Need some guidance on motorcycle paint scratch

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Radster1986

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I went to take the cover off my motorcycle, and noticed a dead bug splatter on the tank. I stupidly used my fingernail to get it off, and I must have had some dirt or something on my nail, because it scratched the tank pretty good, and I noticed it after I wiped it with some quik detailer and a mf towel. I can barely feel it or catch it with my clean fingernail now. Its only about an inch long and I have my Meguiars drill DA with a red pad and some UC. Do you think that would do the trick? I also have some more aggressive stuff, but don't want to risk it. I know bike paint is super hard and brittle, so any guidance would be great.
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You can do it by hand if you want to. Try some compound then polish. Use a MF towel. Alternative is the drill DA setup you have and UC.
 
I think it may be a bit too deep to do by hand, but I will give it a whack.
 
I know this is an older thread, but shortly after writing this post I put the bike away for winter, and sort of put the scratch on the back burner. I tried using my DA with the red pad and some UC, and although it took the visible white scratch out, it now looks like a groove in the clear coat. I can't catch it or feel it when I go over the spot, but I can definitely see it. It looks like its part of the clear coat, because I polished/filled in the scratch with the compound I suspect when I buffed it, making it a uniform color with the rest of the surrounding area. My question is, what could I do now to remove the "indent line" from where the scratch was visible?
 
I sounds like you made a "V" shaped scratch into a flattened "U" shape scratch. Which is a good thing. The trick is knowing when to accept well enough and leave it alone. Without paint depth gauge numbers to know how much you removed getting it to it's current condition, it's guess work as to how much more polishing the clear coat can take. As a distant internet forum guess ... I'd say you didn't remove that much with your drill set-up. One more attempt with the Ultimate Compound should start to remove the remainder of the scratch. Stick with shorter attempts, don't let the area get too hot, and check your work progress after each pass.
 
VR8 said:
I sounds like you made a "V" shaped scratch into a flattened "U" shape scratch. Which is a good thing. The trick is knowing when to accept well enough and leave it alone. Without paint depth gauge numbers to know how much you removed getting it to it's current condition, it's guess work as to how much more polishing the clear coat can take. As a distant internet forum guess ... I'd say you didn't remove that much with your drill set-up. One more attempt with the Ultimate Compound should start to remove the remainder of the scratch. Stick with shorter attempts, don't let the area get too hot, and check your work progress after each pass.
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Thanks, that sounds like a really good way of describing it. If another few rounds of UC and the red pad DA, dont do the trick, what would be my next step? Obviously the least aggressive method first, I dont want to burn through anything, because the bike has already been professionally detailed once, and then maintained by me for the last several years, and I have not done anything aggressive to the paint, and I highly doubt the detailer that did it previously did either given his level of expertise. He did mention the paint was VERY hard, and because of that it makes getting out fine to medium defects a bit more of a challenge. My ultimate goal was the get everything swirl free, and then use a semi permanent coating to protect from things like this in the future.
 
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