Have you ever broken a mounting tab on your motorcycle?

I know I have—and if you’ve spent much time working on motorcycles with plastic body panels, fairings, covers, and trim pieces, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve done it too.

Sometimes it doesn’t take much. You’re removing a panel, tightening something down, or simply trying to get a stubborn piece back into position when you hear that dreaded little “snap.”

There goes the mounting tab.

And unfortunately, that tiny piece of broken plastic can turn an otherwise perfectly good—and sometimes expensive—motorcycle part into something you’re suddenly thinking about replacing.

I’ve Been Down This Road Before

I’ve actually purchased a replacement rear fender for the front wheel because of a broken mounting tab.

I couldn’t find an exact color match, but I managed to get one that was pretty close. Hey, thank God for eBay!

At the time, replacing the part seemed like the best solution. But now that I’ve discovered another possible way of dealing with broken plastic tabs, I’m thinking I might have been able to save myself some time and money.

That brings me to my latest broken tab.

This Time, It’s the Top Shelf

On the Top Shelf, I managed to break one of the tabs that holds the shelf in place.

Since then, I’ve been debating what to do about it.

Do I purchase a new half of the shelf? Do I try to find a good used one? Or do I simply leave it alone and live with the broken tab?

Then Pat Webb introduced me to a plastic repair system that might provide another option:

Repair the original tab.

That definitely got my attention.

Could This Stuff Actually Work?

After Pat told me about it, I started watching videos showing how these plastic repair systems are used to repair broken tabs and damaged plastic parts.

The more I watched, the more interested I became.

Instead of replacing an entire motorcycle panel because one relatively small mounting tab has broken off, the idea is to rebuild or repair the damaged area and restore the original part.

If it works, that could be a pretty big deal—especially when you’re dealing with an older motorcycle where replacement body parts may be expensive, difficult to find, discontinued, or nearly impossible to locate in the correct color.

I’ve watched a couple of demonstrations now, and I have to say:

I’m sold enough to give it a try.

Check Out Cruiseman’s Garage

I’ve attached a YouTube video from Cruiseman’s Garage where he attempts to repair a broken mounting tab.

Take a few minutes and watch what he does.

If you’ve ever broken one of these tabs yourself, I think you’ll immediately understand why this caught my attention.

It certainly got mine.

My Winter Project

I haven’t repaired my Top Shelf yet, so I’m not going to tell you this is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Not yet, anyway.

The real test will come this winter when I get my own repair kit and attempt to fix the broken mounting tab myself.

When I do, I plan to document the repair. I’ll take some photos, explain the process I used, talk about anything I learned along the way, and—most importantly—let you know whether the finished repair actually works and holds up.

That’s when we’ll find out whether this stuff earns a permanent place in my toolbox.

For now, though, it’s safe to say…

I’m pretty excited to give it a try.

And if it works as well as I’m hoping it does, I’m probably going to wish Pat had told me about this stuff a long time ago!

Stay Tuned…

Once the kit arrives and I tackle the repair, I’ll come back with Part Two: Repairing the Broken Top Shelf Mounting Tab and show you exactly how it went—the good, the bad, and anything I might do differently the next time.

Until then, if you’ve used one of these plastic repair systems to fix a broken motorcycle mounting tab, I’d like to hear about your experience.

Did it work? How strong was the repair? And would you use it again?