Hi

I have some light mostly swirling scratches on my sportster tank.
I've asked a Mobil smart painter if they can be repaired he has said he would colour sand and polish?

This process sounds a bit scarey to me is it safe and will it take out my scratches
Without damaging the paint work.

Any advise please

 

Yes, it can. Although, if the tank still has factory paint, the sanding will be to the clear coat.

This is an over-simplification, but most heavy scratching can be removed by wet sanding with 1500-3000 grit paper. The sanding doesn't cut deep enough to get through the paint to the metal. When the scratches are removed, the surface is then polished using progressively finer buffing compound and polish. Basically, removing the super-fine scratches left behind from wet sanding.

 

If you are doing it yourself, invest in one of these....

http://www.portercable.com/Products/...roductID=21436

Never worry about burning the paint/clearcoat.

 

If your description is accurate, I'd highly suggest trying to buff them out before resorting to color sanding your clear coat. HD only uses a few coats of clear, so it is fairly easy to sand through the clear and expose the base coat. If that happened, you'd need to redo the clear coat immediately.

To buff it out, get yourself an orbital buffer with a foam pad. I use 3M Perfect-it rubbing compound on such repairs weekly, with great success. If that doesn't work for you after a bunch of rubbing, then I'd suggest color sanding with 2500 wet/dry working wet. 2500 grit is perfect IMO. It buffs back up pretty quick, yet takes a while to burn through your clear coat.

 

I've had good luck with Meguiar's G17616 SwirlX Swirl Remover. Buy at Walmart and use a cloth baby diaper

 

[QUOTE=PanHeadRich;15841641]If your description is accurate, I'd highly suggest trying to buff them out before resorting to color sanding your clear coat. HD only uses a few coats of clear, so it is fairly easy to sand through the clear and expose the base coat. If that happened, you'd need to redo the clear coat immediately.

To buff it out, get yourself an orbital buffer with a foam pad. I use 3M Perfect-it rubbing compound on such repairs weekly, with great success. If that doesn't work for you after a bunch of rubbing, then I'd suggest color sanding with 2500 wet/dry working wet. 2500 grit is perfect IMO. It buffs back up pretty quick, yet takes a while to burn through your clear coat.[/QUOTE

THIS!

 

Put the sandpaper down and step away from the bike ... First off if you're going to try something for the first time, do it on something that you can afford to trash.

Even with the polishers that are suggested above ( and I have one ) practice is the first step.

Scratch-X, and products like them hand applied, will work wonders and quite simple to use. They are also very forgiving.

 

Harley sells a scratch and swirl repair in a bottle.

 

Here is a link with a lot of information on products and techniques.

http://www.autogeek.net/

 

I also agree with this. I'm a painter by trade so I do a lot of polishing to revove small dust particles whenever necessary. 2500 is a perfect grit to use especially for a contoured surface simply because the risk of sanding through the clearcoat is minimal. Be sure that your water is clean and be generous with it while you're sanding. Periodically dry it off to see if your sanding has removed your scratch. Once satisfied begin polishing. 2500 grit scratches are really easy to polish. Once you're done polishing you will never know you did anything there.
Ps: beware of the as seen on TV miracle one drop and it's good as new scams. They don't work.