I Have painted a lot of Hot Rods in my time and a few years ago I was in York going through the assembly plant. When we got to the paint booth the guide was telling us about the high dollar best in the industry paint system that HD has and I asked him a pretty simple question I thought. "If this is the best paint system in the industry why hasn't HD figured out a way to eliminate orange peel" His answer was nothing and I think I pissed him off for asking Oh well.
My bike isnt a CVO but a limited custom paint set. I've gotten mixed info from different dealers but I'm fairly confident in the info I got from my parts guy that these custom paint sets are designed but actually not painted by harley. They use a contracted paint shop which are locked down very tight with legal non-disclosure agreements. I'm not sure if this is the case with their CVO paint sets. I can tell you that the quality at least on my bike is top notch, no orange peel, sags, etc. It is damn near flawless and I think whomever painted it did a great job!
You wanna see orange peal...look at the tailgate on some of the new $60k pickups! As for my 2014 FLHTK, I'm VERY satisfied with the paint...and I've painted and hand finished a few 'rods in my time too. Now, that's not to say there is room for improvement, but some custom jobs have hidden spots as well...
Rant for the day. Harley's MSRP for a new CVO Limited Eltra is like $41,000, and they can't put a decent, costume paint job on it. My opinion: Last decent paint job was on a 2015 CVO Street Glide. Custom paint jobs are few and far between. Personally, I'd bring in a whole new paint department and start from scratch.
Thank you!! This is be best paint I've seen in a while; on a STOCK harley!
You wanna see orange peal...look at the tailgate on some of the new $60k pickups! As for my 2014 FLHTK, I'm VERY satisfied with the paint...and I've painted and hand finished a few 'rods in my time too. Now, that's not to say there is room for improvement, but some custom jobs have hidden spots as well...
Talk about orange peel, let me shoot a pic of my '13 MB GLK350.. It's like I bought an orange!
HD is proud of their CVO line, too bad you lose it all on resale...
The resale price on a CVO is better than on a non-CVO, where we take quite a hit if we sell early.
But not the hit that other brands take...Look at a 10 year old GoldWing, ya can't hardly give'm away and they start out right in there with HD. Old GW's are like used stereo equipment.
Sorry Recon, I agree with all of the above,, Paint is too much an "Opinion" thing, why buy the CVO,, just buy a standard, have someone do a ONE OFF custom paint job just like you want,, and still be money ahead,,,
The resale price on a CVO is better than on a non-CVO, where we take quite a hit if we sell early.
But not the hit that other brands take...Look at a 10 year old GoldWing, ya can't hardly give'm away and they start out right in there with HD. Old GW's are like used stereo equipment.
I'll agree to disagree - not sure what your term of early sale is but GF bought a mint - 2013 CVO RK with only 6k miles for $20,000 in the Spring of this year - retail new was $30,000, a $10,000 - 1/3 loss in just over 2 yrs is a big loss in my book