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96foreman400

First Post. Body panel attachments

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Hello, I’m new to the sites and actually new to sites in general. I recently bought a 1996 Honda Foreman 400 4x4 off the adult grandson of the original owner. The plastics were faded and there are some minor defects but all in all it seems to be a solid base for a restoration. I am replacing the slicks with some ITP mud lites and I have removed and rubberized the racks. I also took a heat gun to the plastics which helped a bit ( they were almost white in spots). The quad has the original air cleaner and the frame is spotless and straight. It sat in a woodshed where unfortunately the sun could reach the plastics so they were bleached white in spots . The grandfather used the machine to get the mail and bring out trash to the corner of his 1/4 mile long driveway. So that’s my story and my first question is how to the plastics attach? It seems that someone went crazy with the automotive style fender buttons. Is that what is used to join the panels together or am I missing some hardware?9E4284FA-3385-44D4-99DB-8B793AF9EDD1.jpeg

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Hi: Big Welcome Here --- from what I see they are okay

9E4284FA-3385-44D4-99DB-8B793AF9EDD1.jpeg.292b6ef822233bd6e1fb97d4e69b2457.jpeg

Edited by Melatv
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Welcome!

 

These are Honda's push clips for fitting plastics together.

 

They actually work great and even though they are a bit expensive from Honda they can be bought all over the place for cheaper.

 

My local auto parts store sells a 100 pack for ten bucks.

 

s-l500.jpg

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Welcome!

 

FYI...somethign Shade told me over the weekend on my 450(which I presume is the same as your 400). The tank black plastic piece has to come off with both tank side panels. It lifts up and off as a 3 piece unit after you pull the front bolts on each side and the push pins you mention.

 

If you try to rip the side panels off w/o pulling the tank top with it(gotta remove fill cap) you'll break the black tank piece. I'm going to replace mine as one is broken by some prior owner.

 

 

 

Edited by 87Iroc
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Thanks for the heads up. I’m finding that a lot of my panels are not attached well. I’m thinking about taking them off and using Camo Green PlastiDip on the panels and reattaching them properly.

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40 minutes ago, 96foreman400 said:

Thanks for the heads up. I’m finding that a lot of my panels are not attached well. I’m thinking about taking them off and using Camo Green PlastiDip on the panels and reattaching them properly.

 

For the love of god no. 

Just reattach and clean 😅


You can do whatever you want with your machine but I would take that and get it back to stock look/condition and sell/trade for a green one before you ruin yours.

 

That bike is in such good shape and will end up looking like this if you PlastiDip it.

 

 

118181001_3482759158422672_355853482652406434_n.jpg

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you can try plasti-dip... should look great, but it peels very easily ... i myself have my 2000 300 fwd wheels dipped, m-quick did his in black.. maybe he will chime in... but if memory serves me right ... they didnt stay coated well because of the terrain he was riding in, and slammed gave a custom mix coating on his engine... which i think rubbed off.. trick to plasti-dip is ... the more thin coats ... the better .. here's an example .. of my wheels ... 15 coats .... the 1st three are black ... then bright aluminum, then high gloss .. the longer it drys ... the tougher the plast-dip gets ... you can't use any cleaning products with petroleum addictives  or a pressure washer ! you might give it try, but i wouldn't on the plastics ... 

image.jpg

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Thanks for the warnings . I will not use the PlastiDip. My plastics are unbroken and I’m decent shape and I will focus on other parts of the machine for now and if I happen across some green plastics I’ll grab the set 

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welcome, plastic push pins is what holds the body panels together. also some metal u-clips that go in certain spots to tie two pieces together. as 87 said ^^^, the body panels around the fuel tank must come off as a set, sides, and top come off as one.

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And those push pins come in at least two sizes.  8mm and 10mm.  So if you are replacing be sure to get the right size. 

 

On mine there are intermittently some nuts and bolts mixed in.  The plastic push pins just in some places.

 

They are available online for $6 or $10 for a bag of 100.

dc

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29 minutes ago, David13 said:

And those push pins come in at least two sizes.  8mm and 10mm.  So if you are replacing be sure to get the right size. 

 

On mine there are intermittently some nuts and bolts mixed in.  The plastic push pins just in some places.

 

They are available online for $6 or $10 for a bag of 100.

dc

 

Good to know. I got tired of ordering them a handful at a time on RMATV so I bought a bag of 100 on fleabay. Not sure which thickness I got. Hopefully the 10 mm! 

 

I have some identical Nissan clips, but they appear to be 'shallower' for holding thin plastic together so only somewhat work as a substitute when I run out.

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looking like this if you PlastiDip it.

 

 

actually.... plast-dip is very simple to remove .. if done right... it will hand peel off like an orange hide... the hard part is keeping it from starting to peel off on it's on... goo gone, wd-40 and any other solvents ... are an instant desolvers..... i can't explain what happened to that job... OR the bike ... badly abused for sure!! but if you look ... at the plastic faring around the gas tank....that's how black dip looks .... no gloss at all.... so I'd say thats black paint....or elasti-wrap coating, but harder to apply .. i did some testing (silver bullet) on my trailer wheels .. this stuff is extra strong.... but very limited colors ... and can't be gloss coated ... or mixed with plasti-dip.  

image.jpg

image.jpg

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Welcome.. Yes your quad appears to be in good shape! I myself have never used Plasti-Dip so I can't comment on that. However I've used the Duplicolor Black Bedliner on my rims. It stands up fantastic! & even if you want to paint the rim a grey/silver colour over the bedliner would look great!

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i would go with that... ^^^ bed liner coating  also has a texture wrinkle finish .... IMO would have a real good look...painted in camo... but but ... i would test this on the underside of the fenders, or on a place that won't show, just to see if it reacts .. or melts into the plasti body panels .. 

 

credit for the pic goes to wheeler. 

image.jpg

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