this is for sacramento ca area looking for fireroad

[wwotmike@aol.com]

I have not been following this thread with any fervor, nut wanted to remind you folks that your not riding Harleys.  Who cares if the plastic fades?  KLR's are not trailer queens.  :-) Sent from my HTC smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint! ----- Reply message ----- From: "'SniperOne' sniperone308@... [DSN_KLR650]" DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com> To: DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com> Subject: [DSN_KLR650] Heat gun technique for KLR plastics Date: Tue, Jul 1, 2014 3:17 pm   Paul,If you have mastered the technique of watching the plastic as it turns to wet looking, you can trace the wet look right up to the edge of the decal without damaging it.

 

Who cares if it oxidizes in a couple of years and needs to be redone it s easy to do (and cheap). My 00 went a couple years between jobs, a buddies 04 is 3 years on the last treatment. The 09 I have used 303 Aerospace Protectant on about once a month and it hasn t faded.

http://www.amazon.com/303-Products-30350-Aerospace-Protectant/dp/B000XBCURW/ref=pd_sim_auto_5/178-9500738-3918349?ie=UTF8&refRID=1A3VT93E9234J6GED9HK

 

 

I also found when the mounting studs on the back side of panels began to show stress lines (cracking was about to happen), I could heat them with the same technique and remove the stress lines. I haven t had one crack and break off since I started doing this.

Randy

 

SniperOne

 

[b]From:[/b] DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com [mailto:DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com] [b]Sent:[/b] Tuesday, July 01, 2014 10:54 AM [b]To:[/b] DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com; SniperOne [b]Subject:[/b] Re: [DSN_KLR650] Heat gun technique for KLR plastics

 

 

Randy etal.

 

I tried your heat gun plastic restoration technique this past weekend. Your directions were right on and I was really pleased with the results.

 

So far I have just done the front fender since It was easily removed. I then tried some of "Mothers plastic restorer" to coat the fender which gave it a nice sheen.

 

I'm not too anxious to use the heat gun on the tank panels due to the decals.

 

I'm curious whether this technique will oxidize less quickly than the sanding and polishing technique which would introduce a lot micro scratching...

 

Paul

 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 24, 2014, at 1:55 PM, "'SniperOne' sniperone308@... [DSN_KLR650]" DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

Ok Paul, here goes ---

 

Using a heat gun to recover the color in KLR plastics:

 

The cheap one with a high/low switch works fine, no need to spend $200 on the Milwaukee blaster.  I got the $28 Wagner in the paint section at the local hardware store.

 

Start with a smaller part and the heat gun on low until your get a good feel for what you are doing.  This will go slower but it may save you in the long run.  When you have mastered the technique you can use the gun on high and go a little faster.

 

The trick with the heat gun is to warm a surface with a small oscillating motion until it just begins to gloss, this is more easily seen if the part is held at an angle to the light while working on it.  Then while working the heat gun onto new surface, continue to move it back on the already hot (glossy) surface until you have all of it the same level of glossy.  You will want to work a single section at a time, between the seams/creases/corners/etc of a particular part.  When you have a section uniformly wet looking, let it all cool together and that section of the surface will usually have a uniform color.  It will be dull as for surface sheen when cooled.

 

If you try to just heat it back to color and keep moving across the entire part as a whole you will wind up with a sort of tiger striped look as areas cool at different rates.

 

Once you have a part uniform in color (though dull in sheen) and cooled, you can begin applying several coats of a good paste wax to recover a sort of satin sheen (if not glossy new). Warning, if you get the heat gun too close to the surface of the plastic it will bubble and you ll have to sand it down with a variety of papers and polishes.  This is easy to have happen with things like bends and creases on parts where you are intending to blow hot air straight down onto a part but an angled surface is redirecting the hot air onto a closer/alternate surface.  Think about this like applying spray paint where you angle the can so it sprays flat onto a surface but have to be careful that you don t get too much paint on an adjacent surface.

 

I have used this on plastic fenders that were powdery white from the sun baking and they returned to their original color, though the finished surface was a little ruff in the end.

 

The last suggestion is once complete and assembled; go over your bike about once every other month with 303 Aerospace Protectant (available off Amazon).  This stuff does a good job of reducing deterioration from the UV on many types of surfaces. Randy

 

SniperOne

 

[b]From:[/b] DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com [DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com] [b]Sent:[/b] Tuesday, June 24, 2014 6:31 AM [b]To:[/b] DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com; SniperOne [b]Subject:[/b] Re: [DSN_KLR650] Dip your bike?

 

 

Yes Randy I for one would be interested. 

Thanks

 

Paul

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 23, 2014, at 9:28 PM, "SniperOne sniperone308@... [DSN_KLR650]" DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

If you've got faded red plastics use a heat gun and a few coats of turtle wax.  I've done it to several, it works good, its cheap, and is repeatable a few years later.

 

If you are really interested in the technique I will hammer it out again in an email.  If you're not just say so and I will save my tired old fingers the work.

 

Randy

 

 

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone

 

-------- Original message --------

From: "pwhatfourever@... [DSN_KLR650]"

Date:06/23/2014 5:18 PM (GMT-07:00)

To: DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com

Subject: [DSN_KLR650] Dip your bike?

 

 

Has anyone tried plasti dip on their KLR plastics?    I was thinking I might try this instead of trying to refinish my faded red plastics. These two sites have quite a bit of info on the spray can variety.    The first website shows a variety of cars with the treatment, The second website shows how it worked for someone on a Suzuki DR650.   https://www.dipyourcar.com/examples.html   Plasti Dip Your Bike | Product Review - Always Broke | Moto Vlogger[img]https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3A%2F%2Falwaysbroke.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F05%2FPlasti-Dip-Your-Bike.jpg&t=1571809619&sig=aaZo0N_yGI9Sx5ks1vs7NQ--~E[/img]

Plasti Dip Your Bike | Product Review - Always Broke | M...

Want to Plasti Dip Your Bike? I've got all the info you need right now. Well, at least my first hand experience as a first time user

View on [b]alwaysbroke.net[/b]

Preview by Yahoo

  Paul  

 

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[Dave_Benjamin]

I know there's some KLR owners around Sac that like to come up and ride some of the trails around Reno. You can usually get an inexpensive room somewhere like Boomtown and make a nice weekend of it.