I am tearing down my bike to paint, and am going flat black. My question is, is it hard to take care of and keep it looking good?

 

My experience is it's harder to keep flat black looking its best. Every finger print shows and stands out on flat black. While it's fairly easy to clean the problem is up keep. You can not buff out small scratches or nicks from flat paint like you can gloss. And for me it seems that rock chips also stand out on flat black much more than a gloss black paint.

 

and my experience was just the opposite. i found it to be super easy to take care of. true that you can not buff out any scratches, but in 4 years/40,000 miles, i never needed to. one of the characteristics of the denim paint is that as it ages, it develops 'character'. like your favorite pair of jeans. after several years, it won't look showroom new, but, it can still look good.

vivid black, on the other hand, i find to be very hard to keep looking good. shows every swirl, and you can only buff out scratches so many times.

one thing to be aware of, the denim paint does have a clear coat over it.

 

Hey, I haven't any issues when it comes to keeping my bike clean. I have a denim cleaner that I use. Spray it on and then wipe it off.

 

I don't have any problems keeping my bike clean. I have the flat black and I love it. It will get that denim wear with time. If it doe's get a scratch or a chip just get a rattle can and touch it up. No need to take to a body shop.

 

There's raw flat black paint... Back yard, rattle can paintjob type stuff, then there's professional flat black, which is done right and just has a flattening agent in the clear, so it's still a clear coat paint, just not shiny. If it's done right, no worries. If it's left raw... well, good luck with that.

 

You know the bike I had that was flat black was not clear coated I don't think and that might have been why I had so many problems.

 

Thanks for the input.

I was going to have the tins powder coated, but since I would still have to have the fairing and bags painted, I just went ahead and sent it all to the painter.

I have sent EVERY chrome pc to the powder coater. The only thing on the bike thats not going black are the red 21" big spoke front wheel and back wheel.

I think i am going to call her "The Democrat"

Lets see pics of some blacked out bikes!

 

TBone: I am thinking of the same. How did you Make out with it? Got pics?

 

I've had two denim black Harley's, found out the best way to clean them up was Window cleaner without ammonia, worked great and kept that look