But back to the K0. Today my candy apple red paint and my new Delkevic pipe arrived. No point opening the Delkevic box until the second of the two Yamiya boxes arrives with new exhaust flanges and clamps (yes, genuine Honda, and horribly expensive, but I don't have any, so just melted the plastic, again............) then after work decided to attack my airbox.
It took awhile to get it apart, as it had previously been "repaired" in places with glue, epoxy resin and other sh1t that doesn't stand up over the years, but just makes it harder to get apart after it dribbles into joints. These old airboxes are so brittle they're like eggshells, so need super careful handling. Just removing the rock hard trumpets was a huge effort because some clod had spilt glue on them, and even after boiling the kettle and filling a cup with boiling water then dipping each end of the trumpet into it to soften them up enough to manipulate them out of the fragile plastic my heart was in my mouth as I gently poked and prodded them out.
K0 airbofix 9 Nov 2020 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I'd bought a spare bottom section, but in fact the bottom of the box is in better condition than the top, which has multiple cracks, one almost cracked right across the body. No biggie, everything is fixable if you don't have a spare, but plenty of spare time. As an example, this is the middle section, which as you can see in the above pic, was completely broken in half. If you guys don't know about the carb soda/superglue fix, watch this, it's white mans magic.
First you clean the broken section with your dad's dremel and clean both sections with soap and water, dry it, wipe it with acetone to ensure it's dry and oil free, tape one side, and lay it flat with the repair side up.
K0 airbofix 9 Nov 2020 8 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
You should have bevelled the repair you you can sprinkle the magic powder into the trench, like so.
K0 airbofix 9 Nov 2020 9c by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
If it's a deep trench, dribble some super glue in first just so it completely soaks the soda, otherwise, just sprinkle the powder in first, and then dribble the super glue in. It dries instantly, and won't break. OK, it'll break either side of the repair, but the repair will be stronger than the surrounding plastic. It's a bit like if you break a bone, the calcification makes that broken area stronger than the surrounding bone. How do I know that? Being a sh1t rider and having had far too many fights, full contact PT and bad parachute landings back in the day, I've broken more bones than Evel Knevel, and a bone specialist told me that all the lumps on my ribs were old breaks that had healed. I've busted my ribs so many times, an X ray of them makes them look more like fingers than ribs, but I drunkenly digress..........
And Viola! A stringed instrument! What was once two, is now one again, and stronger than ever! Hocus, pocus....
K0 airbofix 9 Nov 2020 96 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
K0 airbofix 9 Nov 2020 9d by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
But I got bored with gluing plastic back together as I wanted to see how the candy red was gonna come out, so I rubbed a lot of the old matt black rattle can crap off with some wet and dry sandpaper with a little CT18 truck wash, then rinsed dried, repeated, and hit it with some wax and grease remover.
K0 airbofix 9 Nov 2020 2 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Not knowing what sort of old paint was used, and always mindful of a chemical reaction that can ruin a good paintjob, (or one of mine) I first hit it with some etch primer.
K0 airbofix 9 Nov 2020 3 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Being around 80-90 degrees it only took a few minutes to dry, so I then hit it with the silver base. I was a bit worried that I maybe should have used a light coat of a lighter colour primer as candy paints are really susceptible to the base prep, but as it turned out, it looked fine.
K0 airbofix 9 Nov 2020 4 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Once again surface prep is everything, so don't go heavy with the silver base, as if you get a run, you'll need to wait for it to completely dry, rub it out, and start again. I also like to mist the silver base on, so that the sparkly bits don't sink into the paint, and reduce the sparkle under the translucent color coat.
K0 airbofix 9 Nov 2020 5 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
It all looks a bit dull until you hit it with the clear, but once you do, that beautiful candy red shines through reflecting everything around it.
K0 airbofix 9 Nov 2020 7 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Thor, a member here from Seth Efrica recommended the Pratley brand which I've been using for the last few years, but any bicarbonate of soda and superglue will do the job. I do like the little nozzles on the Pratley's bottles though, as they're good for dispensing just the right amount into a crack that you've bevelled out.
K0 airbofix 9 Nov 2020 9b by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Once again, preparation is everything, so if you don't get an excellent result, don't kick your dog and curse the Great Pumpkin, just punch yourself in the face as punishment for cutting corners, and move on.
Anyhoo, tomorrow I'll glue up the top box, it's absolutely fcuked, with more cracks than a bus full of cheerleaders, so I'll need to be super careful that I don't make it worse. Yeah, I could buy a repro one, and the Yamiya ones are really good copies, but I'll see if I can get a little more life out of this old bugger. More then.
K0 airbofix 9 Nov 2020 1 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
