Fairing lower wind deflectors

[XV1100SE]

One of the problems with getting together and seeing what others have done to their rides is it becomes expensive. You see items you didn't think you needed (some would say "wanted").

 

Let me say that B2Dad is a bad influence ! I don't know how many times at MarlCarl's he told me I need the diamond cut fins (and how many others he said the same thing to) and other safety chrome. After filtering... I decided to go with what he said would be an $0.89 change.

 

B2Dad pointed out to me that on his bike he had painted the clear plastic wind deflectors on the front fairing black. With the paint job on the '09 the lower part of the fairing is black and then you have clear wind deflectors that tend to stand out from the paint on the bike. This is one of the few suggestions that B2Dad suggested that was inexpensive ! Timing was good because I had to replace my headlight bulb anyway, and since it we had plans for Saturday and forecast was for rain on Sunday.... was a good weekend to do it.

 

Very simple to do...

- Open fairing.

- Remove 3 screws from plastic deflectors (NOTE: 2 of the screws are the same but the upper one is SMALLER - don't try to put one of the big ones in the little hole)

- Clean the deflectors

- Sand the BACK of the deflector to give the paint something to stick to. I used 320 grit and 400 grit paper. Clean the dust off.

- Spray paint on the BACK of the deflector

 

First time I sprayed it I had a lot of "pin holes" in the paint. Doing a second coat didn't cover them. I used paint thinner to remove the paint and sanded again to make sure there were no contaminants but spraying it with paint showed the same pin holes again.

 

To get around this problem... I sprayed another light coat of paint on it and then used a foam brush to spread the paint. Surprisingly, this covered the pin holes and gives it a nice smooth texture.

 

I used Tremclad with says it adheres to plastic but any of the plastic paints should work fine.

 

Nice thing with painting the back of the deflector is from the front you see the black but have the "shine" of the clear plastic. Cleaning bugs off won't be a problem since the paint is on the back. If the paint were on the front I'd be worried that the paint would come off with scrubbing.

 

You can paint the back whatever colour you want to match your bike. I used black because of the red/black paint scheme on my bike fit. If your fairing is gray, paint it gray. If red/white.... whatever colour, paint it to match your fairing and from the front of the bike it matches.

 

Now that I have my wind deflectors black.... thinking if I get a matching red I could paint over top of the black so that from the front it is black but from the drivers view it would match the inner fairing.

 

Talk about an inexpensive change ! Thanks B2Dad for the suggestion !

[hubbsfd]

Cool mod.

 

I think from your pic I can tell your lower luggage rails are set in the stock hole at the rear. I could be wrong but if your looking for a cheap improvement. I followed advice from others on this forum and used the instructions found here and put a new hole and moved the rails down so they line up with the lines on the bike. Soooooo much better looking when they are lined up. Cheap for such a huge improvement.

[ACE50]

If you don't mind it, most black spray paints show as a dark gray as in your picture. Haven't found one that doesn't yet, except................

first few coats use the VHT nite-shades. Goes on translucent so you have to paint black over it. Then you get a dark gloss black in front.

[hubbsfd]

Cool mod.

 

I think from your pic I can tell your lower luggage rails are set in the stock hole at the rear. I could be wrong but if your looking for a cheap improvement. I followed advice from others on this forum and used the instructions found here and put a new hole and moved the rails down so they line up with the lines on the bike. Soooooo much better looking when they are lined up. Cheap for such a huge improvement.

 

Looking again those may not be luggage rails at all. Might be the stock guards. Ignore me if I got it wrong

[MikeWa]

Cool mod.

 

I think from your pic I can tell your lower luggage rails are set in the stock hole at the rear. I could be wrong but if your looking for a cheap improvement. I followed advice from others on this forum and used the instructions found here and put a new hole and moved the rails down so they line up with the lines on the bike. Soooooo much better looking when they are lined up. Cheap for such a huge improvement.

 

 

It really isn't necessart to drill additional holes. Simply give the saddlebag guards a twist in a vise and they will line right up.

 

Mike

 

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[MikeWa]

Sorry don't want to steal the thread. I like the painted lowers.

 

Mike

[XV1100SE]

Tough group ! Try to show off something new and they pick on other things !

 

My rails aren't perfect but they aren't bad either. I'd prefer to not drill another hole in the saddle bag guard or into the fender. For the sake of this group of critics.... I'll see about bending them down a little bit at the rear.

 

[hubbsfd]

Tough group ! Try to show off something new and they pick on other things !

 

My rails aren't perfect but they aren't bad either. I'd prefer to not drill another hole in the saddle bag guard or into the fender. For the sake of this group of critics.... I'll see about bending them down a little bit at the rear.

 

 

I didn't mean to sound like a critic. Sorry if I came off that way. I was just suggesting a cheap mod that I thought was a great improvement over how my bike looked before lining the rails up. Some rails seem to be closer to right than others thus the creation of the mod for those that had more of a problem. I never read anywhere about doing a twist or bend on them. For me it would be more comfortable drilling a new hole in the chrome frame that supports the rails. The stock hole is just too high for a lot of folks rails to line up. It was easy to do and cheap for the price a couple nuts and some lock tight. I'm sure twisting will work for those more comfortable with doing it that way.

[Trader]

Tough group !

 

 

 

There....there......I like the work you did.

[Barrycuda]

That's a really thoughtful and interesting idea. I like how you expanded by saying you can mod even further by 2 tone paint, front one and back the other to match the bike. Thanks for sharing.

[XV1100SE]

I didn't mean to sound like a critic. Sorry if I came off that way. ....

 

I was only kidding about being a tough group ! Even Trader offered a hug. Bunch of softies underneath !

 

I had forgotten about the saddle bag rails and to me they look good the way they are but now you got me thinking again and I'll take another look.

[XV1100SE]

That's a really thoughtful and interesting idea. I like how you expanded by saying you can mod even further by 2 tone paint, front one and back the other to match the bike. Thanks for sharing.

 

I can't take credit for the idea - B2Dad told me about it at MarCarl's. Where he got the idea I don't know.

 

Shouldn't be a problem painting over the black. Just have to find red to match the inner fairing. From the front you'd see the black. From behind just the red.

[hubbsfd]

I was only kidding about being a tough group ! Even Trader offered a hug. Bunch of softies underneath !

 

I had forgotten about the saddle bag rails and to me they look good the way they are but now you got me thinking again and I'll take another look.

 

For a good comparison to the look see MikeWA's picture he attached to his earlier post in this thread and you can see a good example of the difference lowering those rails makes.