Let this be a lesson to you all of you...don't wash your bikes/trikes!! I was washing mine after two weeks of riding through Wyoming, Colorado and South Dakota and found that my tourpak had a crack in it. Figure that if I hadn't washed it, maybe the crack would go away?!?! The crack starts not quite a half inch from the inside lid screws, goes down about two inches and then angled back towards the rear of the trike for about three inches. The "V" shape up to the top of the tourpak was popped out of place.
Anyway, I've heard and read all sort of articles and posts about how the tourpak's cannot be fixed once you have a crack in it and it's going to cost you about a grand for a new one painted. I know there's lots of used ones on the internet you can buy, but I was determined to see if I could figure something out.
Since the new tourpaks are made of ABS plastic now and not fiberglass (which is easier to fix), I had to find something that would work and maybe, just maybe I have. I bought a can of Oates ABS cement. It's a black gooey mess that has an applicator that looks like the old shoe polish applicator - a round ball on the end of a stick. It's actually made for ABS plumbing pipe that you want to glue together.
The first thing I did was to drill a 1/8" hole about 1/8th of an inch in front of the end of the crack to stop it from growing.
I took out the tourpak liner and using a flathead screwdriver, I "popped" the piece that had popped out of place back into place so that I could give this a try.
I put painters tape on the outside of the crack and then applied the ABS cement to the inside of the tourpak.
Using a piece of plastic, I worked the "goop" into the cracks as best I could.
I then cut a piece of flat ABS plastic that would cover almost the entire crack and glued it to the inside of the tourpak. I'm going to give it a day or so to fully set and then I'm going to cut another piece to run along the top edge that will go under the screws that hold the lid on and will wrap over the final part of the crack that the first piece of ABS didn't cover.
I have no idea if this will work, and according to most everything I've read, it won't. But spending a few bucks on some plastic and glue, I figured it was worth the effort. I'll follow up on how it all went.
Anyway, I've heard and read all sort of articles and posts about how the tourpak's cannot be fixed once you have a crack in it and it's going to cost you about a grand for a new one painted. I know there's lots of used ones on the internet you can buy, but I was determined to see if I could figure something out.
Since the new tourpaks are made of ABS plastic now and not fiberglass (which is easier to fix), I had to find something that would work and maybe, just maybe I have. I bought a can of Oates ABS cement. It's a black gooey mess that has an applicator that looks like the old shoe polish applicator - a round ball on the end of a stick. It's actually made for ABS plumbing pipe that you want to glue together.
The first thing I did was to drill a 1/8" hole about 1/8th of an inch in front of the end of the crack to stop it from growing.
I took out the tourpak liner and using a flathead screwdriver, I "popped" the piece that had popped out of place back into place so that I could give this a try.
I put painters tape on the outside of the crack and then applied the ABS cement to the inside of the tourpak.
Using a piece of plastic, I worked the "goop" into the cracks as best I could.
I then cut a piece of flat ABS plastic that would cover almost the entire crack and glued it to the inside of the tourpak. I'm going to give it a day or so to fully set and then I'm going to cut another piece to run along the top edge that will go under the screws that hold the lid on and will wrap over the final part of the crack that the first piece of ABS didn't cover.
I have no idea if this will work, and according to most everything I've read, it won't. But spending a few bucks on some plastic and glue, I figured it was worth the effort. I'll follow up on how it all went.
