Thin motorcycle paint

B

BuffaloBill

New member
Joined
Aug 18, 2013
Messages
87
Reaction score
0
My motorcycle tank is as dull as ever and the bike is only one year old. The clear/paint that was once full gloss black is a semi-gloss near the crotch area, and a little on the sides from clamping my legs to the tank. A lot of sport bikes (information shared on forums and experience from ownership), have thin paint, and I do not want to burn through it. Any ideas on what polish and pad?
 
You will be fine polishing it out. I've done dozens ranging from Harleys to sport bikes. Machine polish with a DA and a light/ medium polish with white polishing pad.

You mentioned crotch area, so I'm guessing it's a sport bike aka "crotch rocket". That area gets abused, but it is small enough to do a polish by hand. My suggestion is something like Meguiars Ultimate Compound with a foam pad, and finishing up with Meguiars Ultimate Polish if you are super picky. The above mentioned are consumer based polishes that are readily available from Walmart and Autozone. They have a very long working time that you will need if done by hand.

Lastly, protect that tank area with a tank pad or some PPF.
 
I used to work at a motorcycle shop, and fixed a number of tanks on used bikes that were going up for re-sale. The paint on Ducati and Triumph bikes is pretty soft. I could typically get away with using just M205 and an orange LC pad on a PC to take out most of the defects. Then another light pass with a green pad to finish it out. I like to remove the seat and if necessary sometimes the entire tank to get into some of the areas. SonofOC is correct in that you can probably get pretty good results by hand it will just take longer. Heres a before an after of a nicely abused Triumph Bonneville tank I corrected. I wasn't able to get everything out but it was much much better. Let me know if you have any other questions.

IMG_0343.JPG
[/IMG]
Before
IMG_0345.JPG
[/IMG]
IMG_0346.JPG
[/IMG]
 
BuffaloBill said:
My motorcycle tank is as dull as ever and the bike is only one year old.

Any ideas on what polish and pad?
Click to expand...


What do you have for polisher? Pads? Polishes?


Definitely can be fixed but you want to use the least aggressive product approach. Then keep a good coat of wax, sealant or coating on the paint especially where you legs touch it so the paint is slick to ward off abrading.

The new Detailer's Paint Coating might be a great product to try out after you do some light polishing.


:)
 
you're also constantly rubbing on it whenever you ride. It's bound to get marred moreso than car paint.

I'd be hesitant to add any protection save for a resin like opticoat as well; they are shaped to be anchor points when you lean and any slickness typically associated and preferred in paint protection would obviously be bad and could cause you to wreck.

If its a sportbike, i'd consider something like stomp grips or tech specs that add an adhesive textured pad to the sides
 
In my experience some StompGrips are a little to aggressive for street riding, they can sometimes wear into your jeans or other riding pants. I think they make less aggressive pads for street, but I have used the Tech-specs before for my street bike and they work very well, and they look pretty cool.
 
Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
What do you have for polisher? Pads? Polishes?


Definitely can be fixed but you want to use the least aggressive product approach. Then keep a good coat of wax, sealant or coating on the paint especially where you legs touch it so the paint is slick to ward off abrading.

The new Detailer's Paint Coating might be a great product to try out after you do some light polishing.


:)
Click to expand...

I don't have anything tool wise. Just a ton of MF stuff, Klasse twins, Meguiars QD/QW, Chem Bros Luber, plastic polish, foam/MF application pads, etc. I'm getting ready to buy everything - as I don't have polishing products (polisher, pads, polisher accessories, or chemicals) and I want to do this in one shot.

How would I do the concave portions of the tank sides and forward concaved portion of the tank? Is there a backing pad/polishing pad flexible enough? 3" backing plate and pad?
 
How hard/long would it be by hand if I bought the right materials?
 
BuffaloBill said:
How hard/long would it be by hand if I bought the right materials?
Click to expand...

I'd say it depends on how bad the defect is and what level of correction you're trying to achieve. If you have any, throw some pictures of the area up so everyone can take a look at it. I have hand polished out some pretty bad spots, so it can be done. If you are just going to be polishing this one time I'd say give it a shot by hand and then see what results you get. If it turns out you polish more often on other vehicles it may make sense to by DA polisher.
 
They wouldn't show up in the photos (tried soon after). Will I be able to pull this off with the 6.5 inch pads? I have a Flex now. My only concern is the recessed portion of the tank.
 
put a cleaner wax on it since your afraid of it.

This will slightly polish it and put some protection on it.
 
Painting is a fine art of the motorcycle i mostly believe in spray color of the motorcycle because its look is charming as compare to the paint you must remove the dust before the spray..
 
Yeah nice to know about the thin paint.I never used the paint on my bike personally.But know i think to used it on my Honda CG 125 to modify it into a new style.I hope its a better option for my bike color.
 
zeus17 said:
any updates on this??
Click to expand...

Soon enough! It's finally over 60 here and I'll get some before and after photos. I ended up with a Flex Wolfgang kit back in late '13 that I need to crank up. Procrastination at its finest. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top