Scratched mudguard

Hello all,
I just received my stainless steel mudguard from Norvil and when I took it out the box the paper wrapping on the mudguard had a hole in it. When looked closer at the hole I could see a whole lot of deep scratches. The box wasn't damaged and it was well packed with shredded paper. Nothing inside the box could have scratched the guard either. So I am assuming it was packed that way. I sent an email to them but haven't had a response yet. I don't normally deal with Norvil but Old Britts. Has anybody else had dealings like this with Norvil? What should I look out for.

I've only dealt with Norvil once. I had them do their modification to my oil tank to strengthen it and prevent cracking at the mounting points. They did a good job and returned the tank as expected.

Depending on how deep the scratches are you can use a combination of sandpaper and polishing to either eliminate them or at least round off the edges of the scratches to make them less noticeable. Not exactly what you want to do with a new part that you just purchased. You need to have a good buffing wheel and the right supplies to polish stainless, if you don't have these you could take it to a professional polishing service and they could knock down the scratches pretty quickly.

bryan_woods said:

I sent an email to them but haven't had a response yet.

Click to expand...

It is the weekend, and Norvil don't work on Sundays, as far as I know, and you would need to allow for the 1/2 day time difference (10 PM now in the UK) so I'd give them at least a reasonable chance to respond (if you haven't done so already?) but if it was in a damaged condition before it was sent then they should replace it, and hopefully pay you for the return postage? Did you email them any photographic evidence of the damaged part and packaging?

They must post hundreds of parts worldwide per day so its hardly surprising the odd damaged part gets through the system unnoticed.

Hello L.A.B,
I suspect it was damaged before it left. There is no damage to the box as there would have to been something hard to penetrate through the box to create the scratches. The box was really well packed. I have sent them a picture of the scratches. So I am awaiting a response. I will give them some time to respond. I really haven't got much choice I guess. I will wait and see.
I was hoping I would have the guard on very soon. But with the turn around in mail I suspect I will have to wait at least a month. All things going smoothly.

Mgrant, the polishing will be hopefully the very last resort.

All,
I just sent another email to Norvil as I haven't had a response yet. So now I'm getting worried. Most places I deal with are usually take about a day or two to respond. I might be left having to polish it out.

Just got a response from Norvil. They are offering a discount on the item. Half price has been suggested. How easy is it to polish out these scratches, they look to have been made with a scribe.

Polishing stainless is not so hard if you have a bench grinder, the correct buffing wheels for stainless and the correct polishing compounds. Check the link below for metal polishing supplies and you'll see what's needed. If you don't have the supplies, I'd just look for a professional polishing service. Usually they have large, powerful polishing wheels and the needed compounds and they can do a small spot quickly. I don't think you'll be able to get the results you want by hand. I used the supplies from Eastwood to polish both mudguards on my Commando and got excellent results.

You would probably start with some very fine sandpaper like 1000 grit and use it lightly on as small an area as possible. With this you will try to smooth out any metal that is sticking up beyond the edge of the surface of the mudguard. Then polish to remove the small scratches from the sandpaper and also attack the main scratches.

Depending on the depth of the scratch you may not be able to make it completely go away, but polishing will knock down the sharp edges which will reduce the amount of light that reflected off the scratch. This will make it much, much less noticeable.

Mike

www.eastwood.com

Sorry, the link for Eastwood is:

www.eastwoodco.com

Thanks Mgrant,
I responded to Norvil indicating I prefer a replacement mudguard. Since then I haven't heard from them. I have sent 3 follow up emails. No response as yet. This is beginning to be a long winded process. I have to say E-bay is far more easier.

All,
Follow up. Norvill is sending a replacement mudguard. So no polishing. A good outcome.