To Paint Fenders or Not...

[Steven Housewright]

Greetings all... I am in the process of rebuilding a 81 gs650l. I am flirting with the idea of painting the fenders on it but was wondering if any of you have ever tried this with the chrome fenders and have any suggestions. I am going to black out the engine eventually and use a pearl-coat based paint. Thanks for your input and as a cycle shop employee I can honestly say this website is filled with incredibly gifted guys who know their stuff without strutting it. Blessings...

[jimcor]

Howdy, Steven. First of all I like chrome fenders. If the chrome is in very good to excellent condition I'd leave them that way. If its surfaced rusted and won't clean up, what's cheaper or less time consuming re-chrome or paint?

It all boils down to; what do you want to do? Either way, if you don't get too far from original it's pretty hard to make a GS ugly! :-D

[beergood]

I am in the middle of deciding whether or not to paint my front fender. I am going to replace my exhaust some time this spring, so I think I am going to wait to see if I get a chrome one, or a black one.

I don't think you should have a problem if you decide to paint it. To prep it, I would work the chrome over with a medium/fine grit paper to give the primer something to hold onto, but then I think you should be fine.

The difficulty with this decision is that there is no easy way back once you have done it.

[tkent02]

Sure there is.....

The difficulty with this decision is that there is no easy way back once you have done it.

Go find another fender.

Or you could go find a plastic one to paint and keep the chrome one for when you chicken out.

[beergood]

Go find another fender.

Or you could go find a plastic one to paint and keep the chrome one for when you chicken out.

I submit that neither of those are easy ways out (I hate emoticons, smilies, so insert winking graphic).

But he is right. All I meant is, paint it if you want, it will probably be fine. It definitely isn't going to be the end of the world, but I doubt you will get the original back to chrome.

[Steven Housewright]

Thanks

Thanks for the input guys. Actually my chrome is in fine shape after I have taken the elbow grease to it. Have not buffed it to a real fine shine as of yet, though I feel it will do that easily. I vassilate between staying chrome or going color. Oh, well, that is what bikes are for...do I do this or do I do that. Again. thanks.

[t3rmin]

Here's a vote for chrome. ;-)

Anything that's still shiny or shinable on my bike after all these years I try to keep that way! ;-)

[tconroy]

Greetings all... I am in the process of rebuilding a 81 gs650l. I am flirting with the idea of painting the fenders on it but was wondering if any of you have ever tried this with the chrome fenders and have any suggestions. I am going to black out the engine eventually and use a pearl-coat based paint. Thanks for your input and as a cycle shop employee I can honestly say this website is filled with incredibly gifted guys who know their stuff without strutting it. Blessings...

I personally like chrome with the black engine.If you have some rust go to the auto parts or wally world and get some mothers chrome polish.It will take the rust off and make the chrome look brand new.Also the mothers mag and aluminum polish will shine up your rims and carbs.Check out my photobucket at the bottom here to see what I mean.

[Billyboy]

I've got a spare fender. I'm painting it.:-D

[isaac]

I say do a little research, see if you can come out on top by selling yours to another GSer, then buying one from a MC JY or something. If you can make some money by selling a good one and buying a crappy one to paint, do it.

Painting it is pretty simple. Just sand it a lot with fine grit paper, then prime and paint as normal.

I prefer painted fenders because the rest of the bike only has one or two pieces of chrome, and therefore looks bizarre.

[tracy borchert]

paint

It's all in what you are looking for personally. I myself wanted the paint color of the bike to flow better from front to back. Which I think it turned out quite nicely. I just sand blasted the fenders and blocked,primed,and painted along with the rest of the bike. This gives you a idea of what painted looks like.:-D

[drhach]

Chrome

If you really have your heart set on painting the fender, take it to a plating shop and have them strip it. That way any painting thqwt you do will actually stick to the metal. It's pretty cheap, fast and painless.

[ifly85]

I vote for painted fenders. I have never liked the chrome ones much. However, like the others have said, if yours is in good shape, then you might want to sell it and find a rusty one to paint. I have mine painted, but they were fairly bad to start with. I sand blasted them and then used adhesion promoter (available in spray cans or for spray guns), then primer, then the paint. I can't talk to durability yet though.

Good luck.

[Ludeykrus]

My vote also goes to painting.

I flat blacked most of my bike, and the fenders were in bad shape. And the chrome stood off too much w/ the flat black.

I think I just realized I hate chrome! :shock: