I bought new fairings from china and I put them on last week..They don't fit very well, but good enough to where I was able to tweak some things and make them look good. I am having a problem though with my front tire hugger with how it bolts on. I think they messed up the placement of the holes because when I ride the front of the hugger rubs on the tire!!! It's already melted a little chunk out of it (not huge by any means). When parked, the spacing looks fine, but when riding I guess the holes they put in it are too large and the wind pushes the hugger down onto the tire. I'm thinking of just taking it off entirely, but just worried about how goofy it will look? Anyone else takin it off, how does it look? Or any suggestions on what I could do to keep it off the tire? It's a 92 f2. Thanks!

Oh I forgot to mention, I do still have the old one that fit, but its black. I don't have the funds to get it professionally painted, do you think just a rattle can would do?

 

what size tire are you running on the front? I know a lot of people run a 70 series on that bike when it should be a 60. The taller tire can create rubbing issues.

Forgive me since I'm not familiar with the front fender on that bike. Is ther suppose to be spaces on the fender? Some fenders will have rubber coated steel spacers inside the holes of the fender. Check your old fender and make sure they are not still on that fender and you didn't forget to transfer them to your new fender. If thats not the case and the holes are large like you said, you may want to wrap some tape around the bolt portion that is inside the hole of the fender. This will prevent the fender from moving since it will ecentially make the bolt larger in diameter. But, it could be the fender is just that flexible that it is bending down.

If I was trying to save money, I'd probably rattle can the black fender. The location of the fender is far enough away from any other paint that it doesnt have to match exactly. It needs to be close, but close is good enough for this situation. You may have a hard time finding a close color though. Since its not the original plastics, you will probably have a hard time color matchig it with places like colorrite. dont forget though. You have two color options and white may be an easier color to match. A white fender may look good since that is a large portion of your bikes color.

Or, another suggestion would be to trim the fender. You could probably remove about a 1/2 inch of the fender. If you cut the middle down and trim the sides to flow back into the sides, you would probabably be ok. Then you just have to touch up the edge with a close color paint.

 

What I believe to be the problem after looking is the old huggers had square fitting for a square nut. The new huggers did not. I putn the square nuts on and they just vibrated off like nothing because they had nothing to keep them in place... The only thing I can think of is to either get lock-tite to keep the nuts from falling off or to just repaint the old hugger...I'm leaning towards the old one because most people on the road don't look at the hugger, they just see it and see that it matches the rest. The main reason I weanna use the old hugger is because it has the molds to keep the square nut in. The new hugger does not, meaning usung the square nut is just the same as using a normal one...If I use the old fairing and paint it, at least I have a slot to keep the square nut in and in place....Otherwise, even using locktite, it wont keep this new fairing from scraping, the wind just has too much of an affect on this flexible fairing

 

you still have some options and use the new hugger. One, you could buy some plastic epoxy and epoxy the nuts onto the hugger. Then they will not fall off and hold the position of the hugger. You can also take it one step further. take one of the bolts and hold it with a pair of pliers. Take one of the square nuts and thread partially onto the bolt. Heat the nut up with a torch and press it into the fender. Allow the nut to melt into the fender a little. You will now have a pocket for the nut. I would still take some 2 part epoxy and epoxy them in as well, but this would give a pretty good locking of the nut.

Or, you can also try using some external star washers. They are basically a flat washer with teeth on the outside edge. This allows the washer to cut into the plastic and will hold the position of the hugger. I think you may need a crush sleave though to prevent over tightening of the bolt. You can find the washers at nearly any autoparts store. Just make sure you buy some that have a fairly aggressive tooth.

At this point, you really don't have anything to loose. If it doesnt work, you can just continue with using your old fender.

 

Yeah those front fenders are to flexible, I ordered one for my bike and had the same issues. I ended up repairing my oem fender when I re-sprayed the bike.
A spray gun would be better but if your handy with the rattle can then go for it, just make sure you rub it back with say 400 to 600 grit then prime, paint and clear, and do light coats.

 

Right on thanks man. Do you think locktite would work instead of the epoxy?

 

The epoxy will actually bond to the plastic, the loctite only works when it is under extreme compression, like on the surface of the thread of a nut a bolt. You can get a 2 part epoxy for about 5 bucks just about any autoparts store, or perhaps even walmart.

If the fender is acually flexing and rubbing, you may have to explore some options with stiffening up the fender. It all depends on how much room there is between the hugger and the tire. You may be able to run some beads of epoxy across the inner part of the fender. If you run them across width wise, it should add some strength and the fender won't be so easily bent down. I'm not sure how good you are with fiber glass, but even a sinlge sheet of fiberglass that has been resined in place will add a substantial amount of strength the fender.

But, from what redbaron said, it sounds like it may just the nature of the cheap fenders. I'd still try to use it, but if it doesn't work, then you'll be onto the old fender and a repaint. Also, going along with what redbaron said, make sure you do not go through the factory paint of the old fender. If you end up going to far and getting into the plastic, you will have a hard time gettting anything to stick to it. The plastic itself requires a special primer, but as long as you dont go that far, you should be ok. Dupli-color makes some really nice spraycan paint. Its easily applied and wetsands and rubs out nice. I would suggest not using their clear coat though. It never gets hard and chips easy. On a front fender, thats not good. I would suggest just wetsanding and rubbing it out. Once the paint is dry, wet sand with 1000 grit, then 1500 grit, then 2000 grit. You can then take some rubbing compound and rub the pait out by hand. Its time consuming, but you will end up with a very nice finish that is smooth.

Also, have you checked your front tire size yet?