Originally Posted by SUNNYSIDE

If your Vivid Black paint is in nice shape here's a tip to keep it looking its best. Take a wet microfiber cloth and rinse the surface well. Dry using a super clean microfiber cloth. Apply Meguiars Swirl X to the surface you're working on with a super clean microfiber applicator pad. Hand rub the paint surface using lengthwise strokes wherever possible (i.e. not circular motions.) Then apply Mequires Show Car Glaze and again hand rub the paint surface in the same manner using a fresh clean applicator pad and wiping cloth. As a final step I seal and protect the paint with a synthetic vs. carnauba wax. Carnauba wax(or yellow wax) has traditionally been
used to hide minor paint flaws and light scratches in black paint. I live in Florida and the sun oxidizes carnuaba wax quickly which clouds your black
paint finish. Not knocking carnauba wax, it does a good job sealing and protecting paint and it would probably be my choice in a cooler or even cold climate...but not under a hot sun like here.

Once you've performed these steps to your paint, on future cleaning sessions you can remove the Swirl X from the procedure and just use the Show Car Glaze followed by a sealer until the next time your paint finish looks like it could use some deep cleaning.

I must sound like a Mequiars pimp and I'm not. These are are just the products I use and trust to provide me with the results I'm looking for.

Harley-Davidson (in my opinion) has some of the best quality paint finishes out there straight from the factory, and you can keep your paint looking showroom new if you're willing to do your part.

Originally Posted by KevenW

I'm not sure if this applies to normal paint, but in the boating world, many people use pledge on their bass boat. it gives an awesome shine, yeah. when i was about 12 yo we had a bass boat and the clear gel coat had faded badly and was very milky. I had tried all kinds of boat waxes with no improvement. somebody told me to use pledge and it was amazing how much it helped it. looked almost new again. well in about a year it became milky again. my brother took it to a guy and paid about $900 to have it wet sanded and regelled. it looked brand new again, for about a year..... then the gel started seperating and was milky looking again. this was many years ago. I bought a new bass boat a few years ago and was reading on one of the boat forums about waxes for fiberglass. pledge is a popular topic on there. anyway, i found out from the forum that pledge actually penetrates through the gel coat and penetrates into the pores of fiberglass and makes it IMPOSSIBLE to regel a boat which has had pledge put on it. that's why the new gel coating on our old boat separated in a year after being redone. who knows if it would penetrate normal paint and get into the metal of your bike making future paint jobs not stick. probably not as metal is a diff animal than fiberglass... but it's still not made to protect paint from the elements as wax is... just thought i'd throw that out there as some of you may be boat owners. bassboatcentral.com is the forum i visit and is by far the best boating/fishing forum i've found. loads of boat info on there. hope this helps somebody.