Motorcycle Body Work

You can use this page to give yourself your own cost estimate. There are no complex rules that we use and we have not hired an actuary to help us price our work (We probably should). But until we do, this means the process is essentially transparent to you, so much so that if you read and completely understand our pricing methods then your self-estimate should closely resemble ours. There is quite a bit of information to cover here but none of it is difficult to understand or complex.

Base Pricing & Deposit Policies as of 9/19/2011

Deposits are required to purchase materials that are specific to your work order. We require payment in full on jobs estimated at $500 and under before we can begin the work. This is due to the high cost of materials for smaller jobs. Work orders that are above $500 require a minimum of 50%. We cannot accept any parts without a deposit. Deposits safeguard us against false starts and it guarantees that your job-specific materials will be purchased immediately. We prefer paypal but can accept a personal check included with the parts when shipped. Cash is accepted for local transactions.

Inidivual fairings can be repaired and painted to match existing paint schemes. Its always best to paint more than one fairing if you can and need additional repairs. This is because of the cost of the paint and minimum mixing requirements (MMR). MMRs are often required in order to get the correct color. The smallest amount of paint that can be accurately measured is one tenth of a gram. To get an idea of how sensitive a measurement that is, you can register 1/10th of a gram with air by waving your hand downward over our scale. Some paints may have .1 gram of metallic flake in an entire gallon. That means that the minimum amount of paint you could make for that color is 1 gallon. This happens more often than you'd think. I'd say 50% of our bike colors have some kind of MMR although most of them are a few ounces not an entire gallon but that does happen. So as you can see it makes sense to do as many fairings in a given session as you can. Excluding trim panels, most single farings range from $150 to $450 depending on damage, number and type of colors and the complexity of the paint scheme.

An entire Sportbike body can typically be repaired and painted a single color with a few vinyl decals for approximately $800. A two color paint scheme with a few decals can usually be done for $1000 and 3 colors for $1200 also with vinyl decals. We can also produce decals in paint that look identical in shape and color to their vinyl counterparts.

If your bike has minor to moderate body damage then the 3 prices above will very likely be exactly what you'll pay. We consider moderate damage to be some light road rash, a few small cracks and/or small voids. If your plastics are more heavily damaged than what we've just described, you will have a slightly higher repair bill. Even the worst damage will not raise the price more than $200. Obviously something that is incredibly destroyed is not likely to be worth repairing however its rare that fairings ever see that kinds of damage assuming you have all the material - Pick up those broken pieces!! Don't assume your bike is beyond repair. You would without a doubt be surprised at the typical repairs we do on a daily basis.

There are ways to reduce your cost. There are ways to drive it up. The number one most excellent way to raise your cost is to paint the plastics with a rattle can. The reason for the rattle can price increase is chemical. We use high quality automotive paint, the thinners and the paint (color) itself are much stronger chemically speaking than the poor quality enamels that pass for paint in spray cans. Because of this, the spray can paint will almost always react chemically and begin dissolving once the good paint comes into contact with it. The new paint acts very much like paint stripper. Another problem with poor quality paint jobs is adhesion. You can think of each layer of paint as a link in a chain. The poorest adhering layer is going to be the weakest link. If you have a high quality, $400 per quart base coat going on top of sealer on top of spray paint you are throwing your money away. The weak paint underneath will give way easily. When it lets go of the body and chips, so will your high priced paint. Obviously extra time and steps must be followed to either remove entirely or seal permanently the low quality spray can paint. Hand sanding all of the paint off of a previously painted motorcycle will raise your total cost by a minimum of $200 for a full body paint job. You can attempt this yourself and we will give you as much guidance as we can. As mentioned we can also apply a sealer however; we do not recommend using sealers because they are no guarantee against reactions or other failures. If insisted upon the typical cost to seal a full faired bike is $120.

If you want to paint your bike yourself - go for it! Just make sure you do it the right way. Spend the money on good paint. You can still get great results with a $20 Chinese touch up gun and a $100 compressor.

There are a few additional conditions which increase the final cost, these conditions are described as follows:

To reduce your costs you can do a few things; remove all the plastics from your bike yourself. Our prices listed here do not include vehicle storage or disassembly and assembly time which all together add another $300 to your cost. You can choose colors from our color swatches instead of insisting on a factory color. OEM color matching drives up the price. You can always check with us about what remnant colors we have in house and they change often. You can also ask us to schedule you when we have a quiet period (typically September though February). If you can be flexible with your scheduling we can be flexible with our prices.

Factory paint has the best adhesion properties of all paint processes bar none. Even the best of aftermarket paints and painters can only come so close to factory adhesion. There are many reasons for this. First and perhaps most important is having access to a brand spanking new unpainted panel that has yet to see the light of day. In the first 48 hours after painting your plastic(s), the clear coat will be very soft and "rubbery". It will scratch very easily. A finger slid ontop of the fairing will leave a microfine scratch. By the end of the first week the clear coat will be much harder and by the end of the Month it will be as solid as the original. We recommend you do not wipe your vehicle for as long as possible during the first two weeks after painting. Using a hose and water is fine. When you do decide to clean it, make sure to use a brand new microfiber cloth. No products containing silicone (silica), especially waxes, may be used for 90 days after painting. Silicone will lock the solvents inside the paint and stop them from escaping. This can destroy a new paint job entirely. Use a non silicone hand glaze with a brand new microfiber cloth if you absolutely must use something.

We own a complete BASF Diamont Mixing System. BASF is the OEM source for high end vehicles such as BMW Cars and Bikes, Aprillia, Porsches, Audi, Mercedes and many others. BASF is the world's largest chemical company. Since they supply most of the vehicle manufacturers in the world with their OEM paint it is safe to say that the color match achieved using this system is quite good and is why, after using 20 or more paint systems, the RM Diamont was our system of choice. The paint itself performs phenomenally well overall however the reason we purchased this mixing system over any other is it's reputation for color matching. Lets face it, when it comes to motorcycle color match is difficult and mandantory. Trying to blend a slightly mismatched color on an 18" motorcycle fairing is nearly impossible. No matter have subtle the fading you will see the difference between colors.

Color has a large impact on price. Most colors are two stages. This means there is a base coat (IE Color) and a clear coat. A growing number of finishes are 3 stage paint systems. Three stage paints are usually called candies or pearls. All candies are 3 stage, the same can not be said about pearls. For candies, the three stages consist of a base coat, usually metallic silver, a translucent "mid coat" and then clear coat. The translucent mid coat produces the color mean if the fairing is blue, the mid coat will be a translucent blue. With pearls the base coat is usually white but not always, the mid coat contains the metallic flake and is also usually translucent. Pearls require an additional layer of paint to be sprayed but beyond that they are typically pretty straight foward.The candies are very tricky to match. Each layer of translucent paint darkens the colors. Unlike two stage which for the most part doesn't darken with coats, the candies do. Thus it is difficult to produce an even, consistant matching color. There is no real advantage to using a candy over a two stage unless there are graphics beneath it and you are trying to produce a "ghosted" image. Therefore, we recommend that if possible you go with a matching two stage and repaint all of the color or change the color all together.

Please feel free to ask us any questions you may have including scheduling, turnaround times and pricing etc. To receive an estimate please send pictures of the areas which need repair with a description of each photo to: chris@msrecycle.com. When taking close up photos of damaged areas please include another picture further back of the entire fairing / part / area so we can get a feel for location and size. Thank you.

Thank you for taking the time to read this information. If you have any additional questions please feel free to email: quote@msrecycle.com. We do answer all emails and usually get back to you the same day.