I thought it may save some a few dollars from time to time if I posted this up here. This applies to the solid coloured Surlyn bodywork. The translucent bodywork can be polished but tends to go cloudy.

A while ago I flipped my bike over the front brake. The fairing hit the tar dead centre, the bike rolled off to the right facing the opposite direction.

The XB is pretty tough, I rode it home with a half broken footpeg, abrasions on the fairing, and a ding in the headers. XB parts are generally not expensive.  A new fairing was only about $270 at that time.

I ordered a new fairing, but while waiting for it to arrive, I had a go at repairing the damage. The damage can be seen in the first picture. The owner’s manual says that you can use Scratch and Swirl Remover to clean up scratches, but that deep scratches in black plastic are terminal. As you can see from this picture however, there was nothing to loose.

I used 800 grade wet and dry abrasive paper (used wet) and sanded out the gravel rash. There is one nick that is too deep to remove completely without reshaping the fairing, I left this and it is barely visible. I even sanded back the scratched lens in the headlight so I'd get away with it until I fitted the Hellas.

I chose one region initially as a test. I sanded this smooth, and I was almost willing to believe that the handbook was right about the black plastic. Then I hit this region with cutting compound, and it became smooth very quickly and showed a promising shine. I removed the gravel rash from all over with the abrasive paper, and then cleaned it up with the cutting compound followed by Scratch and Swirl Remover.

My main mistake was not to sand again with 1200 grade abrasive paper. I left too much for the cutting compound, so it took longer than it should have. Also I really need to go back and sand it again with 1200 grade to get it perfect, and then to cut it again. I probably never will because you would need to be a perfectionist to see it.  I have a new fairing, but I have put it away. This one has come up fine for every day use. The damage doesn't show. I'll attempt the buckle scratch in the airbox cover next.

Sanding took about 15 minutes. The rubbing with a cutting compound took about two hours. As I say it would have been easier if I had graduated the sanding.

After I took the last pic, I used Novus 2 and then Novus 1 to finish off the fairing. It cleaned up the smear left by the cutting compound and made the fairing shiny black again. You can get Novus 1 and Novus 2 from dealers.  I would recommend it for keeping the plastic in good condition.  I don't use the Novus Polishes on the screen because I find that it shows out the swirls too much, but for the plastic it is perfect.

The only reason that I would see for painting the XB plastic would be to change to a non-standard colour.  Replacement would almost certainly be cheaper than painting, and better as well because when it is painted you cannot remove scratches.