Hope everyone had a great holiday and hope the new year brings everything you all want!

Got a question...I'm a newbie and have a 05 Heritage Classic in vivid black which I hear is a real pain to keep in good condition and touchups vcan be a PITA.... My front fender has a couple small chips and a few swirl scratches and the tank isn't bad at all but in the sun you can see a few soft swirls.

I have read that the Harley touchup paint is okay and have also read that 3M makes a superfine polish as well as a couple other products. I know the touchup paint would be good I guess for the small chips however, the swirls I am guessing it would not. I am also not sure how to properly apply the touchup paint to really get a good match to the height of the top coat surrounding the chips. And I have heard a few suggestions on the polishing of the vivid black paint.... I am in a conundrum here!

Any tips/help/suggestions would be greatley appreciated!

 

I don't know about the touchup paint but I had some marks in my Vivid Black and used Meguiars Ultimate Polish and liquid Ultimate Wax with great results. I actually got swirl marks from the Harley wax and the Maguiars took care of these and some scuff marks.

 

Meguiars is good stuff. Just be careful about using it in direct sunlight. As far as your chips go, I've always used book matches. I know it sounds rediculous but if you tear off a match, the torn off part makes a great really small brush and you want the touch up as small as you can get it. After it's touched up I wouldn't do this next step until you know your touch up is thoroughly dry. Use 1500 wetsanding paper and lightly wetsand your touchup area using a small rubber sanding block. This will ever so softly knock the high spots off your touch up. Be very careful that whatever you're using for water and sponge is clean as hell. Your paint is black so the very smallest piece of dirt caught between your wetsanding paper and your bike will reverse the effects you're trying to achieve. Use LOTS of water when you're sanding. Then when you're satisfied with how flat your touch up is compared to the paint around it, polish the hell out of it. The sandpaper will take the shine off but because it's 1500 grit, you won't have to polish long before you get your shine back. Wetsand with very little pressure. If you sand too aggressively you stand the chance of sanding the clearcoat off and leaving the black basecoat behind and that doesn't look very good once it's polished.