That's what I said as I was walking away and I heard the,

chhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

clonk-KLUNK

A word to the wise: If it is even a little bit windy, put your fairings down on the ground in such a way that they cannot fall and get scratched. It doesn't matter if they fall 2 feet or 6 inches, if its on the garage floor, you are going to have an unsightly rash to contend with. Just put your fairings on the grass.

Not a big deal really but now I will have hours of filling polishing. I am sure I can fix this. I'll show pics because I am sure this has happened to many of us and it is a real pisser so much that many of us go out and buy a new fairing....but we all want to keep our bikes looking good.

Any suggestions on how to go about this? spray the whole thing or just dab some clearcoat in the pits an polish?

Front top of fender--all you see is the black center cuz of the vinyl striping which actually would have protected the paint if it woulda bounced on that instead of right on the middle

Back of fender

* Last updated by: Rook on 3/28/2012 @ 4:17 PM *

Did it just blow over or did it roll off?

prolly a little of both. It is windy today. The wind caught it and I believe it just slid across the hood of my car and down on the garage floor. Looks to me like it hit on the rear and then bounced over to the front then came to rest on its side.

This totally stupid because this same thing happened last year when I started putting fairings back on. I got lucky and the fender fell on the vinyl and suffered no damage as afr as I can see.

this is ironic because I was just posting about NOT having comprehensive insurance. Oh well, if I had it, i wouldn't make a claim for this. Not even on a new bike although I would be going nuts now if the bike was new.

Good one ROOK lol

Here's the plan:

I will sand lightly with 1000 grit auto body sandpaper just on the areas that are rashed.

Apply automotive clearcoat with a pen brush so that it is built up higher than the level of the surrounding paint.

sand the raised bumps of clear coat down just barely above the surrounding paint with 1000 grit on a sanding block.

Use a flat, wood block covered with cloth and buffing compound to level the fresh clearcoat to the level of the surrounding pant.

polish with the superfine polishing compound I normally use a few time/year to eliminate swirls.

fill in the imperfections. there is bound to be some bubbles in the clearcoat and posibbly some low spots. You never see the imperfections until you get it perfect. Then you go back and fix it a little more.

polish wax done.

I could just spray clear coat but then I should really do the whole part.

* Last updated by: Rook on 3/28/2012 @ 7:58 PM *

FUC$$$$!!!!!!Man....geez....what a drag.Sorry about yer parts there Rookster.GAWD I hate when something like this happens.Like dropping a small wrench or like a screwdriver off the tank or something.

Here's the plan:

I will sand lightly with 1000 grit auto body sandpaper just on the areas that are rashed.

Apply automotive clearcoat with a pen brush so that it is built up higher than the level of the surrounding paint.

sand the raised bumps of clear coat down just barely above the surrounding paint with 1000 grit on a sanding block.

Use a flat, wood block covered with cloth and buffing compound to level the fresh clearcoat to the level of the surrounding pant.

polish with the superfine polishing compound I normally use a few time/year to eliminate swirls.

fill in the imperfections. there is bound to be some bubbles in the clearcoat and posibbly some low spots. You never see the imperfections until you get it perfect. Then you go back and fix it a little more.

polish wax done.

I could just spray clear coat but then I should really do the whole part.

* Last updated by: COOTER on 3/28/2012 @ 11:06 PM *

Rook; I'm with Cooter. Try buffing them out first. You can always resort to harsher measures if that doesn't work. Reminds me of my younger days when I was in my living room rockin' out to some zeppelin, and I heard this weird POP. I turned around and there was a hole through my fairing that was leaning against the wall. The loud music vibrated a beer bottle off a shelf and it went right through. There were over 50 beer bottles on that shelf, but only one fell, and it had to be right over the fairing.

I'm with them try compound first. Can always resort to harsher solutions if it doesn't work.

ok. can't hurt to try.

It's better if you look at it as a scratch and be done with it. The day I picked up my bike, I tagged the front fender. Glued that 'give you a head start' handicap sticker on there. Take crayon and wax some dark blue or black in it; call it a day.

Your abyss over a piece of utility? Let it subside for a few days. It's part of the aging process. Gives the bike character. Let it go. It usually gets worse you start messing with plastic. Right?

Save the paint job for tires/gas/oil. It's just a track bike/daily driver/beat her/send her to bed wet bike.

* Last updated by: Hub on 3/29/2012 @ 12:16 PM *

Yes, Hub, but your bikes, from the few actual pictures you've posted that weren't someone else's, are probably likely to win a rat bike contest.

LOL... I'll enter. Where is it?

It usually gets worse you start messing with plastic. Right?

Nah-- not so far. I've fixed a few minor blemishes like this already and they are basically unnoticeable. You remeber my mirror, my lower and front directional light? Those are all fixed up (although the OEM mirrors are no longer on the bike)

I have a few spots on the frame where my boot rubbed one time for a couple hundred miles that need touch up/. Also going to paint fins on the Formans. This is the time to start screwing with the paint if ever there was a time. Brand new bikes should have brand new paint but old bike shave what ever you give them. I still want to make this the best paint I can. It's sort of becoming a show bike too. Pretty much everything.

Got some 3M rubbing compound and I also picked up the 3M polishing compound which I'm sure is just a finer abrasive. I grabbed some 1000 grit sand paper while I was at it.

Coots, this rubbing compound is an abrasive. It's going to do the same as sand paper only slower. I think I am going to dot every scratch with a spot of clear coat first. If you do not do this first, you save a step but you are taking off a lot of the original clearcoat. It is possible that you may go right through it. The clearcoat on the tank is very thick but I think other parts, it maybe best to add a little and then subtract.

I'm sure I will be clearcoating the entire bike in a couple years. I've gone over it about 7-8 times with a fine abrasive polish. Works great for swirls but that clear coat might be getting pretty thin in some spots.

When I was working at a dealership we had the side panel for a Desmosedici fall off the wall hook, and it is carbon fiber. Of course it cracked!! Doh!!! $800 later.....

Mad

Sorry to hear what happened Rook. Gives us all a wake up call as to what can happen if you're not careful.
Over the years I've tried to learn from my mistakes (which should qualify me for worlds smartest human) and others.
I'm probably over-cautious about stuff but if I'm holding ANY part in my hand I now handle the part close to the ground and sometimes use my lawn to work over. I can't see as well as I used to so the daylight helps me more than flourescent lighting anyway. I also spread several towels on the floor if I'm handling any part. Even if there should be no reason to drop a part I still take the time to be careful now.
Going by your pictures it looks like the scratches are through the paint to the plastic? You seem to know more about surface prepping and painting than I do so I can't suggest anything to help on that. BUT IF the scratches aren't through the paint then I've used Turtle Wax clearcoat polish compound to remove them. Of course it's an abrasive but it's extremely mild. In fact, that's the only problem with it. It's so mild that it can take awhile to remove a scratch or at least minimize the scratch. They probably still make it though I've been using the same tub for many years so I haven't looked for it.
If you try your way, how much time is involved and will it come out 100% or less? I scratched my front fender in my crash, maybe a 2" X 2" spot but it was deep. I decided to just buy a new fender. When I bought mine the prices were between $140 and $175.

* Last updated by: KAK on 3/29/2012 @ 2:58 PM *

Going by your pictures it looks like the scratches are through the paint to the plastic?

No, I don't think it is even all the way through the clearcoat, KAK. Any rough scratch in the clearcoat looks whitish on this black paint I have (midnight sapphire blue, actually). The cause is increase of the refractive index. Simply put, virtually all of our clear paint resins and varnishes are actually white in a powdered form. Scratch your clear coat and you are causing a rough refractive surface that looks white.

Just think of snow and ice. Same stuff but the solid is clear and the powder is white. Put a scratch on your ice and it becomes snow = white. Throw your snow into water and the snow pretty much turns transparent

If you try your way, how much time is involved and will it come out 100% or less?

Simply buffing it out would achieve the same effect visually but seems there is a risk of going all the way throughthe clearcoat. So why not just buff the scratches and spray some clearcoat on it ?? TReally, you are supposed to sand the entire piece and clearcoat the whole thing. At least according to the how too vid I saw on youtube. ---Now that really would be going overboard. I will try the middle of the road perfectionist approach instead of the all out obsessive/compulsive approach.

* Last updated by: Rook on 3/29/2012 @ 6:14 PM *

OK Rook. If the scratces aren't that deep as you said, I bet the Turtle Wax stuff I use would work well.
I'm real picky and this stuff has worked well for me over the years on everything. My teal green '95 Blazer and both my black bikes show any kind of scratch and I've always removed all of them with this stuff. Like I said, mild stuff so patience is needed sometimes.

I had the wind knock over a fairing last summer. Same thing happened except it was standing on the ground leaned against a wall. a simple tip over of seven inches left a scratch I rubbed for an hour. It softened out enough that I was satisfied. For that much rubbing, maybe I might as well try filling in and leveling.

BEFORE

AFTER

If a fairing fell and hit the floor chances are the scrtches are through thte clear coat. I built up a clearcoat layer over the scratch but after i got it all polished out, I saw that i went through the clear coat and took off the blue metal flake layer right around the scrape I was repairing. The area I built up the clear coat was protected but the surrounding area was worn down to the black under layer. It is not noticaeble and Not realy a big deal on the back of my fender. I will be taking a different approach the fixing the top, though. That will be right out in plane view.

* Last updated by: Rook on 3/31/2012 @ 9:01 PM *

that would of been the perfect excuse I needed to do the zx10 fender mod lol

Thought about it. Maybe I will. Always liked the OEM fender a little better but now it's nice to just do things that are a little different.