HarleyTechTalk

Hey guys what do you use to keep you paint scratch free I notice every time I wash it there is a ton fine scratches in the clear coat

Quote from: cheeky on August 09, 2012, 10:29:46 AM
Hey guys what do you use to keep you paint scratch free I notice every time I wash it there is a ton fine scratches in the clear coat

Only way to keep it scratch free is don't ride it.  I think the paint quality is worse with the newer bikes.  My 04 egc (luxry blue) still looked new after over 80,000 miles and my 2011 Roadglide ultra in vivid black looks like crap already.

I have seen this stuff on sport bikes, they make HD kits -

http://thetankslapper.biz/osc/index.php?cPath=34&osCsid=6cf42ca00b9b84dc3fa1c3abd6dd379c

and you can buy sheets and cut it. 

Some colors are better than others for not showing scratches... Black is of course the worst as I can attest, I have black. Do not touch the paint, do not dry wipe the dust, wash with water to flush the dust & bug guts off the paint first, then use a NEW micro fiber towel for washing the paint. Then wash the remain parts of the bike. Blow the water off as much as possible. Use new micro fiber towels to dry the remaining water. The newest trick I have been using all summer is NO WET. I'm in the paint business and this stuff is a good product.

  I wash with a Microfibre, dry with my leaf blower completely and then use maguiars detailer with a microfibre cloth.  Works awesome.  I have never waxed my bike and won't ever.  If you keep it clean, there is no need to wax.

I use the local car wash to remove bugs & grime off the fairing and motor. You have to use caution around the wheel bearings and obviously the inner fairing.

I'm fortunate that I live close and never pull the bike in there when it's at full operating temps. Jump on ease it out of my garage 6 blocks to the car wash shut it down pronto hit it with the high pressure wax to remove the bugs & then follow up with the spot free rinse.  I run a SOS pad over the white walls every other time in.

To save the wheels you have to pull off the OEM brake pads when it's new before the brake dust attacks and pits the wheel finish.  Lyndall Racing Brakes Z-Plus pads are dust free.

I realize this post will bring out many nay sayers and that's fine, too each there own, this is what works for me.  I was a nay sayer once upon a time myself...

Leave it in the showroom!

  If you're really serious about cleaning up your clear coat buy yourself a 5 or 6 inch orbital buffer from a parts store. Get several bonnets for the buffer and use Harley's Scratch and Swirl compound. Get the bike clean and go over it section by section with the buffer and compound. Be gentle and let the buffer do the work. It will get the swirls out (and even scratches in the clear coat). Oh, by the way, set aside about a day to do this. Once a year should keep the bike looking pretty good. (And black is definitely the worst to keep looking good).

Whats with all this stress about swirl marks in the clear coat?  Ride the danged things and worry more about the paint chips where a stone got the fender or tank.  Actually, I just try to limit my worries to "will Toyota red match with H-D Lava Red Sunglo good enough that it does not show up at 60 MPH?". 

You can never keep the clear coat "scratch free" on anything that actually gets used.  You can minimize the damage by understanding that abrasives scratch paint, dirt IS an abrasive, and you should NEVER dry wipe dirt off the bike.  You should never spray on a detailers spray on a dirty bike and then use a rag to wipe it off and keep wiping with the same rag to shine the bike.  Dirt should be rinsed off with water, and a sponge to help remove the remaining stuff.

Almost any swirl remover is really a super fine abrasive to polish out fine damage to the paint. 

Yes, my bike has swirl marks.  It also has a paint chip or 20.  It also gets ridden more than it gets washed and waxed.  I forget what movie it was, but there was a line that went something like " Scars give you character".  I can't avoid stone chips, so I just try to think of them as "character".

Rant ON

What is really disgusting are some of the bikes that are just nasty filthy.  It was always my idea that the vehicle represents something about the owner.  I hate dirt and the smoke screen that some individuals blow out suggesting that "I ride mine" so what ya can't ever clean it?   

Lazy is all it is, using a vehicle has nothing to do with keeping it clean 

My favorite are the denim owner that is asking what to use to clean or shine the finish...  Yr kidding me right, you bought a denim finish and now you wanna know what to use for making it shine WTF 

I got caught on mine in the rain the other day on my way home from the dyno / work, but it'll get cleaned before I go out for a scoot again. I don't enjoy riding it nearly as much when it looks like chit...JMHO

Ok Rant OFF

Some like the dirty rat look. I have friends like that. It's their bike not mine. Me, I don't like to work on a dirty bike so I wash mine often enough since I do my own work. But I don't sweat road dirt between washes altho I hate water spots from getting caught in the rain. Not much you can do about it if you ride. Neighbor across the way is a wiseass, always has something to say when he sees me coming home soaking wet. But then, I have only seen him out on his twice this year and for an hour or less each time. My friends bust my chops about my clean bike but I think it's dirty. But they can't match my miles either and they know it.

Ride em. That's what they are for.

I was always been taught by my dad that if you have something nice and keep it nice, it will always and forever be nice.  I have a 1975 Dodge Dart that my Mom gave me around 1980.  It still looks close to showroom.  It is a reflection of who you are IMHO.  Also, if it is clean and kept up it is safer.   Do you live in a home that looks like your dirty bike?  Just sayin'

  Most of what I have looks like new, just the illness I have. As for the fine scratches, I use micro fiber and Meguiars polishing wax from the auto parts store. Red bottle. My black cherry looks like glass. Put a squirt on a damp paper towl and wipe gently on to the paint just to apply and then use a quality micro fiber to to buff without a lot of pressure. Small sections, 6 sq inches or so at a time. I like a naked light bulb for light. For washing it takes at least two buckets one with soap and one with clean water and a clean micro fiber. Rinse paint, wash gently with soap, rinse the micro fiber in the clean bucket before putting it in the soap bucket. Dry with electric leaf blower.

Its all the owner's choice. I like my stuff clean. My 07 ultra with 70k looks like it did on the showroom floor, my 03 V-Rod is spotless,my suburban with 250k miles looks amazing, my boat is so shiny the water just runs right off of it, my home is always clean, i get my hair cut every week, I polish my shoes, iron my jeans. Thats just the way I am. Some people like dirty stuff and thats OK with me but my stuff will always be clean...........To answer the original question. I use spray polish on my vehicles. Once you have a good base on it it only takes 5 min max to do a qwik wipe down. I wipe mine down every time I pull it into the garage.

Isn't it just a matter of perspective & distance ?
20 ft away, a decently cleaned bike looks good
2 ft away the same bike shows swirls & such
2 inches away and only the best polishing jobs will pass the test
Look at it with a 10X magnification glass and even the best polishing job looks bad

Ive owned several black bikes & nothing looks a good when its cleaned & polished... nothing looks as bad as when its dirty.

I think I've put a "hard" wax on my '06 maybe twice since I owned it... I almost exclusivly use spray on cleaners, people say "how do keep that chrome so shiny, you must spend hrs waxing it", nope, 20 min max, never spend more than that on my bike and still looks new.  Someone told me once never to wax a new paint job, it'll only add the swirls your referring to, with todays cleaning products, esp. the spray on waxes, why bother wasting time with a rub on and rub off hard wax?

QuoteYes, my bike has swirl marks.  It also has a paint chip or 20.  It also gets ridden more than it gets washed and waxed.  I forget what movie it was, but there was a line that went something like " Scars give you character".  I can't avoid stone chips, so I just try to think of them as "character".

'Gracie' sez AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaMEN!   

Don't pay any attention to those people who would try to convince you that a hairline scratch on your Harley is no big deal. 

It's the end of the world, and should be anticipated with the same degree of horror.

Hairline scratches and swirl marks are not caused by riding the bike.  They're caused by trying to clean a dirty bike.  So there are only two solutions:

1.  Never clean your bike.
2.  Make sure that when you do clean your bike, it's already clean.

The first one is a no-brainer, so let me elaborate a bit on the second one.  After we wash our bikes, we either polish, wax, or dry them.  Problem is, there are usually little bits of abrasive dust or whatnot still on the bike.  They bury themselves half-way into our polishing, waxing, or drying material, so while we think we are polishing, waxing, or drying the bike, we're actually scratching the paint.

Griott's Garage (http://www.griotsgarage.com/category/car+care.do?nType=1) provides all kinds of products for those of us who realize that scratches and swirl marks are the work of Satan.  One of them is paint cleaning clay, the other is something they call Speed Shine.   You can find them both here:

http://www.griotsgarage.com/category/car+care/car+polishing/paint+cleaning+clay.do?nType=2

These two products will remove the last of those Satanic dust particles on your paint.  Spray the Speed Shine on the surface, and roll the clay over it.  The daemon dust particles will embed themselves in the clay. 

Then use a brand new micro-fiber cloth and make sure it is removed from of its packaging only by a virgin, and apply either your favorite wax or Glare polish:

http://www.glare.com/

Glare polish takes a while to apply because you have to literally rub it into the paint.  But once applied, you only have to reapply once a year.

This is what I do with my Harleys.  It's the least I can do to express my gratitude for having the distinct honor of riding God's own Chariott.  As a plus, it keeps evil at bay.

Good luck,

ape

I knew I was doing something wrong. Now where the hell can I find a virgin... been asking around, no luck.

Out of all this info,the use of a CLEAN micro fiber cloth is the BEST thing you can do when trying to get the last of those damn swirls out.I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed,but I finally realized the rags I was using were causing more scratches than I started with.     Coff 06

BTW, I use a leaf blower to dry,that way I don't have to use rag to dry and scratch the clear coat some more

Oh, and in case you still don't get it, take that California Car Duster and toss it as far as you can.  They just drag dust all over the finish.

Quote from: Jeffd on August 09, 2012, 10:32:29 AM

Quote from: cheeky on August 09, 2012, 10:29:46 AM
Hey guys what do you use to keep you paint scratch free I notice every time I wash it there is a ton fine scratches in the clear coat

Only way to keep it scratch free is don't ride it.  I think the paint quality is worse with the newer bikes.  My 04 egc (luxry blue) still looked new after over 80,000 miles and my 2011 Roadglide ultra in vivid black looks like crap already.

Yep, don't ride it. The clear coat is very likely to get scratched. The more you wash the bike, the more the scratches.

For that reason, I don't wash my motorcycle very often. When I do, I use lots of soap and clean cloths and make sure to soften the dirt with soap and water first.

But yes, the clear coat will easily scratch.

Ride it dirty or keep it spotless, its all up to the owner, most of my HDs have been black, i wax with Zymol once a year,swirls never seem to get real bad,but if swirl marks drive ya crazy dont own a black bike

for removing bugs fromfairings I soak a towel and lay it on top of the farring and soak them off, then wash.

I like my scooter shiny and I think Apehair just ruined my life.