Topic: Side cover restoration

[stingray]

Has anybody ever attempted repairing side covers?  They are plastic, right?  My battery cover is missing a portion that includes the lower mounting tab.
Was wondering how one could do this.
Also, the size of spark plug socket, 18mm?  How do you take out the two inside plugs if they might be stripped?  Very close quarters.
My project is a 1976 CB 550K.
thanks!

[hymodyne]

Hello,

I've seen a decent amount of side covers on ebay. It'd be almost impossible to re-attach anything to the portions that attach to the frame, although I've used body putty on the face of the cover to hide deep scratches.

hym

[Jonesy]

Also, the size of spark plug socket, 18mm?  How do you take out the two inside plugs if they might be stripped?  Very close quarters.

I'm assuming the spark plugs are as cramped as the ones in the 750. Yeah, they're 18mm. I've seen some folks take an 18mm sparkplug socket and grind down the top of it so it will fit. The trouble is you can get it in there, but once you unscrew the plug it will jack the socket up against the surrounding metal, so you can't pull it out, even though the plug is technically now separate from the engine. Grinding a taper on the top allows you to move is sideways enough to remove it.

The best tool I've seen is the plug wrench that comes in the bike's toolkit. Your toolkit's gone? Not to worry. go to www.crc2onlinecatalog.com (and probably others) and look in the tools section. They have the long, slender 18mm plug wrench and it looks like they are back in stock.

[Quail "Owner of the comfortable k8"]

Has anybody ever attempted repairing side covers?  They are plastic, right?  My battery cover is missing a portion that includes the lower mounting tab.
Was wondering how one could do this.
Also, the size of spark plug socket, 18mm?  How do you take out the two inside plugs if they might be stripped?  Very close quarters.
My project is a 1976 CB 550K.
thanks!

I have repaired several.  I take duct tape and put on the outside over the missing part and roll up the edge to hold in the liquid epoxy. I fill in the missing void with 24 hr liquid epoxy. remove the duct tape after it is hard.  then I take a dremel tool and cust a v on both sides of the cover around the edge of the repaired section I then use the same epoxy to fill in that groove on both sides. I sand down and finish with a skim of bondo to fill in any pits and paint.  If you do it well you cant tell.  And thats all he had to say about that!

[Harry]

Why cut a "V"?

[stingray]

Thanks for the suggestions.  I'll take a look on ebay.
As for repairing myself, the epoxy scheme seems like something I might try.  I basically understand the concept to reproduce the missing plastic, however you lost me with the cutting the 'V'" in and then filling it.
I'll have to look around for a motorcycle plug remover or shell out for a deep well 18mm. socket.
P.S.
How do you quote a certain part of the reply with out quoting the entire post?

[SteveD CB500F]

How do you quote a certain part of the reply with out quoting the entire post?

Click the "Quote" button and then delete the unwanted text in the white box (like I did here)

Just don't delete the "quote author=..."        and   "/quote]"     text!!

[stingray]

Click the "Quote" button and then delete the unwanted text in the white box (like I did here)

So simple.  Thanks!

[Quail "Owner of the comfortable k8"]

Why cut a "V"?

If you don't it will crack after awhile where the epoxy meets the plastic.