Lance Mark
New member
- Mar 10, 2021
- 357
- 1
Hello all. I have to start by thanking so many of the folks here for welcoming a newb like me and freely offering advice and ideas. This is an amazing resource.
About 2-3 months ago, I started to ask about taking better care of my bike in a detailing subsection of an HD forum. A member there pointed me here and offered a lot of advice and encouragement as well.
A few weeks back I started one of the biggest undertakings I've tried in a while. Most of the bike came apart, and as each piece was completed, I slowly reassemble the bike. I feel like it really turned out great.
I'll start with a pic of the bike as it stands right now. This is a 2017 Harley Davidson CVO Street Glide with the standard features that come with a CVO including an extended rear fender extension, various chrome trim and accents, CVO tank console, hidden gas cap, Airflow controls and running boards, stretched hard bags, CVO exclusive custom paint, painted inner fairing with CVO inlay, Boom GT 6.5 Infotainment head unit, cruise control, ABS, Link Brakes, and the upgraded OEM rear suspension.
A few extras that I've added:
View attachment 73335
Here is the list of products I used:
Reset Intensive Car Wash
Gyeon Iron
Wolfgang Clay and Lube
Chemical Guys Lube
Wolfgang Uber Compound
Wolfgang Total Swirl Remover
Wolfgang Finishing Glaze
Gyeon Prep
Gyeon CanCoat
Nevr-Dull
Sonax Total Wheel Cleaner
Griot's G8
Various 2" and 3" pads
I started by taking the bike apart. I removed the front fairing, windshield, seats, tour pack, bags, side covers, front fender, rear fender extensions, fuel tank, fork cover, and oil cooler cover.
View attachment 73336
I started with the wheels. I really had to work to get them clean. I used Sonax and a microfiber mitt and covered every bit. After they were clean, I used Gyeon Iron and then clay barred the entire wheel including the hub assembly. After clay barring, I hand polished the painted surfaces with Wolfgang Total Swirl Remover and the chrome with Nevr-Dull. The wheels were then wiped down thoroughly with Gyeon Prep and then sealed with Gyeon CanCoat.
Before and after:
View attachment 73337View attachment 73338
I took the lower fairings apart and removed the top fairing cap. The fairings were cleaned front and back, inside and out and then clay barred, hand polished, and sealed. I machine polished the caps before reinstalling those. As well, the entire crash bar was cleaned, clayed, hand polished, and sealed.
View attachment 73317View attachment 73318View attachment 73319View attachment 73320
I took the rear fender apart, including the extension. I was able to machine polish the lower portion of the extension but did had to hand polish the side fillers. I spent quite a bit of time on the rear fender. The rear fender was why I decided to try Wolfgang's Uber Compound. I needed a heavy hitter with a hard cutting pad for some really bad areas on the fender. While polishing other parts of the bike I used Griot's hard white 2" pad and Wolfgang's Uber compound as the first step followed by Total Swirl Remover and Finishing Glaze. I regret not doing a better job of photographing some of the deep scratches on the rear fender. I was not able to make the fender perfect, but once it was reassembled, it turned out amazing.
Here are some before and after photos of the fender:
View attachment 73315View attachment 73316
While things were opened up and off the bike, I did some things that won't ever be seen. You'll see a before and after of the right side battery access area where I cleaned up some wiring. I also included a pic of the inside of the faring which I cleaned and dusted. Before reassembling the bike, I went through it from tip to stern and made sure every surface got some attention. Wires were carefully dusted and cleaned. I carefully cleaned the entire frame, polished it, and sealed it. The electrical bus under the tank was left shut, but the outside was cleaned and sealed as well. Behind the fairing and fork skirt were parts of the fork assemble that got cleaned as well. I polished and sealed the center painted portion of the fork assemble and simply cleaned and polished the two steel portions of the fork behind the fairing.
Inside of faring before and after:
View attachment 73321View attachment 73322
Right battery access area before and after:
View attachment 73323View attachment 73324
Fork assembly under fairing before and after:
View attachment 73327View attachment 73328
The tank turned out really great. It was already in good shape and I only used the Uber Compound on it in one spot. I removed the center console and polished the entire tank top to bottom. The groove underneath got cleaned, hand polished, and sealed. The center console got cleaned and sealed inside and out and then reinstalled. I did not get before pics of the tank after I washed and decontaminated. I only have the finish shots to share here:
View attachment 73325View attachment 73326
The engine has painted heads, some wrinkle style paint, and a bit of chrome. The entire engine was washed with Reset and immediately dried. Reset left the surface of the wrinkle paint clean and bright. I did nothing else to that. All painted and chrome parts got cleaned, and polished. I sealed the painted parts of the engine and transmission after hand polishing.
Here's a before and after of the engine after cleaning:
View attachment 73329View attachment 73330
Bags and side covers came really great as well as the side covers. The project took a bit longer than I was expecting and in my haste to finish the last bit, I forget to get pics of the bags, tour pack, and fairing before correction. There were some light boot scuffs on the bags. The side covers were trashed and needed a lot of correcting. The tour pack was near factory condition. I polished it with a finishing glaze and it looks better than new.
The finished fairing:
View attachment 73339View attachment 73331
The finished hard bags and a side cover:
View attachment 73332View attachment 73333
Here is the finished front fender which was removed and cleaned, polished, and sealed on a bench as well:
View attachment 73334
I've had her out a few times since. She just drips, she looks so good. I'm pretty new at this so next time, I'll do better.
Cheers all!!!
About 2-3 months ago, I started to ask about taking better care of my bike in a detailing subsection of an HD forum. A member there pointed me here and offered a lot of advice and encouragement as well.
A few weeks back I started one of the biggest undertakings I've tried in a while. Most of the bike came apart, and as each piece was completed, I slowly reassemble the bike. I feel like it really turned out great.
I'll start with a pic of the bike as it stands right now. This is a 2017 Harley Davidson CVO Street Glide with the standard features that come with a CVO including an extended rear fender extension, various chrome trim and accents, CVO tank console, hidden gas cap, Airflow controls and running boards, stretched hard bags, CVO exclusive custom paint, painted inner fairing with CVO inlay, Boom GT 6.5 Infotainment head unit, cruise control, ABS, Link Brakes, and the upgraded OEM rear suspension.
A few extras that I've added:
- I removed the OEM amps and speakers in the bags and fairings and replaced with aftermarket equipment. I had a pro outfit reprogram the head unit. We replaced the rear Boom 5x7 speakers in the rear with 6x9 DB Drives. Using adapters we were able to keep the original cutout look on top of the bags and preserve the auto lock features. Aftermarket kits usually nix any auto locks on hard bags. We replaced the Boom speakers in the fairing with Audio Dynamics component speakers. We floated the tweeter in the grill of the new 6.5s in the fairing. We eliminated both HD amps and replaced with one Arc Audio Moto 600.4 hidden in the fairing. It sounds incredible.
- I had the 114" replaced with a 117". You'll see the 114" markings in the pics following, but she's got the big bore kit and a new cam. After tuning the HP went from about 85 to 115 and the TQ went from about 90 to 126. It starts pulling pretty hard at about 2500 RPMs and I really don't lose much before the rev limiter kicks in.
- For security, I installed the INNOVV K2 dual channel camera. It starts recording the minute I turn the bike on and stops about 10-15 seconds after I shut it off. It has a GPS, and as it records, the video displays speed and location. Both front and rear camera record to a looping DVR which rewrites after about 20 hrs of video. Video is 1080p and is easy to pull via WiFi or by physically pulling the chip.
- I added the matching Arctic Black and Dark Slate Candy tour pack with a chrome luggage rack and the CVO passenger backrest. Every once in a while someone comments that the pack looks set back. I added an aftermarket extension kit to give me and my wife a bit more room as we ride two up quite a bit. We are headed for Rushmore in a few weeks.
View attachment 73335
Here is the list of products I used:
Reset Intensive Car Wash
Gyeon Iron
Wolfgang Clay and Lube
Chemical Guys Lube
Wolfgang Uber Compound
Wolfgang Total Swirl Remover
Wolfgang Finishing Glaze
Gyeon Prep
Gyeon CanCoat
Nevr-Dull
Sonax Total Wheel Cleaner
Griot's G8
Various 2" and 3" pads
I started by taking the bike apart. I removed the front fairing, windshield, seats, tour pack, bags, side covers, front fender, rear fender extensions, fuel tank, fork cover, and oil cooler cover.
View attachment 73336
I started with the wheels. I really had to work to get them clean. I used Sonax and a microfiber mitt and covered every bit. After they were clean, I used Gyeon Iron and then clay barred the entire wheel including the hub assembly. After clay barring, I hand polished the painted surfaces with Wolfgang Total Swirl Remover and the chrome with Nevr-Dull. The wheels were then wiped down thoroughly with Gyeon Prep and then sealed with Gyeon CanCoat.
Before and after:
View attachment 73337View attachment 73338
I took the lower fairings apart and removed the top fairing cap. The fairings were cleaned front and back, inside and out and then clay barred, hand polished, and sealed. I machine polished the caps before reinstalling those. As well, the entire crash bar was cleaned, clayed, hand polished, and sealed.
View attachment 73317View attachment 73318View attachment 73319View attachment 73320
I took the rear fender apart, including the extension. I was able to machine polish the lower portion of the extension but did had to hand polish the side fillers. I spent quite a bit of time on the rear fender. The rear fender was why I decided to try Wolfgang's Uber Compound. I needed a heavy hitter with a hard cutting pad for some really bad areas on the fender. While polishing other parts of the bike I used Griot's hard white 2" pad and Wolfgang's Uber compound as the first step followed by Total Swirl Remover and Finishing Glaze. I regret not doing a better job of photographing some of the deep scratches on the rear fender. I was not able to make the fender perfect, but once it was reassembled, it turned out amazing.
Here are some before and after photos of the fender:
View attachment 73315View attachment 73316
While things were opened up and off the bike, I did some things that won't ever be seen. You'll see a before and after of the right side battery access area where I cleaned up some wiring. I also included a pic of the inside of the faring which I cleaned and dusted. Before reassembling the bike, I went through it from tip to stern and made sure every surface got some attention. Wires were carefully dusted and cleaned. I carefully cleaned the entire frame, polished it, and sealed it. The electrical bus under the tank was left shut, but the outside was cleaned and sealed as well. Behind the fairing and fork skirt were parts of the fork assemble that got cleaned as well. I polished and sealed the center painted portion of the fork assemble and simply cleaned and polished the two steel portions of the fork behind the fairing.
Inside of faring before and after:
View attachment 73321View attachment 73322
Right battery access area before and after:
View attachment 73323View attachment 73324
Fork assembly under fairing before and after:
View attachment 73327View attachment 73328
The tank turned out really great. It was already in good shape and I only used the Uber Compound on it in one spot. I removed the center console and polished the entire tank top to bottom. The groove underneath got cleaned, hand polished, and sealed. The center console got cleaned and sealed inside and out and then reinstalled. I did not get before pics of the tank after I washed and decontaminated. I only have the finish shots to share here:
View attachment 73325View attachment 73326
The engine has painted heads, some wrinkle style paint, and a bit of chrome. The entire engine was washed with Reset and immediately dried. Reset left the surface of the wrinkle paint clean and bright. I did nothing else to that. All painted and chrome parts got cleaned, and polished. I sealed the painted parts of the engine and transmission after hand polishing.
Here's a before and after of the engine after cleaning:
View attachment 73329View attachment 73330
Bags and side covers came really great as well as the side covers. The project took a bit longer than I was expecting and in my haste to finish the last bit, I forget to get pics of the bags, tour pack, and fairing before correction. There were some light boot scuffs on the bags. The side covers were trashed and needed a lot of correcting. The tour pack was near factory condition. I polished it with a finishing glaze and it looks better than new.
The finished fairing:
View attachment 73339View attachment 73331
The finished hard bags and a side cover:
View attachment 73332View attachment 73333
Here is the finished front fender which was removed and cleaned, polished, and sealed on a bench as well:
View attachment 73334
I've had her out a few times since. She just drips, she looks so good. I'm pretty new at this so next time, I'll do better.
Cheers all!!!
Thanks for all the help along the way, sir. Great community here and you are a good member here.