A while back I posted a thread asking for the names or solutions to sun oxidized inner fairings. Lets face it if your fairing is not painted this is going to happen to you eventually. In the process I was told about several products. Mcguires had one, Turtle wax had one, Mothers had one and a couple more. After hours and I mean hours of extensive research I concluded that all of these products were virtually the same in theory of application and polymer chemical composition...So I tried the Turtle wax and the Black Wow and the Mothers Back to Black. None of these really worked. They all did the same thing. ....not much! Now let me explain the fairing was fading and in a couple spots was actualy greyish white where the black was spotty and simply ugly.

Given the relatively similar composition of all the products, all claiming to do the same thing I tested them and they all had the same effect. On lightly faded black they did well in shining over the faded area, and it looked good. But on the whiteish grey areas it did little or no good, in fact it really just made the grey area shiny grey, barely hiding the issue at best. 45 dollars into this expierement I decided to spend the 60 bucks on the newly advertised Kuryakyn inner fairing covers I found in the new Spring 2012 catalouge. I called only to find out that they were not even produced yet. The ad was in an anticipation of the first product run that has yet to come and as of now Kuryakyn says it "may" be several months before arrival at best ....and then depression set in.............

I had all but given up , I was going to have to paint the damn things and I hate painting.....any one of a number of things can go wrong when you miix me with beer and paint around a beautiful Harley....I was dreading the very thought of it and was growing sick to my stomache thinking about it.

Them I remembered reading once on the forum about a guy who used KIWI black leather shoe dye to solve this problem. Interesting......hope....a light as a beacon shining unto a ship lost at sea my hopes rekindled a bit. So I figured I would read up on dye, plastics and the effect of dye on plastic. After reading how in theory this could very well work I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try. I stopped at the store grabbed a case of beer... 3 or 4 for the application process, and the rest for the waiting process , and potential future applications.....one must be prepared. I ventured to my local Target store and found the last lonely bottle of KIWI black (Noir) for you frenchmen out there ...dye.....$3.21 the cashier replied.....a cute little blonde with huge ta ta's....things were looking up. I went home cracked open a beer and smoked a cig. I turned on the Doors LA woman CD on my E-glides stereo and settled in for the final test. I cleaned the faiting with alcohol swabs and shook the bottle of dye well.... as I am assuming you should do. I applied it to the fairing in even firm strokes and then the other side and then covered it with the cap. I proceeded to slam a few more beers jamming to the Doors and watching the dye dry.....needless to say I realized a short time later that it was going to need to dry over night so I finished my 5th or 6th brewski and shut the cd off and retired to my house for the evening. I thought to myself...."self, this aint never gonna work" it was kinda frothy looking and streaky, but given the waste of time and money on the other miracles that failed I waited.

The next day I got home from work and checked it out. I opened a beer and went to the garage and turned the light on. I looked in amazement ...I couldnt believe my eyes....it friggin worked. I took a micro fiber cloth out and buffed it and blended the unaffected area into the newly repaired area and it was amazing. I applied another coat for good measure and repeated the buff the next day. It looked like it was never faded, the dye soaked into the pores of the plastic, it diidnt rub off, water didnt take it off....the dyed dyed it ! I then cleaned the fairing with a light application of the turtle wax trim restorer and it looked showroom new.

It remains in that condition and I hand washed it 5 times with soap and water and it has not changed a bit. I had to share this with my brothers and sisters out there. KIWI is the cure for and permanant fiix to a pain in the *** problem. If you do it first you will save countless dollars not wasted on products that simply mask at best the problem with shiny polymers that wash off after 3 washes or one good acid rain............Bottom line notwithstanding the cost of the beer.....$3.21 for the KIWI black leather shoe dye and about 10 minutes each application for a total of 20 minutes maximum time invested.

There ya go .....I dont know about Elvis...The Yeti, Chupa Cabras...Big foot or the friggin Loch Ness Monster...but KIWI is the real deal. Look no further to solve your faded fairing issue this is it!

Peace!

It

 

Glad it worked. Did you take before and after pics?

 

Great write up, I will save for the future. Thanks

 

I will be posting before and after pics this weekend....next up on my to do list is putting on my new pipes. It never ends....and I love it!

 

Thanks for sharing. It will help a buddy who have the problem on his '09.

 

So if you do this then want to paint a few months down the road, are you *** out?

 

That is great! One thing to look out for is that a lot of shoe dyes are water soluble. You might want to do a damp rag test to make sure the color won't run when it rains or washing!

 

Good thing to know since I don't really care too much for the painted fairings.

 

I have used RIT dye on lots of plastic stuff also. Never considered the KIWI...

 

I will address several of your questions.....I washed this 5 times with no change in the fairing color it seems once its in the plastic which used to be black its there for good.... It may require an additional coat later in the year depending on the acid content in the rain in some areas..... but 5 washes ad I mean good ones and it still looks great .....

Painting is nver fun.....If you did paint the fairing you would have to do the entire inner fairing cuz the fairing itself on the inner side is not gloss but not matte so touching up just the faded area is impossible to do cuz blending wont work.

I would imagine any black dye will work writ dye is a little thinner so I dont reccomend it KIWI is what was tested.