I used the method describbed above by drilling holes and using zip ties. If you don't drill one at the end of the crack then it will keep growning.

Also, I have found that for some reason having a cracked plastic on an ATV is like having a badly bruised big toe. No matter how hard you try to protect that bruised toe it is like a magnet to everything dropped or moving. The same thing is true about a cracked fender. Seems like once it is done it is like a magnet to other sticks, trees, toes [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

On my old Honda I used alternating red and white zip ties and crossed then in an X pattern so it looked like a red and white shoe lace.

I have also used pop rivets and a small chunk of tin when the crack occured on corners that needed support. It works OK but I was cheap and used steel rivets that rusted quickly.

SJ

 

I put a tree through my plastics recently.. it wasnt just a crack all the the way through from the fender edge to the seat about 15 inches long... but there is also a whole that i s about 3 inches in diameter. my first attempt involved an epoxy "plastic weld" stuff that you can find in the Depot. That seeamed to work great for the regular old crack. when i got to the whole i glued fiberglass webbing matterial to the back of the whole.. then i gut up a bunch of the fiberglass into a little pile of cotton ... mixed the cut up fiberglass with epoxy and filled in teh whole.

i think it woudl have worked if i had also used the fiberglass webing all along the length of the crack. the fix really did look like it was a perminent one. but alas... it was not.

i am going to try it again using the same techneque with some revisions on the webbing. my father also informs that boat repairers use a polyester resin when the want it to be flexible. maybe ill give that a shot. i was also thinking of dripping P-tex of ski repair tech into the wound.

ive tried the zip tie thing. it usually lasts me a day. Unlike "HeftyLefty" I ride anything but responsibly. Careful is not a skill i posses im afraid.

"Ride it like its stolen or go home." is pretty much my moto. Its a pretty expensive moto by the way so to each is own.

 

Yeah I quess lefty has never had an accident!

I recently hit a large semi covered rock which busted the tire right off its bead. Sent me flying and flipped the quad and broke the plastic. I thought I was screwed because it was so thin where it broke. My buddy works on airplanes and brought me home some Double/Bubble epoxy they use on everything. At first it wouldn't stick, but after sanding down the plastic and building it up a little, its good to go. The stuff worked great on the headlight too. The mounting tabs broke off of it and after using the epoxy, I think its stronger than when it was new!

 

ill check it out... thanks for the tip

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Faster250R

Drill a hole just before a spot the crack has arrived at. Then drill holes in a stiching manner on the sides of the crack and use zip-ties to bined it together. That is a ten year fix if you don't crash... Again, or leave it in the weather!
</end quote></div>

We do this fix regularly and were lucky if it makes it a day. its not worse than any of the other fixes out there that also dont work. I have tried everything.

The weakness seems to be the location where most cracks occur... down there on above the footwell on the outside.. slowly creeping their way up.

i eventually gave up on one fender where every repiar would just decintigrate. I went down and got a truck mud flap and just used big fender washers nuts and bolts to put it on. becuase its not stressed from the constant weight and shock of the riders feet.. it holds up. It does not look nice...

The bottom line is that they can make these things much more durrable... but they dont... i dont know why... they just need to be able to flex a lot more when you catch them on somethning....

as far as not crashing... thats non-responsive to the original posters question.

 

Let me share a little secret I've learned with everyone......

Mighty Putty...... Ever see those stupid commercials for "Mighty Putty"? Basically the stuff is like a clay version of automotive body filer, or "Bondo" as most people call it.

But in the clay form, as Mighty Putty is, you can use it to literally glue your plastics together. One of my neighbors rolled his Rincon and cracked the plastics pretty bad. We basically trimmed the bad plastic away, used the Might Putty to fill the gap and bond the two sides together. We even molded ribs of the putty to strengthen the back side of the plastic in case vibration caused the plastics to weaken. This is obviously impossible with Bondo, at least while the plastics are still on because it is so wet but with the Mighty Putty is holds right there even upside down. You have time to spread it out and pat it down. Then when its dry you can sand it down smooth like the plastic.

Now obviously from there you are either going to have to paint it or leave a gray stripe in your plastics. We got some Krylon Fusion paint and masked it off and painted only the part we sanded so the color is not a 100% perfect match but he did not care. It held up all winter long and is still holing up.

Its a pretty cheap and easy fix and it looks better than drilling holes for zip ties or using staples.

 

there are similiar things that they sell in the glue isle at the home depot. is the mighty puddy essentially the same stuff?

where did you get it?

 

iv used a soldering iron to fix minor stuff. like below:

i wanted to add oem switches. but the spot i put the other switches would have left holes. so when i cut out the oem cutouts i used pieces to fill in the other holes. dont look to bad. better than $70 for a ne pod.
before:

after

 

There are things on the market similar to the Mighty Putty. It is basically like Bondo in a clay form. It has an activator built into it so you mix it up in your fingers and stick it on. I think Liquid Wrench makes a version of it.

As far as where I got it, well I actually got it for free from answering a tech survey. But the only place I've seen it is on the Mighty Putty website, or on TV...... it is not real expensive.