I went to look at a 04 gs today and the owner had it stored outside. I see rust in a couple spots (on nuts and around the inside frame near the rear tire) but nothing I don't think a good cleaning wouldn't fix.
One thing I noticed was that the sticker on the front fairings were bubbly and wavy with a dull color. It almost looks like the person tried to paint over it?? Is this something that happens to the decal sitting outside too long?
In any case it's only decals and I may have a bike tomorrow if I can get my friend to help me pick it up!
Sounds fishy to me for an 04, unless they've been replaced - poorly.
Has the bike been kept in the sun for lo-o-o-ong periods of time?
How bubbly are we talking here? My 05 F has the light blue graphics (you know...the ugly as hell ones) and if looked at up close, they are splotchy, almost like a bad paint job. This is probably due to the type of printing that is used to create the graphics. I'll get a close-up picture tomorrow to illustrate what I'm talking about.
Does this sound like what you saw?
-Turd.
Yes it definitely rings a bell! I originally thought maybe he repainted over it causing the paint to react to the decal paper and thus making it slightly raised. Almost looked like a botched spray paint job.
So here's the decal issue... to me it looks like the fairings were painted with the decals on, and they added the striping later by masking and painting over??? It's weird as hell but my friend and I couldn't find any other tampering or new bolts or anything that could suggest that the bike had been in a major accident.
(http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/toole2go/decal2.jpg)
(http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/toole2go/decal1.jpg)
So hopefully nothing else is wrong with the bike... it's sitting in my friend's garage for now until the weather warms up...
(http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/toole2go/bike.jpg)