XJ650 Maxim Right Side Cover Reproduction

One of the commonly missing pieces from XJ650 Maxims is the right side cover. You can find a good supply of the LEFT side covers on eBay, but good luck finding a right side. If you do find one, prepare to pay up. They are almost unobtainium, as @hogfiddles would say.

As far as I know, the right side covers are the same for 1980-1984 (XJ650G, XJ650H, XJ650J, XJ650K) with the one exception being that the 1980 and 1981 versions include holes for attaching the emblem (and colors, of course). They are all part numbers that start with 4H7-21721.

Last October, @FlyGp posted that he had reproductions available: https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/right-side-cover-xj650.129337/

I recently acquired one of the repops and thought it would be a good idea to share my adventure.

My goal is not a concours-correct restoration, it is simply to look good and "blend in" - in other words, no reasonable person should be able to look at it on the bike and say "that's not original". Sure, if you took it off and look for factory correct markings on the back and whatnot you may not find them, but I'm OK with that. This a driver, not a trailer queen.

If you look at the original post from last October, you can see that the original that @FlyGp used to make the mold has a broken upper-right corner piece. While not ideal, it's OK, I can fix it. My dad is a TV repair man, he has an ultimate set of tools. More on that later.

Here is what I got from @FlyGp - the cover itself as well as a little sample disk to test the paint system to make sure bad things don't happen.


The first thing I did was test fit, looks pretty good from a fitment perspective, even if the upper right corner is missing:


A look at the repop side-by-side with an original:


Next order of business is to test paint compatibility.

Lately I prefer the House of Kolor system. They make a Direct-to-Substrate (DTS) primer/surfacer called KD3000 that is supposed to be able to go on plastic, but they say you need to test. Good thing we got that test disk from @FlyGp!!

Here I'm getting ready to spray the test disk.


The goal of the test is to make sure that there aren't any bad reactions that happen between the substrate (plastic) and the paint and it ends up looking like it was treated with Chachi's Incredo-Wax.

I'm happy to report that the results of the test have been positive. It has been several days since spraying and the KD3000 is still sticking just fine. I'm reasonably confident that there won't be any paint compatibility issues.

On to fixing that corner...

 

Nice report, thanks! Now, onto the serious issues: what is Chachi's Incredo-Wax?

 

Ayyyyyyyyyy. Not picking up a Happy Days reference?? Fonz says "not cool"!!

One episode Chachi sold some miracle product (Incredo-wax) that made everything look awesome. The next day everything was a destroyed mess. Then the Fonz saved the day, of course.

 

I have the first one he made, as we were trying to see if he could figure a way to add A bit to the mold to add the missing corner in. If you figure a way to complete it, that’s awesome. If you need an original so you can get correct contours I’ll send the one that I set to FlyGp. You can use that one. Some final shaping around the ‘bullet is something I think should be done, too, but with the extra ‘body’ around his, it’s a bit stronger there.

 

Dave, are you thinking of shaping up the base area under the bullet to make look a little more like a production part?

It currently looks a little hand-formed, which is understandable considering it had to come out of a mold so the mold had to be constructed that way.


It wouldn't be hard to just shape it up and make it look more like it was supposed to be that way.

I kind of thought about it, but hadn't really planned on working on it since it's not something readily visible in a normal situation. Maybe I will give it a shot to shape that part up. Shouldn't be hard.

I will post pics of the corner reconstruction project tomorrow. I'm about 95% there.

I do have an original example off of my 650 to use, but thanks for the offer @hogfiddles.

 

I've been working for a few days to re-construct the missing upper right corner. I've been using everyone's favorite epoxy (JB Weld) to build up the structure and create the shape.

The bad thing about the super-strong JB Weld is that it takes 24 hours to cure. So you have to be pretty patient and build it up over several days. Apply epoxy, cure, shape it, apply epoxy, cure, shape it, lather, rinse, repeat.

This is where I'm at now:


It's looking really good. I will probably apply a glaze coat of body filler to smooth it out a bit, but that's all. The KD3000 and some sanding will also help perfect the surface.

If I were to do it again, I might try to make a mold for that corner (just the tip). That way I would be able to get a good amount of the shape done in one iteration instead of 4~6 days.

I'm going to work on shaping up the base of the "bullet" for a day or three. I might be able to use the faster curing JB Weld for this - it's more cosmetic than structural.

Looks like Sunday might be a good day (weather wise) to shoot primer, so I'd like to get it done.

 

If it is non structural , JB Quick is a good alternative as it sets up in 5 to 10 minutes.

 

Ya, the Quick stuff sets up pretty fast - but it still takes a few hours until it's workable (i.e. sandpaper). But still better than 24 hrs.

 

Primer/surfacer round 1 done today.

Here it is, ready for primer:


And after:


Got a few fisheyes on the back. I think it is probably from not cleaning up mold release agent well enough. Lesson learned.

 

Looking better, for sure! I bet by the time everything is done, it’s gonna cost more than buying one on ebay though

 

Luckily I don’t pay myself by the hour.

 

Where did all the right side covers go, anyway??

 

Blown away in the wind, run over, broken through use, etc.....

 

Got the repop sanded with 220/320. Shot round 2 of primer/surfacer tonight.

Sanded, ready to shoot:


After shooting primer/surfacer round 2:


The picture of the front looks pretty dry - that's because I gave it one last shot and ran out of material, so not unexpected.

In a perfect world, I will hit these with P600 and they will be ready for basecoat/clearcoat. Worst case, I hit them with P600 and can't get all the imperfections out, then need another round of primer/surfacer.

The back is not going to be perfect, but as I've said, I'm not that worried as much about the back side.

Going into this project, I figured 90% chance that I could make it so that any "reasonable" person could not detect that it was a reproduction while on the bike - now I'm 100% sure. It's coming together nicely, nice work @FlyGp . When I handle the part now, I can't tell the difference unless you look at the areas under the c-clips and the "bullet".

Another note: I'm intending to paint this part black to go on my black XJ650J, therefore, I am using a black primer/surfacer. There are a zillion different options to consider when considering paint colors and the final effect you want to achieve. There are hard core painters out there that will show you the difference between red painted over a white primer vs over a red primer vs over a black primer. That's super cool, but I'm not that hardcore. I just want it to be solid and hopefully if the black topcoat gets chipped, you will still see black.

I've also got a new paint gun on order. I'm doing enough motorcycle parts now that it made sense to finally bite the bullet and get what the industry calls a "detail" gun. Basically, painting small parts like these side covers or gas tanks with a "regular" paint gun kind of feels like you're trying to paint them with a fire hose - it works but it is not ideal. I'm looking forward to getting more precision out of a gun intended for smaller stuff. I'm sure by the next post when I lay down base/clear on this right side cover I will be using the new gun. Almost as exciting as waiting for a shipment of goodies from xj4ever.com.

 

Tonight I went ahead and sanded the back side with P600 in preparation for base coat, and shot the base coat/clear coat.

I used my shiny new toy, the detail gun:


I figured it would be good to shoot the back side of this cover with the new gun, get used to it and whatnot.

The results are fantastic. I'm kicking myself that I waited this long to buy this detail gun.

I was ready to accept that the back side would not look great, especially without a cut and buff, but it really looks good, no cut and buff necessary:

 

I had a little delay waiting for some supplies, but I got the font of the cover shot with base coat (jet black) and clear coat round 1 today.


It's looking pretty good. Couple dust bits in there, nothing that won't sand out pretty easily. No giant runs or sags. Really liking the new detail gun.

I will let this dry a few days, then sand with P1000, then flow coat (clear coat round 2). Then hit that with P1000, then P2000, then buff with a 3 step 3M system.

 

Finally got the flow coat, then cut & buff done on the repop XJ650 Maxim right side cover.

Once it gets an emblem it will be indistinguishable from an original - at least from the exterior.

 

thanks for the post Dan, I have recentlty purchased one of the repoduction units and am about to untake the same process ... so your post is very helpful
How is the JB weld holding out?

 

The "original" JB Weld reconstruction of that corner is holding out just fine. That is the cover I use on my XJ650J.

Knowing what I know now, and having done a lot of plastic side cover repair and rebuilding since then, I would do it slightly differently now. Updated methods are documented here:
https://www.xjbikes.com/forums/threads/how-to-repair-plastic-side-covers.130812/

Granted, it is hard to make a mold if you don't have an original.

All that said, the original reconstruction method works just fine - you just need a lot of patience.

 

thhanks for the reply Dan , i did the old method with building up the mould and it came up great
your new method way better though