Paint transfer on Harley

ChapIII

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Quick intro before my question. I have never done anything more than hand wax and wash my vehicles. My wife just bought me the Griot's garage Meguiars paint perfection kit and then she moved us on post ( Im currently deployed to Afghanistan) during the move the movers damaged my vivid black Harley Fatboy, pic below. I wont be home for a few months but from I can tell and her description it appears to be paint transfer from my rolling toolbox.

What should I use to remove the transfer and buff this out?

And Im brand new to the forum

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It’s pretty easy to take care of actually! If you have a polishing compound just dab a bit on a microfiber towel and buff it out. A lot of my customers are impressed when they see the results because it doesn’t look like it will come out perfect but it does.


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My favorite product to remove paint transfer is DuraGloss 501. I guess it is considered a cleaner wax/sealant but it's strength from what I have seen is the cleaner characteristic. I use a foam pad...LC orange most of the time...and it does a great job of removing transfer without removing much, if any, of your original paint.

Removing the transferred paint lets you then inspect for any scratches or further paint damage. Hopefully you don't have any but you can evaluate that after removing what's on top of the paint.

Sorry this happened, brother, and thank you for your service to our country.
 
You can clay bar that out before you polish it. I have been flamed for this reply before but it will come out with clay. And tanks for your service
 
You can clay bar that out before you polish it. I have been flamed for this reply before but it will come out with clay. And tanks for your service

Allow me to double this post. I've done exactly that (clay, then polish) before on paint transfer on cars. That's weird you'd get flamed for that approach? In my head it's your standard process of decontaminate, then perform correction. I'd feel better having removed the transferred paint prior to running a pad on it - that paint's gotta go somewhere...

Sorry to hear the mover's didn't take appropriate care of your stuff.

Also: Thank you for your service!!!
 
Being a military brat and then going into the Army myself I’ve seen movers do way worse things to my household goods, but it still sucks. Follow the advice above and the paint transfer should come off easily. I just wanted to say take care over there.
 
Thanks for all the comments!! Looks like I have a couple of options.
 
Magic Eraser + m205/white pad usually takes care of film transfer, see what it did on below Lexus - might've used Perfect Finish and orange here as I was 1 stepping the car.

Keep us posted
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Thanks again for all the advice - my rear fender was also damaged during the move but dented and bent. Settled with the insurance company this week and got enough to replace the rea fender completely - so now I am praying I can buff the front fender back to new, which I am pretty confident I will be able too.

My wife placed another order with Autogeek for some supplies so it looks like Ill have my work cut out for me when I redeploy. Not only have my bike to correct but my 1999 F150 needs some serious paint correction - and I got some polymer sealant for my wife's 2017 Cherokee.

I am also thinking about ceramic coat for my bike if this all works out
 
Quick intro before my question. I have never done anything more than hand wax and wash my vehicles. My wife just bought me the Griot's garage Meguiars paint perfection kit and then she moved us on post ( Im currently deployed to Afghanistan) during the move the movers damaged my vivid black Harley Fatboy, pic below.

I wont be home for a few months but from I can tell and her description it appears to be paint transfer from my rolling toolbox.

What should I use to remove the transfer and buff this out?

And Im brand new to the forum


First - Thank you for your service to our country!

Second - Welcome to AutogeekOnline! :welcome:


Third - The BEST way to remove paint transfer is to go old school. By this I mean, using any quality compound, grab a COTTON terrycloth wash cloth or cut a chunk out of a terrycloth towel and then gently but with pressure use the terrycloth and a couple of fingers to rub the compound against the paint transfer.

Old school cotton terrycloth has a stoutness to it that amplifies the cleaning and abrading ability of the compound to gently work the unwanted and offending paint off the original painted surface.

AFTER removing the paint transfer by hand, now go new school and machine polish the area to remove any toweling marks.

Always be careful when working on or near raised body lines as paint tends to be thinnest in these areas.

Then seal the deal with a wax, sealant or coating.


:)
 
First - Thank you for your service to our country!

Second - Welcome to AutogeekOnline! :welcome:


Third - The BEST way to remove paint transfer is to go old school. By this I mean, using any quality compound, grab a COTTON terrycloth wash cloth or cut a chunk out of a terrycloth towel and then gently but with pressure use the terrycloth and a couple of fingers to rub the compound against the paint transfer.

Old school cotton terrycloth has a stoutness to it that amplifies the cleaning and abrading ability of the compound to gently work the unwanted and offending paint off the original painted surface.

AFTER removing the paint transfer by hand, now go new school and machine polish the area to remove any toweling marks.

Always be careful when working on or near raised body lines as paint tends to be thinnest in these areas.

Then seal the deal with a wax, sealant or coating.


:)


Thanks Mike!!!
 
Thanks Mike!!!


No problem...

I actually wrote an article on this about 7 years ago....

At the time there wasn't a compound in the Pinnacle line of products and Autogeek doesn't sell anything made of cotton terrycloth although I wish we did as I use it all the time depending upon the task in front of me.


So I showed what I could show when I wrote this article but normally I would use cotton terrycloth and a quality compound to do the BULK of the work and then clean up any toweling marks using a foam pad on an orbital polisher.


From August 25th, 2010, just about 7 years ago...


How How To remove Paint Transfer off your car's paint


How To Remove Paint Transfer
Paint Transfer is a term used to describe when the paint off of some other object is transferred onto you car's finish usually by some kind of accident.

My friend Rob is a Fitness Instructor at the gym I work out at and someone, somehow sideswiped his 2006 Ford Mustang GT and in so doing took off is side mirror and transferred some white paint onto his car's finish along with instilling some marring and scratches.



PaintTransfer001.jpg



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Luckily the damage wasn't worse!
PaintTransfer003.jpg



Here's how you can remove paint transfer by hand using a light paint cleaner. For this example I'll use Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing Lotion.

Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing Lotion non-abrasive, it is designed to safely take off old wax, embedded road grime and pollution that washing will not remove. It prepares the surface for waxing by creating a clean, smooth, highly-reflective surface.

This is a very mild polish and because it's non-abrasive I'm going to apply and work it with a microfiber applicator pad, in this situation were using the nap of the microfiber as our abrasive along with the lubrication and cleaning ability of Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing Lotion to gently remove the offending paint.

If you find Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing Lotion is not aggressive enough, you can use Pinnacle Advanced Compound. This is a hi tech compound that uses the latest in abrasive technology and while it will finish down like a polish it's a good idea to follow it with a less aggressive polish like the Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish.



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Place a small amount of Paintwork Cleansing Lotion onto the face of your applicator pad...
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Next work the polish and applicator against the transferred paint putting a little passion behind the pad but don't push too hard or you could instill fingermarks just from the concentrated pressure from your fingertips...

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After working the product for about a minute, stop and inspect to check your progress.. You can see most of the paint transfer has been removed but not 100% of it. Sometimes you many need to repeat the process a few times to completely remove the paint transfer.

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After you've successfully removed the paint transfer you can apply a protective coat of wax or paint sealant or like I've done here, machine polished the paint and then machine waxed the paint.

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Looks as good as new and now Rob's going to have the mirror replaced.
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Thanks Rob for bringing your car to Autogeek's Show Car Garage!
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Products Used
Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing Lotion
Cobra Indigo Microfiber Polishing Cloth
Cobra Microfiber Applicator Pads
Pinnacle Liquid Souveran Car Wax


Further Resources
How to use a hand applied abrasive polish or paint cleaner by hand


Paint Cleaners at Autogeek.net
Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing Lotion
Wolfgang Paintwork Polish Enhancer
3M Scratch Remover
Dodo Juice Lime Prime Lite Cleaner Glaze
Dodo Juice Lime Prime Pre-Wax Cleanser Polish
Duragloss PreCleaner
1Z Einszett Paint Polish
Four Star Ultimate PreWax Cleanser
Griot's Garage Fine Hand Polish
Liquid Glass Pre-Cleaner
Meguiars SCRATCH X 2.0
Meguiars SwirlX Swirl Remover
Mothers California Gold Pre-Wax Cleaner
Mothers California Gold Scratch Remover
P21S Gloss Enhancing Paintwork Cleanser
Poorboy's World Professional Polish
SONAX Premium Class Paint Cleaner
SONAX Paint Cleaner



:)
 
Will this work with any of the products Ive already ordered?
The Griots Garage McGuires paint perfection kit with the Mirror Glaze #105 Ultra-Cut Compound
or the BLACKFIRE Compound that came with the free sampler in my order?

Or do you recommend that I use the Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing Lotion


I also have swirls on my Bike (vivid black) should I get the Meguiars SwirlX Swirl Remover or Mirror Glaze #9 Swirl Remover 2.0 for both issues?
 
Will this work with any of the products Ive already ordered?
The Griots Garage McGuires paint perfection kit with the Mirror Glaze #105 Ultra-Cut Compound
or the BLACKFIRE Compound that came with the free sampler in my order?

Or do you recommend that I use the Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing Lotion


I also have swirls on my Bike (vivid black) should I get the Meguiars SwirlX Swirl Remover or Mirror Glaze #9 Swirl Remover 2.0 for both issues?

I actually don't recommend any paint cleaner as they don't have enough bite. When I wrote the article Pinnacle didn't have a compound and I forget why I chose the PC instead of a normal polish?


But yeah, the product you have will do the trick.


:)
 
Sorry to hear that the movers damaged your Harley. I would try using a Clay Bar and a One-Step Cleaner Wax. That should remove this paint transfer. If not , you will need to step up to a Compound.

BLACKFIRE One Step, BLACKFIRE Total Polish & Seal, polish and wax, cleaner wax, car polish

Thank you for serving, been in exactly the same place before, deployed and having to move....not the damaged HD :) Will come out very easy, more importantly, don't worry about it now.
 
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