I'd do a combo of the suggestions - Cut the tip (all the rusted part) off. Treat edge. Then use that edge dressing stuff (fender tip/car door stuff etc) to cover your work. You might even find edge stuff big enough to cover it without cutting it off? Just sand and treat, then cover? I'd also put the edge stuff on rear bumper to match. Here's the stuff I mean in "chrome":

 

I agree with indy-stranger, you can see where there is more rust under the paint further up, I'd do as he suggests and cut it down.
When I did that with my rear fender I used a small brush and painted with cut edge with some black rustolium to protect it and put the chrome door edge guard as a temporary thing...that was probably 7 years ago and it's still on there.

 

That's a really common problem. I fixed my Superglide last year, both front an rear. The rear looked a lot worse than yours. You will find the rust probably goes a lot further than you think. Rather than cut it and risk making matters worse, purchase spray paint kit from colorite. This includes the correct color, primer, clearcoat, sandpaper and rubbing compound. I masked off along the color boundary with 3m autobody tape, sanded all the rust off then sanded the color coat until all the shine was off. Sprayed 3 layers of primer, 3 layers of base/color coat and 3 layers of clear. After a week of cure time, wet sand entire fender and polish. If you do everything correct, it will look like new. I sanded and undercoated the bottom of fenders and so far, no more rust problems.

 

Thanks for the responses guys. Rust is kinda like colon cancer...when you see it it's probably too late. Just for kicks I looked up the part number for the fender, HD lists various fenders based on the color scheme. It's north of $400, so that is worst case.

Considering the 2 tone color and the stripe, a professional repaint would be pricey, maybe even more, but just for kicks I'm going to stop by a body shop and get a quote. Otherwise it's workarounds - cutting and home repairs. Sigh. I'm just going to ride for now and decide later.

K9F, I will definitely look into that product, thanks! I would like to prevent it from getting worst if possible.

 

Yep!!
Maybe you can hold out like our fellow Sportster rid'n buddy Lonnie Mac...
If you can muster that kind of patience, it looks like you can save all kinds of dough.
But man...who waits 20 months?
Lonnie Mac does... maybe Guitarfish?

 

Lol, that was funny.
I ordered this stuff called Metal Blast, which sounds similar to the product listed by K9F. The rust needs to be removed. I don't have a grinder, so I'll start with a wire wheel. Once all the damaged area is cleaned, the stuff goes on, and dries to a black color. It then needs to be painted. I happen to have both paint colors for my ride.


I won't try and explain the product (it's on Amazon). I found a YouTube vid of a guy who used it on a pickup truck with a lot of rust. He posted a 1 year follow up video that was pretty impressive, so I said heck for $20 I'll try it. So if I can stop the rust and it's halfway decent look, I'm fine with that.


Long term, oh yeah, I'll be watching EvilBay. There's a 2 tone fender on there now very similar to mine, but I'm going to see if a match shows up. Hopefully before 20 months!

 

This works well on my XL1200L. From Home Depot:

 

Ha! Yep! Man that was way long. I do not suggest!! But to match paint my old temp fender I found on Ebay, it was north of 600 bucks every where I looked.

 

You could always paint both fenders black and the the forty eight look.

 

This is a opportunity to go full bagger!