Rear Fender Questions

[moonpup]

I took advantage today of a brief window of opportunity to remove the rear fender off my parts GTO to inspect it and see if it's in better shape than the one on the bike I'm going to restore.

After cleaning most of the caked on dirt/rust from the underside, I noticed that both the wiring for the taillight and all the edges of the additional metal support pieces seemed to have a "dried out" black tar substance applied. Is this something the previous owner did or was it applied by the factory? 

Also, while removing the fender, I undid the top bolts for the rear shocks thinking they helped hold up the fender. (hey I'm new at this) Anyway, both bolts were bent quite a bit which kinda surprised me. Is that a common thing for these bikes. I'd have thought Bridgestone would have used a stronger bolt. 

[Bikenstein]

I doubt that Bridgestone would have undercoated the wiring harness. I recently bought some undercoat spray to do some dirt bike fenders but have never seen any factory coating on a bike. Also never heard of shock bolts being bent except on a severely bottomed out landing with an old electra glide that putted around with our dirt bikes. He jumped a dirt mound and landed from about 12 to 15 feet!

[ziggy stardust]

My GTR is a U.S. bike and was original when I bought it, it too had the front and rear fenders protected with a black covering underneath that also covered the wiring.

Maybe your GTR had carried a couple of heavyweights in the past moonpup and had bottomed out the rear suspension and bending the bolts.

Z

[Bikenstein]

I don't remember coating on my original GTR in 67 and I'm not home to check mine now for 4 weeks but if 2 bikes have it, I would think maybe they did come coated.

[reed]

I put a black rubber under coating on my front and rear mud guards on all my motorcycles.
Something i have always done it finishes the motorcycle off.
Thanks.
Steve.

[Bikenstein]

Yeah, ok, Steve, but like Mike wants to know, did the GTO or GTR come with factory undercoating? I figure you should know.

[reed]

David,
I was being diplomatic,i have not seen any evidence of factory undercoating on the underneath of the Mudguards.
And i have not seen any shock bolts bent i have a few use ones i put new on mine etc. 
Thanks.
Steve.

[Bikenstein]

Mudguards. I like the way you talk. I gotta go check the oil in my Dodge if I can get the bonnet up.

[moonpup]

..........snip..............

Maybe your GTR had carried a couple of heavyweights in the past moonpup and had bottomed out the rear suspension and bending the bolts.

Z..... Here's a pic of the bolts. The left one has more bend to it but the other isn't far off. Probably a couple heavyweights like you said or since it's a GTO, maybe one too many hill climbs or Baja's!  


In addition, I checked under the fender of the other GTO and there is no evidence of undercoating anywhere. 

[reed]

Moonpup,
If you need 2 let me know i will send them to you.
Thanks.
Steve.

[BS Mechanic]

Moonpup,

I can definitely cofirm that my GTR did come from the factory with a thin black tar "undercoating" on the under side of both front and rear fenders.  It was applied after the wiring was in place.

The bent shock bolts are a sign that something bad must have happened somewhere in the bike's history, like a big overload, or a really nasty bump.  I've never seen them bent like that!  

[moonpup]

Steve.... I only need 2, so I'll first check the other bike tomorrow before I bother you. Thanks for the offer!

BS Mechanic...... You and Ziggy are in the "yes" they had a coating group & Steve seems to be in the "no" group with Frankenfurter coming in as a maybe/not sure!

Maybe if more members could check their bikes and chime in, we could get a definite consensus on this.

[wonkyworks]

All 5 of my 175/200's have undercoating on the fenders-Doug

[Bikenstein]

Thanks Moonpie. You make me sound so....so... indecisive... or should I say wishy washy?  With wonkyworks coming in with 5 ,I want to push my vote closer to Yes... I think. It makes sense that somebody thought they could hit the dirt on a bike that came with high pipes and scrambler bars. We did it and bottomed out all the time. Probably had a lot of bent shock bolts and didn't know it.

[reed]

On the shocks the GTR and GTO are the same you would think they would use a different shock etc.
How about no undercoating in the South because we use no salt on the roads and we don't get to much
Snow i am trying  .
Thanks.
Steve.

[bsforever]

I had noticed a while ago that my GTR has some faint remnants of some kind of a black colored undercoating on the rear fender. Is not too thick on there anymore, but i have the intention of re-coating the fenders with a rubberized spray on. Count me in for the 'Yay' group as it being original undercoated.

[old smokey]

I'll have to double check, but I think my GTR rear fender has an undercoating applied to it.

[Bikenstein]

Ok Moonpump, I'm movin up to a definite probably.

[fiction]

Both my rear mudguards had thick tar like covering,   I scraped it off before chroming, Under tar it was very clean, after chroming i coated underneath with silver paint to give it a bit of protection. think next time mudguards off Il get some underseal.

[coxy]

if ya all want a thin layer of rubber send them to me i can cover them all with a stinking hot layer of polymer ,rubber/bitumen mix its seriously lovely stuff   FOR FREE !
any tar based substance should come off with some thinner based degreaser