@littleade Thanks, Ade! It's helpful to have some information and background on all this. I've just today made an appointment with a place that one of the best motorcycle painters in town recommended to me. I hadn't checked back on this thread until just now so the timing is good. I'll be able to read up a bit and ask some intelligent (or at least not completely ignorant!) questions when I bring my Street Glide in to get an estimate on Thursday morning.
One of man's greatest inventions .. Matt Black Spraycan ! Scratches, gouges, etc ... whip that can out like John Wayne would've and shoot straight, podner ... haha ! When the 5 speed Sporties came out, (about '91 ?? ) a mate bought one, but not being a polishing type he got us to strip all the shiny stuff and matt black the lot... he still owns it, and it still looks shit-hot .. well, one of those words anyway !!!!
@littleade Well, I got an estimate for paint protection film and am opting to gamble that I won't get another big rock chip...for awhile at least. To do both the fairing and the front half of the fender was just under $400 for "kit" pieces and rose to $800 for custom piecing. Ed charged me $160 total to repaint my fender and correct both chips and that was including the paint itself AND figuring out how to create Scorched Orange paint in his shop. I may regret it but I can get a few "Ed paint jobs" for those prices. It also sounded like it would be tough to put the film on seamlessly because of the odd shapes in the fairing and the sharp bends in the fender.
I think you were probably just unlucky Sandi. I had similar with a new car 10 years ago when a rock got thrown up from a truck going the opposite way on what you'd call a freeway. It hit my offside front wing just above the headlight and I ended up having to get the whole wing resprayed. A couple of inches lower and it would have been a new headlight which would have been about a quarter of the cost.
I agree about being unlucky, @littleade. Mr. Sandi and I were tallying up an estimate of the years and the miles that he and I ridden between the two of us and prior to my Street Glide fender double-whammy, we've had nary a scratch or nick. So I'm just gonna go for it!
