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Damage to finish

C

chfite

Guest
How does one go about repairing dings in the clear coat on the fairing? A semi ran off the road in front of me the other day and strewed rocks, grass, sticks, and mud everywhere. It was pretty exciting, all things considered.

When I got to washing the bike the next day, I noticed three or four places where there was damage to the clear coat. It is open all the way to the base coat. All the flying rocks gotta land somewhere.

Do you just wait until you get enough of them and have it painted? The lowest piece right behind the front wheel is toast from all the road debris in just three months. I already have a gouge in the side of my helmet from a rock thrown up from the road. I may just put a sticker on it.
 
chfite said:
How does one go about repairing dings in the clear coat on the fairing? A semi ran off the road in front of me the other day and strewed rocks, grass, sticks, and mud everywhere. It was pretty exciting, all things considered.

When I got to washing the bike the next day, I noticed three or four places where there was damage to the clear coat. It is open all the way to the base coat. All the flying rocks gotta land somewhere.

Do you just wait until you get enough of them and have it painted? The lowest piece right behind the front wheel is toast from all the road debris in just three months. I already have a gouge in the side of my helmet from a rock thrown up from the road. I may just put a sticker on it.

If it is only the clear coat that is damaged, you could order a touch up paint kit from BMW and just use the clear over coat that comes in the package (touch up kits come with a vial of colour paint and a vial of clear coat). Or, you could see if your local Parts Plus or Auto Zone has clear coat.
 
If it is only the clear that has chipped off and the basecoat colour is not damaged, there is another technique that is often used by the mobile repair guys. The resulting repair will appear approx 85% compared to the OEM but looks better than leaving it chipped or some other repairs and cheaper than painting it (which of course you may want to do later).

Before anything you need to ensure this is actually clearcoat you are dealing with and not a single stage colour. In an obscure area take a small piece of the P2000 grit paper and sand just an area the size of a pencil eraser and look at the paper...if it is white then it is clear, if the colour is the colour of your bike then it is single stage colour, and the following process would substitute colour for clear etc. The P2000 grit scratches will polish out later.

Assuming the basecoat colour is still good and not damaged:

Buy some touch up clearcoat (Rattle can will suffice for this), a small amount of P2000 grit sandpaper, some alcohol cleaner (like the denatured stuff in your cabinet, some clean white cloths (preferably as little lint as possible), also a touch up brush like the ones available at an auto parts store.

First wash the area down with soap and water, rinse well and dry. This removes oily contaminates and salts/minerals and prevents them from being ground into the paint whilst sanding.

Second use a clean cloth with some alcohol cleaner to wipe down the area and a second cloth to wipe the area clean before the alcohol cleaner evaporates so as to wipe away the contaminates that float to the surface.

Third take the P2000 grit sandpaper, a small piece about the size 2" x 2" will be okay. Wet the paper and gently sand the area around the chip approximately 1/8-1/4" around the chip, avoid sanding the chip itself as this will damage the basecoat colour and make it necessary to touch the basecoat.

Fourth use a cloth again to wipe the alcohol cleaner to wipe the area dry and clean, and a clean cloth to wipe the area before the alcohol cleaner dries. If you prefer you can use a wet cloth to remove the sanding silt but there won't be much

Fifth after shaking the clearcoat rattle can for a few minutes, spray some into the lid of the can (the plastic lid that covered it) until it puddles and then using your touch up brush carefully dab the clear into the chip and let sit for a few minutes, and then repeat until the surface of the clear is just slightly higher than the surrounding area. (this is why you sanded a small area surrounding the chip so that the new clear had something to bite into)

Sixth after the clear has dried for a few hours/overnight, take another small piece of the P2000 grit paper and gently sand the new clear using fresh water on the sand paper. Try to keep the sanding light as you are only trying to bring the surface of the clear down to match the surrounding area. It is often easier to use a bottle cal as a sanding block to ensure that the sandpaper touches only the crown of the touched up clear, otherwise it is possible to remove too much of the surrounding clear and you will have another type of problem to deal with. Think of it this way, you are trying to bring the top of a hill down to match the surrounding flat land without touching the flat land.

When the chip touch up is matching the surrounding paint, take a polishing cloth with some non-abrasive rubbing compund for clearcoats, and gently rub in circular motions to remove the P2000 grit scratches from the paint, this should remove easily. Each time you want to see the progress use a clean cloth to wipe the panel (or a clean section of the wiping cloth of course). After a few minutes the scratches should be removed, at this time use a wet cloth to wipe the area and dry to inspect. If it is acceptable us a polish to restate the gloss and clean the area and protect the new finish.

Another alternative to this is if it makes you nervous is to look in the yellow pages for companies such as Dent Wizard or Chip Wizard and they perform these types of repairs on a daily basis. Hope this helps.
 
Hey PPG

Thanks Andy,

I'm not too worried about the GSs but I hit a huge flying rock, lug nut, or something just above the windshield of the Bimmer at 75 "POW". Scared the crap out the wife. Anyway now I have this 1/4" ding/scratch in the paint.

I'll use your instructions for fixing it... Thanks

Russ :D
 
SFDOC said:
Thanks Andy,

I'm not too worried about the GSs but I hit a huge flying rock, lug nut, or something just above the windshield of the Bimmer at 75 "POW". Scared the crap out the wife. Anyway now I have this 1/4" ding/scratch in the paint.

I'll use your instructions for fixing it... Thanks

Russ :D


Hi Russ and you are welcome. Just one thing with bimmer cars though, some of them depending upon model used powder clearcoat on the newer ones, and so the finish is much harder than normal melamine finishes. A few wipes with the alcohol before touch up will help to at least sooften the paint so that it feels somewhat rubber like, and this will help with adhesion.

Call if you have questions beyond that Russ, I think ya have the #.
 
Thanks for the how to. I was afraid the damage would have to stay. Now I can decide to try it myself or go the other route.

This is first bike that I have had with a full fairing. In the past, I had bikes with fairings along the line of just around the handlebars and windscreen. I have been surprised how much damage occurs from road debris. Now I have to figure out how I managed to drag the bottom of the fairing against the pavement.
 
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