Bassa shedding plasti-chrome - alternative replacement fantasies...

[normzone]

My wife has pointed out that I can design further than I can finish, and she's right, so I don't know what will actually wind up filling those holes in the rear fender that the plasti-chrome used to plug into.

But in order of increasing likelihood, it goes like this:

Plug LEDs into the bolt holes left by the fasteners.

Make a template of the arc covered by the plasti-chrome on the rear fender (the front has not started to fall apart yet) and have a machine ship use their water jet cutter to make two pieces of 1/8" stainless to bolt on those locations.

Paint over that arc with red, trim it with pinstripe tape, then install fasteners.

Mask and paint over that arc with black, then install fasteners.

Just clean the paint up a little and install fasteners - acorn, hex, or allen, chrome, stainless, or brass.

Anybody else done anything along these lines?

[fotoguzzi]

you could hang some of those Harley conchos with leather fringe..

[rtbickel]

I used small allen head screws on the sidecovers on my 02 when the plastichrome thingies escaped.  It gives you sort of an industrial-retro look, cost about $2 for black screws, stainless or anodized colors were not much more.

[canuguzzi]

Paint them or use decals to make them look like eyes.

[normzone]

Two highly unlikely solutions are:

Make a template of the arc covered by the plasti-chrome on the rear fender (the front has not started to fall apart yet) and have a machine ship use their water jet cutter to make two pieces of 1/8" COPPER to bolt on those locations, perhaps standing it off a 1/4" or so. A cool looking alternate might be to cut it raggedly with a torch, and only clean up the edges enough to remove the sharp stuff.

Do the paint and trim thing, but do it as Chargers-style lighting bolts. THAT will make them stay in town, stadium or no new stadium ;-)

[PeteS]

My '98 EV had way to much chrome. I painted some of it to match the rest of the bike, two tone blue. No sanding, just used etching primer then paint. No paint loss in the 12 years I owned the bike.

Pete

[twhitaker]

You could cut strips from aluminum and have them anodized most any color.

[normzone]

Oh, that's true, and as I understand it, you can do anodizing in your kitchen sink if you're crazy enough to.

I did think about pounding out some copper pipe, but that would look worse than just putting fasteners through barbed wire. And I'd want to dull the points some. And add a cow skull someplace.

Alright...here's something else that occurred to me as sleep took me down last night - has anybody designed a still to run off of engine heat ? You could charge it with wash before a long run, and there's a couple of shots ready when you get there !

[normzone]

I remember when I had my '39 Buick Special I thought that rear window ledge would host a pathos plant nicely. Baked that plant dead in a weekend. Now a still, I could pass that off as a fuel - err.... uh.... additive regulator. Yeah, that's it. It's an FAR.

[Tony/CT]

I had the same problem with my 02 Special Sport. First the duck tails started to rattle. Took them off. Then the rear plastic chrome began to rattle. I put spacers in, rubber, cardboard, whatever was handy. My final solution was to sell the bike and by a Cal. Vintage. No chrome on the fenders!

[guzzidoo]

Took most all the SS shiny stuff off my EV a few years ago. Painted the pans along the steering neck flat black. Left the shiny bits on the front fender. I think it looks better partially naked! It's still not a good looking bike, but it's a sweet ride on a long day on the road.

[normzone]

I keep trying to come up with practical methods to fab my own sidecovers along the lines of the originals, but without the plastichrome and model advertisments. Plenty of fun ideas, including casting and sheet metal, but still not practical ones yet.

[rodekyll]

I have a friend who carved new body panels out of some kind of dense foam.  When he had it right he fiberglassed them and blew the foam out of the completed pieces with a sandblaster. 

[normzone]

Very nice technique, thanks for sharing that.

EDIT: I've just returned from the distilling forum...the engineering challenges to a two-wheeled still have prevented anybody from doing it yet. I COULD BE THE FIRST !

Or not...