Well my dealer talked Harley paint up a storm before I bought my bike - not that it would have made any difference - Harley paint always was a strong point. Today I noticed I'd got an ugly chip in the front fender - and the depth of the paint and clear coat was negligible - ie much less than any Harley I've owned before.

Furthermore I don't recall riding through anything that would have given me that chip so it wasn't much.

Anyone else have any experience/concerns about the current paint quality?

 

gettin cheaper and cheaper every year...

 

well when i toured the york plant they said they used a powder coat clear coat. Any paints going to chip if hit just right with something hard like a rock.

Now that being said whether its true or not on my pop's 2003 he took it to a local place to have it buffed out as they owed him a favor. They claimed to have a tool that measures the clear coat and told him it was not very thick about the thiniest they have seen. Whether its true or not cant say

 

yep... thinner and thinner.. they use to paint the parts, sand em down and reclear them and then sand and buff them for a nice finish

now, they just paint em, they do buff the tanks...

differences in baggers, one place does tanks, one place does saddle bags and lids , another place does fenders.....

and NOT every place using the same clearcoat products....

if ya set all the pieces of your bike together, they dont match at all

 

Just went to the garage and counted 10 chips in my 08, RK CLASSIC front
fender.(black) They were there when I purchased hte bike at 4.1K miles.
I am thinking my 97 RK with 35K miles may have one or two.

I may get my painter to repaint it after he finishes repainting the hard bags
that I picked up a couple mo. ago. Tenn.Vol.

 

My right side saddlebag had a nasty chip right by the latch hinge, solely from opening the sucker up. HD replaced under warranty, but the paint doesn't match. The purple is a tad more "purple" and less blue than the other lid. It is what it is.