I reitterate what was said above about not taking any steel wool, sandpaper, or any sort of scraper to it however desperate you get. Also I wouldn't use any thinners as it could soften the paint and then you could get in all sorts of problems. Is there a custom paint shop near you / or anything like that you could take it to for a 'second opinion' from a professional. We have some stuff here called Zoff which was banned in the liquid form as it contained carcon tetrachloride - but you can still get in little wipe pouches which has proved a life saver for me in similar situations. I've used it to take the sickers and decals off helmets in the past with no adverse effects. If you are still really stck - no pun intended - let me know and I could always stick a couple of wipes pouches in an envelope and post them to you - but would take a few days I guess.

 

3M makes an adhesive remover for taking off the double-sided tape that holds automotive trim on. It's safe for use on clear coat. You might try that. You should be able to get it at any automotive paint store. Or hit the local body shop, and I'll bet they'd wipe it offfor free...

 

Thats a "ghost" image

 

paint thinner will work fine. put it on and rub with a clean rag. It will eventually dissolve the adhesive and the paper/rubber that it's attached to. Your paint won't come off because it has already cured and is hard. you WILL have to rewax after. Don't be afraid. Just get the paint thinner and use a little elbow grease

 

Ok....I have been working on this since 4 PM yesterday. At more than one point I thought I was going to have to throw the towl in and just go get it fixed by a bodyshop. But patience and determination does pay off.

I went to the hardware store and bought some lacquer remover and gave that a try. walla....with a ton of scrubbing it was beginning to come off. After scrubbing hard for over an hour I was at the stage you see in the first picture. I was doing this in the garage and everything looked fine. Then I began to notice some scratches so I rolled it into the driveway to take a look. The whole damned area was scratched to hell. Of course I freaked. The paint was dulled and the scratches looked just horrible. I still cant figure out what made the scratches since all I was using was a rag dipped in Laquer remover. So at that point I put away the laquer remover and decided to at least try to get some of the scratches out and leave the rest alone.See picture one below. I got out my Turtle Wax polishing compound and started in with my buffer. I put a ton of polish on and just let the buffer go. I alternated between the Turtle Wax and HD Scratch remover. After a while I noticed that the bad area was getting smaller and smaller. Looked like the polishing compound was actually eating away at what was left of that damned pad. So at this point I said screw it and got out my heavy duty rubbing compound. I poured a little on and went to work this time by hand....no buffer. After about another hour of wetrubbing I had gotton rid of everything except 2 tiny bumps. And no matter what I did they simply would not go away. After that I started using the buffer and 3 different stages of Mequires waxes and waxed for at least another hour. The second pic is the end result. I know the bump is there but nobody else would unless they pulled out a microscope.

Now my real question is this

Why the hell does HD put the fracken rubber pads on the fracken fender iinstead of sticking them on the damned seat. Make to much sense?

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Glad to see that you go tit taken care of...

 

If they stuck them to the seat they would rub the fender and take off paint.

 

Well, I just got a new Rally Runner two up seat. I will be removing the four pads. Hope I have a better experience. Does anyone switch back and forth between two up and solo? How do you protect the fender when the two up seat is on?

 

Persistance paid off - good job. I guess the better way to handle the bumpers is to have them on the fender instead of the seat because, if nobody is putting weight on the bumpers, if they are mounted to the seat, they could conceivably vibrate and rub the paint. In my case, though, I did just that. I pulled the bumpers off the fender. They came off clean and still had enough "stick" that I could place them on the bottom of the seat instead. I only use my 2-up seat when riding 2-up and, so far, have not had any issues with the bumpers rubbing the paint. My Lepera seat has felt on the back of it instead of using bumpers. Seems to me that is a better way to go all around.

I have scratches from unkown sources here and there on my rear fender and on my tank. HD scratch and swirl remover and Meguiar's scratch-x don't seem to do a thing to get them out or cover them up. Do you think the buffer really helps? I have a small electric buffer that fits in 1 hand that I used to use on my boat. Will that help? If so, what kind of compounds should I try with it? I've been hesitant because the last thing I want to do is make it worse. I think I'll ask this same question in the detailing section.

 

I have scratches from unkown sources here and there on my rear fender and on my tank. HD scratch and swirl remover and Meguiar's scratch-x don't seem to do a thing to get them out or cover them up. Do you think the buffer really helps? I have a small electric buffer that fits in 1 hand that I used to use on my boat. Will that help? If so, what kind of compounds should I try with it? I've been hesitant because the last thing I want to do is make it worse. I think I'll ask this same question in the detailing section.


YES!!! The buffer is the thing that saved the day. The scratches were so bad and the paint so dull from the Laquer thinner that I figured I had nothing to loose. I found that the Turtle Wac polishing compound is what worked the best. I covered the entire area compound using my finger then went to town with the buffer. I just kept doing this over and over. I did not even stop to buff except for a couple of times. Once the polish had been imbedded into the fender I would add more and go back to polishing. I have added a pic so you can see what it looked like. You can see the bad section on the right side of the fender.This was right before I went to the rubbing compound. Once done with using the rubbing compound by hand I went back to the polishing compound before applying the 3 step Maquires. Now you cant see anything except shiny black.


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