PLastic Surgery as a form of expression

[ricardo kuhn]

"PLastic Surgery" as a form of expression

I ride Motorcycles a lot,,, I also crash motorcycle A lot... ussually my body do just fine but sadlly the bikes end up suffering a little more, so over the years I develope a varaity of ways to keep them running without replacing parts every time something breaks, one of my favorites is a way to Joing two or more plastic pieces on damage surfaces in a way that shows the "Battle Scares" in a proud way, as oppose to be ashame of the fact and try to hide them some how, plus is really strong flexible and for sure RE-CrAsHaBle.

yes,,I know how to use a plastic welder, but some of this plastics are Thermoset resins, so the welding will not work and many time I'm also uniting disimilar materials that will make welding very difult if not imposible, i also work making composites Airplanes before and I'm awere of the Exo and polisterm resin and all the wonderful carbon, spectra, kevlar clothes available, but i don't like to use them since they stick and they make a big mess...

anyway one day I crash one of my race bikes and I broke the "Windscreen" among a few other things

so i did some "Face lifting"

some how i preffer to fix things and BE PrOuD of my adventures

i also done the same for others wunded bikes.

many war veterans mension that they see similar sistems use in time of war to fix helicopter bubbles and airplane cockpits, I believe this sistem and also much better since does not relay on the tension at the end of the wire and each strand forms a "close loppe" on his own.

 

[ricardo kuhn]

Now I'm going to try to explain how the sistem works,,, sorry about the Ingles I do know is pretty bad but this postings are kind of my "Homework" in my way to get better.

let see if i can explain this in a way that makes some sense.
let use a example maybe that way we can follow a procedure and also make it a little more fun,,,

one day I let my wonderful friend Ingrid ride my bike.

everything was fine until we (i was in the back) got to a decreasing radius turn and to complete Upwards 180 deggre turn (I have trouble on that turn before my self)

Yeah Ingrid got scare and end up releasing the clutch a little to fast, needless so say the big monster stand up on the rear wheel and end up climping the side on a small hill (about 15 feet) the bike was Totally FUBAR (broken mirror, bend the front subframe, broke turn signals, etc) but then again is being in Fubar state for a long time so no big deal.

Lady ingrid got a few scares and I got a big bubbbu on my butt since I land on it from about 5 feet high when the bike became vertical

anyway after a few hours of contemplation and playing "Nutty Nurse" i got back to fix the bike, the "Beak" of my GS (the one with the bike rack) was broken, well to be exact the repair i did before (from another crash) fail (I do that on porpuse, so i can repair it again and again) is kind of a "FUSE" concept, if the forces are far to great is better for the pieces to become undone and oppose to crack somewere else even more.


well let go to work, the beak of the motorcycle(upper fender/airscoop on the GS1100) took the impact really well, so the only thing i need to do is to cut the safety wire and "Re-lace" it again...

I ussually make holes at about 1/4' of a inch apart and about a 1/4' from the crack, i also try to make the holes on the other side aling so everything is simetrical.




this picture is from another bike but maybe will show how is done much better.

First thing is to cut a strand of wire about two feet long (much more than that is just a pain because it gets entangle to easy) of the thinnest you can find (sorry I don't remenber the gauge) I start by I inserting the wire from the "Back side" and then chose one of the holes (does not really matter what side) to start the spin, i ussually do five turns (by hand, no need for pliers) that is about the right amount of tension for a 1/4" distance, after i finish spining the two wires I procede to the next hole on the same side, I insert one of the two wires (I try to keep it even so i don't end up with one wire much longer than the other one) to go into the "back side" and the other one goes to the opossite side on the surface were i start the process again on the oposite side so i get this "zig-zag" look


another detail so you can see the height a little better, you want to keep the repair as close to the surface as posible so does not get entangle with stuff (not like is anything spyke or anything.)


this is the underside of the beak ( same as any other repair) you can see that is no strands of safety wire to cut your fingers and get "Velcro" to your gloves, cleaning rags and clothes) and in fact it looks like a fancy shoe lace work (you can also select to use this as the visible side) sometimes if the crack is to long i will use more than one piece of wire and i simply cover the extra "spyke" wire with more lacing.


this is a corner detail of the repair, maybe the most complicated part of the repair since you have two rathios changing in distance, oh well..


here is the beak fix and ready to be reinstall


repair and install on the bike and ready to be crash again hopefully by some Amazon woman so i can "Play Doctor" again.


I hope this is suffient for you fellow Geeks to understand a very basic Mecanic concept and make this into a proper tutorial.

 

[Danger]

Once again, very cool stuff. I wish my hernia surgeon had known about that kind of stitchwork.

 

[ricardo kuhn]

Once again, very cool stuff. I wish my hernia surgeon had known about that kind of stitchwork.

Thanks amigo...
i have much more, but I get kind of Bored if people don't really participate..

 

[Q_Goest]

Hey Ricardo, Gotta agree, your posts are intersting, and the pics are as unique as your accent. Make yourself at home, the beer's in the fridge.