I admit..

... I tried to cheapskate out of having a rear guard that wasn't a Yamaha, because of the price locally. The original was just rusted away to nothing because of the salted roads for years..
I tried a Suzuki trials bike one that was actuall a reasonable fit, but had a very weird lumpy bit on the top, bu eventually realised that I had to buy a genuine XS 650 guard and at the very least fit a modern LED tail light.
I realised that there's a limit to how shonky a made to rattter ride can look like, but only if there's no chance of getting parts to fit.
So, when I discovered there are plenty of good original rear fenders available on ebay US, I pulled the trigger and got one.

Yes, I usually find a bit of rust on the undersides of my fenders so I clean them up and paint them silver with a brush. You don't readily see these areas so brush painting is just fine.

5twins said:

Yes, I usually find a bit of rust on the undersides of my fenders so I clean them up and paint them silver with a brush. You don't readily see these areas so brush painting is just fine.

Click to expand...

Hi 5T,
FWIW, I brushed the underside of my XS650's fenders with automotive underseal.