Paint on Motor Trike

[tatco]

I have had my Motor Trike for two years now. Really enjoy riding it. Yesterday while cleaning it up I noticed that the paint on both fenders had spider web lines(cracks?). I contacted the installer and was told that the paint is only warranted for 90 days. That doesent sound right to me and I will contact Mortor Trike Monday to see if I can get any information from them. I was just wondering if this was normal for paint on trikes. If I have to have it repainted any guess as to what it will cost? By the way I only have 11,000 miles on the trike. It's on a 2008 Goldwing.

Thanks

 

[Gold Rush]

Man you have some good questions... None of which I have answers. :Trike1:

I think a call to Motor Trike is by far the best answer for now. They will be able to tell you more then any of us.

Sorry for the problem. I can just imagine spider webs in my gold paint.

 

[TexasGuy]

You don't say where on the fenders the spidering is occurring. Motor Trike says that if the trike gets wet with the bra on, it will not harm the bra, but if you don't remove the bra to dry the fenders then damage to the paint can occur under the bra.

 

[tatco]

I've been very carefull to remove the covers on the lower front of the fenders and dry them out before puting them back on. The location of the spider patterns is 1) two on top of the right fender 2) one on the rear down slope of the left fender. The pattern is about 6" in diameter. It almost looks like a rock hit it from the underside but the location seems too protected for that to happen.

 

[gjanes]

Is the fender made of fiberglass. If they are then it sounds like something hit them. I know fiberglass fenders on a car will do that when a rock hits them. I have never looked at my fenders to see if a rock can hit them. If you have to take them off to get it repaird maybe you can spray some heavy undercoat on them.

 

[mhgoldwing]

Have seen several trikes with this symptom and it's caused by the tires throwing rocks onto the inside of the fender well. Some owners have coated interior of fender wells with tuff coat type material to absorb the impact and protect fenders.

So, in actuality it's not a paint problem.

 

[meredog]

We have a fiberglass shop in our business and i can attest to what these guys are saying. Our fiberglass molds are made of fiberglass and the repetative hitting with a hard rubber mall on the molds will put spider webbing in the molds witch will transfer onto the parts.
I was actually quite surprised recently when i drilled holes in the top of my fenders to mount some fender rails to find the glass at least 3/8 of an inch thick !! (Champion trike)
While i had the tires off i sprayed the underside of the fenders with several heavy coats of rubberized undecoating i got for a few bucks a can at Walley World

 

[Motor Trike]

Have seen several trikes with this symptom and it's caused by the tires throwing rocks onto the inside of the fender well. Some owners have coated interior of fender wells with tuff coat type material to absorb the impact and protect fenders.

So, in actuality it's not a paint problem.

mhgoldwing is correct - Debris can get caught in the tread of the tires and can be thrown out at some point while riding. Typically, a “spider crack” is the result of a hard impact on the underside of the fiberglass body that “shows through” to the paint.

 

[tatco]

Thanks for all your insights. Looks like it's the stones that cause the problem. My driveway is gravel for a 1/4 mile. I go slow but I can see that a rock could wedge and come out when I increase speed on pavement.

 

[rwbetour]

So, Motor Trike, would you suggest the same as meredog, to add some undercoat paint to protect the glass?

 

[Motor Trike]

rwbetour - It's really a personal choice. Motor Trike doesn't have an official stance on whether to add undercoat paint or not but, we see no harm in adding it!

 

[rmrc51]

This is a very interesting and informative thread.

As I plan to keep my trike for the foreseeable future, I'm also going to follow Meredog's suggestion and coat the underside of my rear fender wells with a rubberized undercoating. Now i just have to find the right product (undercoating). ThumbUp

 

[Lakeman]

It's not the paint it's the fiberglass (stress cracks) see it in boats all the time, its called cazing or crazing or something like that. Go to a boat shop and talk to them, they will tell you that they can fix them but they will probably come back. It's when the fiberglass to stressed in one place when the body (fender) is moving around when you hit bumps. You can look at almost any old fiberglass boat and find them, look where the windshield is mounted. Where a snap has not been installed correctly, when you install a snap you drill the hole for the snap to screw into then you have to drill a slightly larger hole so when you tighten the snap you don't pull the gelcoat (outer surface of the fiberglass).