Hey guys it's another amazing day in the Detail Garage.
Today we've got this Harley-Davidson.
It's covered in scratches and swirls which is something that is very noticeable on black
on dark colors.
I'll be showing just how to and the techniques and products you'll need to polish those out
and get rid of them for good.
To start you want to wash off the loose contaminants or things that landed on the paint.
In a case like this one where it has been ridden and outside we want to clay bar the
vehicle to get off the things that have embedded themselves in the paint and then it will be
ready for the polish.
To get started I'll use our Wash And Wax, it was designed specifically for motorcycles.
All you do is spray it on and using a clean microfiber towel I'll wipe off in one direction
taking off any light dust, debris, fingerprints or any contaminants.
The next step is the clay bar which is taking off the contaminants that have embedded themselves
in the paint.
Since this bike is fairly well maintained it doesn't feel like it needs an aggressive
clay bar just light contamination.
I'll use a Light Clay Bar and Clay Luber to pull off anything that has found its way into
the paint.
I'll take a piece of the clay bar and knead this up into a paddy.
You're only going to be using two or three fingers while clay barring.
This is just a sticky substance and as you run it across the paint it will pull things
out of the pores of the paint just like exfoliating your skin.
Before you put it on the paint you want to lubricate it using Clay Luber.
You can spray it directly on the surface, I like to spray it on my hands because it
is sticky.
You want to be pretty generous with the lubricant so spray it on the surface and start clay barring.
Work it back and forth in straight lines no circles giving it light pressure and at first
it will drag but as you work the clay it will pull the contamination off the paint it will
start gliding across.
The surface is feeling really slick and smooth, I'm going to put my clay bar away.
You want to put the clay bar in some type of container or air tight seal so it will
be ready for next time and won't be dried out and it won't be any good anymore.
After you do that just wipe off the surface to take care of the excess Clay Luber and
contamination you pulled off.
If this were my bike I'd take this fender off which would make it a lot easier to clay
as well as polish it but the owner of this bike doesn't want us taking it apart so we're
just going to leave it on there and try our best to polish it.
Some of you guys at home are probably thinking the same thing just take the fender off, put
it on the bench to clay it and polish it to make it a lot easier on yourself but you're
going to come across customers that don't want you taking their bike apart so you just
have to do what they're comfortable with and that's about it.
So now that the surface has been prepped.
Its been washed, clayed so it's time to move onto the polishing.
I'll be using a dual action polisher.
For those of you who are new to polishing or never polished before there are two types
of main polishers.
There's dual action such as this one and there is also rotary.
The biggest difference between the two is a rotary just spins like a drill which makes
it really easy to burn paint if you haven't practiced.
The dual action is a lot safer because it has features where if you're applying too
much pressure it'll vibrate instead of oscillating which can burn the paint.
It's just a lot easier to use if you've never polished before.
I'll be using a small backing plate.
This is key because I'm working on a motorcycle and those of you who have polished cars know
that a bigger backing plate is necessary but since I'm only working on a small area I'll
use a smaller backing plate.
I'll be using a Green Polishing Pad because I did a test spot on this bike with a White
Pad and I didn't get quite the results I was looking for so I've stepped it up to a Green
Pad which should do just fine.
Before you get started you want to center the pad on the backing plate.
This way it'll spin nice smooth and not off set.
I'm just going to apply a few drops of the Scratch and Swirl Remover which is specifically
designed for bikes.
If you're wondering if it is safe to use on your bike, it is.
Before I get started I'll prep the pad with Pad Conditioner.
What this does is help reduce friction on the pad so you aren't putting a dry pad on
the paint.
Before I actually start polishing I'm going to put down a tape line so you guys at home
can see the difference between a polished side and a non polished side.
You don't have to do this at home but this is just so on camera you can see the difference.
Next get your polisher out, spread your product out over the area you are working on.
To spread it out evenly turn the machine on speeding setting one.
Turn it on and go back and forth over the surface you'll be working on and when you
are ready to polish bump it up to speed setting six.
So now that I've spread it out I'll bump it up to speed setting six.
The proper technique for polishing is up and down and side to side overlapping the last
pass by at least fifty percent.
Keep up that technique until the polish has gone clear.
You may have noticed as I was polishing the compound started to turn clear, that's how
it tells you that the product has broken down and it's done enough polishing.
Obviously when you're done polishing you want to buff off the excess product.
I've just finished polishing this half of the fender so now I'll take the tape off so
we can see the difference.
It looks pretty damn good, this side has less scratches and swirls and a ton of gloss.
All that's left is to do the rest of the bike, so lets get started on that.
So the bikes just been polished and it looks amazing.
The black has been really brought back and the scratches and swirls have been taken care
of by an all in one polish.
So if you want to learn more about these products check it out on ChemicalGuys.com.
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Thanks for watching.
We're going to head off into the sunset.