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Is the tail light shroud original paint a gloss or a satin? Thanks
& HL bucket-which I might ad is a pain to mask up
+1 with Kent........they are just plastic with the finish treatment and color produced in the mold......God bless............Dennis
I had the switch,yellow lt, rubber grommets, speedo & cable & lens,etc. out but taped down into bucket on cables then rolled them and propped them apart with dowel rods so they don't contact the holes & front main hole I taped off from inside out . Wires are mostly in place and covered. Of my 3 headlight buckets-inside they all look like an "activity center for previous owners"! fairings/electronic ignition ,etc.not as much of a PITA as disassembling the whole thing ... which I what I did.
Right!,...mine has gouges from many years of stuff strapped to a package rack digging into it. It appears to be "made that way" as Dennis and Kent explain. Apart from finding N.O.S. or a pristine replacement, what is a person to do to replicate the appearance?
BTW, I'd never touch the one on my bike, which is original and un-restored.
Well as you now you know they are sometimes painted some times not.
Me & lots ( as in thousands) of other people paint plastic all the time. As for using stuff, as in strapping stuff on as you say- that's another subject from refinishing it? Why should I waste money on NOS or pristine when I have the part? Plastic gets painted on cars that cost far more than our bikes!!! The finish on many OEM plastics, now & in the past is painted or chromed. Gauge surround on my 1150R is painted as is other stuff on that bike.
There's nothing really hard about painting plastic. Good way to either improve appearance or change colors. Flexing makes for use of certain paints or flex agents & you need proper binding of the finish chemically (& mechanically sometimes) but in the case of these tail light shrouds they are rigid plastic. I often use a product called Bullseye(there are others) and body shops simply use what they usually call "jamber" which is a commonly used spray to promote adhesion in the door jamb area on vehicles where its hard to sand/scrub up the old finish. There are also rattle can paints for plastic but I'm not using rattle cans on my /5! There are a few better than others. Lots of AB people use the rattle can etch primers for easy weld spray. The one Lowes sell in Rustoleum can be covered with regular base/clears so a handy primer for some parts.
Right!,...mine has gouges from many years of stuff strapped to a package rack digging into it. It appears to be "made that way" as Dennis and Kent explain. Apart from finding N.O.S. or a pristine replacement, what is a person to do to replicate the appearance?
BTW, I'd never touch the one on my bike, which is original and un-restored.