I bought a used set painted black and scratched from high way pegs and wear .I sandblasted them smoothed the deep scars and painted them with metallic dark gray wheel spray paint then clear coat .much better looking color then the stock gray plastic parts .This is on a 2012 red GT.

 

You can get only one side from BMW if you want a new one.

 

Has anyone tried Tin Foil? I might have to go try it myself when I get home (I rode Christine's S1000XR to work today)

 

Has anyone tried Tin Foil? I might have to go try it myself when I get home (I rode Christine's S1000XR to work today)

You mean wrap it up like a baked potato and hope no one notices? That might work.

Ken

 

I vaguely remember something about lightly scrubbing metal with tinfoil to make scratches less obvious. I was digging deep in my memory banks so it may have been totally off the mark.

 

I vaguely remember something about lightly scrubbing metal with tinfoil to make scratches less obvious. I was digging deep in my memory banks so it may have been totally off the mark.

I know this works because I have done it, if you have rust on chrome, rubbing it with crumpled aluminum foil dipped in water, and kept wet throughout the process, the rust is chemically "wiped" away.

I saw that guy on that show do it. He is the guy the Pawn Stars get to fix up ancient coke machines, he has or had his own show where he would restore oddities.

Ken

 

If you are talking about the unpainted stainless crash bars, you need to remove the scratches first using a fine file and then progressively finer grades of wet/dry sandpaper. Wrap the sandpaper around a small block of wood. Use water with a few drops of soap added. Try to not file or sand beyond the area of the scratches. You can also use some of the small grindstones and the buffing wheel on a dremel tool with rubbing compound applied to the buffing wheel. The area with the scratches removed will be smooth and shiny versus the shot blasted matte finish of the rest of the bars. There's not much you can do about that, but it should be minimally noticeable.

 

Never even occoured to me that they were stainless. I just assumed that they were plain old painted/powder coated steel. Thanks mountainman, at least they wont rust then. Thats what worried me. At least I can take my time to find a cheap spare or try a repair like you suggested. Thank you.

 

I had the misfortune of dropping my 1600 at zero speed, removed the scratched engine guard and lightly sandblasted the damaged area. Pannier suffered a couple of scratches on painted area and lower black area. Repainted top piece on lid ( easy to remove)
Installed the BMW plastic pannier guards, which covered the lower scratches, if you don't have these they are well worth the investment