holes in the fender

[1SG CAV]

very nice job

[Troll]

Hmmmm. I'd settle for 49 deg. Maybe by Wednesday....Anyway, got it all back together....

[chief]

Nice...

BTW... 69 deg here today!

[Troll]

  Ok, then. I just brought my newly painted parts home. I mentioned that he (my friend)  was good at what he does, now I have some photographic proof. The front fender had scuffs, scratches and other forms of corruption, not to mention a fender light, put too far forward, and not in the middle, side to side, or straight, front to rear. He matched the paint to one of the side covers, and fixed the damage. 3 layers of clear coat, wet sanded between each coat, and then hand rubbed.  I am going to use 3/16 stainless button heads in place of the rivets, with all metal lock nuts. After I get the nuts installed, I will shorten the screws/nuts with a die grinder to make sure they don't interfere with the tire clearance.    I got what I wanted for my Birthday, this year... The temp. went from -26 Friday morning to + 35 right now, and they are forecasting it to be in the 40s all week, with rain.  We got 12" of snow on Dec. 4th, and at least 30" more since then.

[Troll]

  I just talked to mt friend about the holes in my fender, and he told me what he is using to fix them. As I said, in an earlier post, he works in a truck body shop, and the fenders and bumpers are all plastic, now a days. He uses 3-M truck and bus adhesive, which he said was quite expensive @ $70 a tube,  ( available at any body shop supply house) backed up with fiberglass drywall tape. Depending on the size of the damage, he may use the tape on both sides of the repair, and then sand it smooth. He has the oxblood red paint mixed, and he promised me he'd finish the work over Christmas. We just had 20" of snow here, so most people are still digging out.  On another note, while I have the front wheel off, replacing the neck bearings AGAIN, I drilled a hole in the neck on the right side, next to the plastic neck cover. 3/16 hole, tapped 1/4 28, and I put in a 90 deg. grease fitting. I did this with all my H-Ds over the years, and it really makes the chore of neck bearing greasing painless. I am polishing the fork legs while they are off. The hardest part of this process is getting the old lacquer off.

[Troll]

I will gladly post what I know about the process. I can tell you that the resin he will be using is designed for those aero dynamic truck bodies and they are mostly made of abs type plastic. My friend has been in the body business for a long time, and does only excellent work. He has a computer scanner to match the paint and feels quite confident he can make invisible repairs.

[kokopelli]

I am having a fender light ectomy on my 1500 right now. The previous owner didn't even get it in the right place, or the even the center, and it speeds up the loosening of the mount rivets to around once a year. I have a friend who works in a truck body shop who is going to paint and plug the holes with with the plastic epoxy stuff they use to reassemble all those plastic truck bodies. No bondo, real plastic resin in the holes. The red on the fender was all chipped up, anyway so it's going to look new when he's finished with it.

Hey there- I'm gonna be doing the same thing to mine. I also have to fix a couple gouges in the rear fender where he had bolts that were too long going through the saddle brackets and the fender came up and dug into the bolts. Get as many details as you can on how he does it and what he uses if you can, I'd appreciate it. I want to get mine painted over the winter.

[Duffy]

My pleasure............good luck.

[brillo72]

Most hardware stores sell hole plugs.  I've only seen black ones but there may be different colors.  They mount almost flush and work best in thin metal but I've used them on saddlebags (about 1/8" thick) to plug old holes.

http://www.harmancorp.com/products/plasticplugs/?gclid=CMDekquNxKUCFQoEbAodfmptYw

Look under multi-purpose, flush, or dome plugs.

I have seen those now that you mention it and it just so happens my bike is black so that may work out. Thanks Duffy

[Troll]

I am having a fender light ectomy on my 1500 right now. The previous owner didn't even get it in the right place, or the even the center, and it speeds up the loosening of the mount rivets to around once a year. I have a friend who works in a truck body shop who is going to paint and plug the holes with with the plastic epoxy stuff they use to reassemble all those plastic truck bodies. No bondo, real plastic resin in the holes. The red on the fender was all chipped up, anyway so it's going to look new when he's finished with it.

[Duffy]

Most hardware stores sell hole plugs.  I've only seen black ones but there may be different colors.  They mount almost flush and work best in thin metal but I've used them on saddlebags (about 1/8" thick) to plug old holes.

http://www.harmancorp.com/products/plasticplugs/?gclid=CMDekquNxKUCFQoEbAodfmptYw

Look under multi-purpose, flush, or dome plugs.

[brillo72]

The previous owner of my Drifter had mounted the Indian light on top of the front fender and then moved it lower where it is supposed to be, so now I have two holes in the fender to do something with. So my question is, has anyone else had that problem and decided to cover them up instead of replacing the fender or Bondo? If so I would like to see pictures of the creative ways you covered them up.

Thanks,
Brillo