty Fiberglass repair..?

[Trent1098S]

My 1098 tailsection is pretty busted up. It's a two-piece deal. The upper sharkskin piece is, well, in pieces. The lower FACTORY piece (basically a heat shield, since it has undertail exhaust) is busted down the middle. The lower piece has plastic clips that the top piece slides on - those are all sheared off, leaving nothing left to "mate" the two halves together.

What's the best temporary hold-it-together repair until (if & when) I get a new one? It's unrepairable from a painting standpoint - not worried about looks, but I'm glad it was there and would like to keep it around... It sure provided some useful padding when the tailsection tried to pound me in my ass (literally).

Here's my thoughts, in order..

1) LOTS of "Ducati Red" Duct Tape along the cracks (got a spiffy colored roll I bought at Wallyworld last year), drill new holes & zip tie the pieces together.

2) Epoxy the cracks, duct tape over the epoxy, drill holes, zip tie the bits together (much stronger but take longer)

3) Tailsection? Who needs a stupid tailsection??!

 

[Landshark]

Trent, racers tape never fails tech. LOL

 

[tittys04]

yep.... i vote #1

 

[greeny]

fiberglass repair kit from your local auto parts store

 

[jeff15]

greeny;128178 wrote: fiberglass repair kit from your local auto parts store

:agree: Repaired mine after a low side. Wouldn't be able to tell it was crashed, but a 12 pack didn't help the cause during repair
Sets up pretty fast, I had it done in one day.

 

[dbakerpa]

If you take the tail off and repair the plastic with about three layers of fiberglass mesh it will be pretty strong. Then you can go to the side that shows and fill it with BONDO. sand smooth and then rattle can it or order factory paint from COLOR RITE.
You would be shocked at how good you can make it look for just a few hours of work. My street bike looks better on the side I fixed than the factory side- And that was from a lowside at the track at about 50 mph.

 

[gkotlin]

I've only seen one set of of bodywork that wasn't repairable.

Greeny got you covered. Fiberglass repair kit. Don't use bondo. It's to hard, chips and cracks.
Go with glazing putty. It flexes more, doesn't crack and sands nicely.

 

[ceptorman]

You can temporarily tape the pieces together then fiberglass the back side. Sand, primer and paint. Like everybody said it's fairly simple..and very rewarding when you see the finished product.

 

[RandyO]

zip ties and a drill work pretty nice for pulling the stuff together when you cant fix it right away..

 

[shaugdog]

I thought something was bent on the ducati trent? You get that taken care of?

 

[Trent1098S]

shaugdog;128297 wrote: I thought something was bent on the ducati trent? You get that taken care of?

My first set of measurements were from the rearsets. One side is mounted in a different spot than the other, and one side was bent to hell & gone. (Frame is bent on the right side where the rearsets mount, but the rest is straight)

Rear subframe, for sure, is bent off to one side a bit. That's what makes the rear wheel look cockeyed when you look at it from the back of the bike. Your eye naturally tracks along the tailsection, and it makes it look like the rear wheel is pointed off to one side, when it's really the tailsection.

When I took off enough stuff to get measurements from points on the frame to each side of the axle, without any obstructions, it turned out to be fine. There was a 1/8" difference on one of four different measurements, but the rest were the same. Three out of four is good enough.

Really, the only way I'm going to know for sure, is to go ride it for a bit and see if it feels the same. Need a clutch lever, then I'll take it for a spin around the neighborhood. No cops out in the boondocks here, don't need plates, lights, any of that crap to go out and crack it open a bit to see if it tracks straight.. (and if it does feel fine..maybe a bit of WOT on the way back....).

 

[27Ducati]

I've got a free stock clutch lever from my bike if you want it. It's from a S model so it's' black. Couldn't remember if you were running fancy levers or not.