How do you fix scratches on fairings?

Question

I laid down my bike and the fairings are scratched and has a slight crack? Is there a way to fix it?

Answer 1

All of the answers you've received up until now ignore one very important point: What are your fairings made of? Plastic or fiberglass?

Plastic is WAY easier to fix than fiberglass. A plastic welding agent like trichloroform, purchased from a plastic supply shop in your area, applied with a needle applicator, will fill the crack by capillary action. That will dissolve the surrounding plastic and as the solvent evaporates the now dissolved surrounding plastic will cure to form a perfect bond, good as new (if your application was good and the crack was clean, without any gaps). It won't be pretty as new (yet) but it will be as strong after a week or so. It will feel solid within minutes and can be worked within 24 to 48 hours.

You will then need to sand the area with progressively finer grit sandpaper. Eventually you'll get down to a fine 400 grit wet sand paper, which should be followed by a rubbing compound, then a polishing compound, and finally a buffing compound. I recommend the Novus brand of plastic polishing products, having used them for many projects of my own. Their rubbing, polishing, and buffing compounds are labeled "3", "2", and "1" respectively.

Depending on the quality of the plastic, the original finish, and the quality of your repair, you may or may not need to paint it. At that point you'd do best to call a professional shop to quickly spray it to match, as you've saved a lot of money by doing the repair yourself and it's very hard to match paint. (I have done that part professionally in a print shop. Trust me, it's way more complicated than it looks.)


Fiberglass is another issue entirely, and I have very little experience with it, but the other answers you've received are on target for that.

Good luck!

Answer 2

there's 2 ways the cheap way and the right way,

obviously if you use paint thinner on the scratches you're going to destroy the paint around the scratches

1. the right way fill the cracks with bond-o or some other fibergalss filler (the auto parts store should know what to use) sand down the excess and try to touch everything up with some paint but you'll probably end up sanding the whole farring and painting the thing which is the right thing to do

2. Wrong way, just get some touchup paint and throw it on there, you can try and fill the scratches with some sort of poxy or putty but it normally doesn't work out unless you can sand that stuff down.

Personally I would keep checking craigslist for a new set of farings and try and do it that way. up 2 u

Answer 3

Of course there's a way to fix it. However, since you have asked this question, you are probably not able to do so yourself. Therefore, either take it off yourself or have a dealer do it, and have it fixed professionally.

However, if you do plan on doing it yourself.

Remove it

Wet sand it

Use fiberglass, and or, mesh to cover crack. (Depending how bad the crack is.)

Sand 'til smooth, and add if needed, and repeat

Tape and cover everything that is not painted

Paint all of the fairing

Wet-sand the whole thing

Clear-coat, wet-sand, repeat

Wax and bluff

However, in my own opinion, take it off and leave it off.

Answer 4

Plastic weld to fix the crack and a light abrasive like brass or silver polish will deal with shallow scratches anything deeper will need to be filled and rubbed down.

Answer 5

A large pack of bullet hole stickers.

Just tell everyone you had to ride through Compton.

( that's So. Central L.A. in case you're not familiar)

Answer 6

take the fairing off.. i have never seen one i liked anyway

Answer 7

paint thinner???
try rubbing them out....with that stuff
ummm i dont know paint over it...

thats all i got sorry