Would you replace this headlight?

[moonwalker]

My yellow & black 2005 GS500F has been in the wars lately, not while I've been riding, but while it has been minding its own business parked outside my flat. It was knocked over recently and oil went everywhere, some fine tips from board members helped me to get that all cleared up. Previous to that a deep scratch was made in my headlight, probably by a careless passing lorry.

My question is, would you replace the light? I probably will, because a marked headlight impacts on the bike's aesthetics more than most other things. Its just a pain, because replacing it is so expensive relative to the bike's value. Here in the UK I've been quoted £135 for the unit and then anything between 1 and 2 hours labour to fit. That could be £250+, a big headache.

[pandymai]

find the part and install it yourself. it's simple when you start taking the original out, just replace and make sure to screw it all back together. just keep shopping around for a the headlight unit and when you find a good deal get it. unless you want it done now. then i guess you can just buy it but still save yourself the money and do it yourself

edit: personally i wouldnt change it though. if it's not affecting the light output, than it really is purely aesthetic. and if you wanted a better looking bike, there are different ways to go about it =P

[tt_four]

How deep is the scratch? They make kits to take scuffs out of headlights. I know Harbor Freight sells them for $10, but I'm assuming from the fact that you've mentioned your flat and a passing lorry, you're not in the US and probably don't have access to a harbor freight.

There's no way I'd waste the cash to change it. Maybe if a cheap one comes across ebay, but that's about it.

[Homer]

I have one of those kits.  You can have it for $10, plus shipping cost. 
It's about the size of two packs of cigarettes. 
There is no drill attachment, you just do it by hand. 

5 years, and those are your only problems?  Not bad.   

[Chanse]

you do know that you can buff that out with a $5 headlight polishing kit right?

[moonwalker]

you do know that you can buff that out with a $5 headlight polishing kit right?

Im not sure i can. Its worse than it looks in the photo, the scratch goes 2mm deep.
Trying to buff that out could ruin the whole light?

Ive (only just) ordered a haynes manual, if its easy enough to remove and reafix the panels then i might do it myself, keeping an eye out for a headlight on ebay.

[Anderw]

Good luck sorting it, nice to find a UK owner too 

[shchuka]

Replacing it yourself is actually much easier than it seems.

I have a '97 GS500E - which originally had no fairing at all and a standard single headlamp.
I got the front fairing off ebay (already in my colour - £25 with mounting bracket) and did a dual lamp conversion (i.e. one for low dim, the other for the full).  I'll can post the pics, if you're interested.  The whole job took me about 3 hours, how of which to actually mount the bracket and the fairing, another half hour to find screws that would fit (a couple were missing on the ebay part) - and an hour to swamp the lamps.

I say, do it yourself - and not only will you save 100 quid, but also you'll get the satisfaction of the compelted job and knowing that you can do it yourself.

Where in the UK are you, guys?

[Anderw]

Derbyshire 

[Homer]

$5?  Thought it was more than that.  Oh well.   

The kits come with super-ultra-fine emory paper, two grades.  It'll take off the square edges, then buff it back to glossy. 
Cheap, gritty toothpaste doesn't work quite as well, maybe not at all on something so deep.  Worth a shot, I say. 

Some cheap b@stard on here will buy it, if you're willing to swap for a new one. 
They're about $100 on US Ebay. 

[moonwalker]

thanks for all the info folks, in that case i'll try and buff it out, nothing to lose eh.

For the guys in the UK, im in London since u asked!

[DoD#i]

Unless you are going to move to a flat with a lock-up garage, spending lots of money on it does not make sense, as there's nothing to say the jerk that did it before won't do it again.

While it's a pretty deep scratch, so long as the plastic is considerably thicker than the scratch is deep, polishing it out should be fine. You don't generally need to remove it, just widen, smooth and polish so it is no longer all that obvious. Of course, the paint on the fairing was also scratched.

Sometimes you can do magical things with solvents (effectively polishing by slightly melting, which may also fill in the bottom of the scratch a bit) but I don't know what plastic that is (and thus what, if any, solvent would be appropriate), and it's best done when you can practice on something other than the final product a few times before trying it for real.