My bike has a very nice factory paint job but I would like to freshen it up possibly but only to the point of trying to remove swirl marks from cleaning and slight scratches in the clear coat. Can a factory paint job 'clear coated only?

 

I've been a painter for almost 30 years and I can tell you that almost any paint job can be clearcoated over. You have to approach the sanding part of it in a different way, that's all.

 

how old is the bike? have u used a porter cable random orbital with good sponges and swirl remover? thats what i always do and then seal the paint and load on multiple coats of wax over a 2 day period of time

 

by the way Newharleylover , what type of sandpaper should i use on top of paint to get good scratches out but to preserve the finish enough that i can polish it back to a shine?

 

It depends how deep the scratches are. If the clear coat is scratched down to the base coat color, the scratch can't be polished out without breaking through the clear coat. But if the scratches are fairly light and have a whitish type appearance then I would use wetsanding paper. The darker the color you're wetsanding the finer wetsanding paper you're going to want to use. I would use 1500 or 2000 grit for the dark colors. Use a small sanding block to try to keep finger marks (for lack of a better explanation) from showing up after you polish. Use lots of water when sanding, make sure your sanding block, water and sandpaper is clean from dirt or sand or anything that will put more scratches on it than when you started. And sand lightly. Wipe it down with a dry soft clean rag once in a while so you can see if the scratch is gone. Wetsanding will take the shine off but don't worry, the paper is a fine enough grit that polish will have no problem shining it back up like a new penny. When you get to the polishing stage try to do it out of direct sunlight or your polish will dry too fast and leave a hellish haze. Dupont and 3M make some pretty good polishes and I would use the fine cut stuff. Some is even designed for dark colors. I can't get to the shop right now or I would send you the part # of the polish I use. I'm sorry for being such a wordy bastard but I really don't know how else to explain it without just blowing over the subject too quickly and having you sit there with a big "?" hanging over your head! Lol!

 

Thank you for all the good info!

 

thanks newharleylover- any more details or info is always appreciated. So yesterday i took a great ride and low and behold i got a nice chip on the rear fender, its a 97 badboy original paint. I'd say its about 1/8 inch almost round, what the best way to touch it up? i was thinking of masking everything off except for the chip and spraying, what would you suggest?