What do you do for Gas Splash on plastics?? New bike - damaged paint!

Hello...

I'll assume other Can-Am Spyder owners have splashed some gas on their Spyder when filling it up?

I had a gas splash while filling up and I cleaned the fuel off within 15 seconds... I even washed it off the right-hand service panel and wiped it dry with a microfiber towel.

2hrs later... I saw, what you can see in the pic.

Dang!!... is this normal for Can-Am painted plastics? Fugh. Only had the Spyder for 2 weeks now.:banghead:

The paint is jacked. It wrinkled and cracked near the thumb screw, and deep stained it everywhere else the gas touched it. Used a DA polisher on it too. No success.

The black access panels are a pain in the butt. I just ended up spray painting mine due to all of the scratches and blemishes it was getting.


I used a Behr interior/exterior metallic blue from home depot. Prep by cleaning with alcohol; cover the latch with petroleum jelly using a qtip so the paint does not stick to it.

Then spray about 4 light coats about an hour apart. Clean the petroleum jelly off the latch with a dry qtip making sure not to get any on the painted surface.

After a couple days of curing and a nice long ride to get some heat under it and bake it in, soak it with some graphene wax and buff it out.

Pretty much bullet proof now against minor scratching and blemishes as compared to the standard paint. If you are worried about paint being permanent you can always go with some plastidip spray and just peel it off when you don't like it.

Also a lot cheaper at $9 a can compared to the $40-$50 that some websites want just for access panel decals.

With the way your panel is cracked it may be good to sand it down and prime it before going to the painting steps so you get a nice even coating.

I keep a shop towel in my F3 Limited's "glovebox" specifically for gas pumps in case they don't have paper towels. I always wrap the nozzle in something as I remove it to keep from splashing residual fuel on the bodywork.

I always take a folded-up paper towel and place it under the nozzle when I fuel up just in case of a burp/overfill.

That damage is crazy from just a gas splash. Very surprising that your paint is that soft. I knew Spyder's had soft paint but that is ridiculous.

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Originally Posted by FrogmanDave

That damage is crazy from just a gas splash. Very surprising that your paint is that soft. I knew Spyder's had soft paint but that is ridiculous.

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:agree: .... I've actually used gas to remove , grease , tar etc. .....paint looked fine afterwards .....Mike :thumbup:

I put black microfiber 'wrap' on both access panels. Keeps marks from happening AND I like the look better than the shiny paint....presents a nice contrast and will not streak or spot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FrogmanDave

That damage is crazy from just a gas splash.

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Yea, from the pattern of damage it looks like a pretty good amount of gas was splashed on it and it ran over to the side.
It had to be a good bit to get the paint to crack. I have had drops hit the tank and panels and never had that happen with wiping it off right away.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FrogmanDave

That damage is crazy from just a gas splash. Very surprising that your paint is that soft. I knew Spyder's had soft paint but that is ridiculous.

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I'd guess that it ended up so bad cos the paint is so new - he's only had the bike for 2 weeks, and the story is that these modern water-based paints take something over a month of exposure to sunlight for the paint to properly harden!! :shocked: Some paint guru's even say THREE months!! :lecturef_smilie:

So don't wash it; don't spill gas on it; don't let any birds crap on it; and don't let any bug splatter stay on it either; not for at least that first month (or three!) after un-crating!! :rolleyes:

Sorry, that probably doesn't help you too much now, Les... :opps: But for whatever it's worth down track, or for anyone else... :dontknow:

Thanks for the replies... No matter what tricks I tried with buffing and polishing, I couldn't correct the paint. Needless to say, I was disappointed in the quality of the paint (and clear coat, if there was any).

Thankfully those service/access panels are relatively cheap. $20 for each side, and they are gloss black. They were not hard to find online. I purchased mine through Fox Powersports; and I received them about 10 days later.

All I had to do was remove the twist lock from each panel and install it on the new ones.

Good to go now... $40 lesson learned. Be careful when fueling up.

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Originally Posted by LesGrossman

Good to go now... $40 lesson learned. Be careful when fueling up.

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That is good to hear. Hopefully some others won't have the problem you did after reading this.