understatement of the decade!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my 2011 wide glide has been bitten by the tin worm.
very little paint on the rear guard, started falling off after 6 months.
i changed the rear wheel for a deuce one. no more rust there.
front one will be changed soon.
i put up with the rust. im going to change most stuff out anyway, so not such an issue, but for what the bikes cost new, its not good enough.

 

I decided to give my bike some love while it was apart for mods. I have to say I am disappointed in the frame coatings that HD uses. Much better now!

 

We just switched over to water borne paint in our shop. It is what all the auto & I assume H-D also are required to use by the EPA. It is as it sounds from water. So, on areas where you could kind of cheat & just put some sealer over a bare metal spot. It will rust if you do that with the water borne paint. Because yes, you are basically putting water right on the metal. Everything has to have primer with a hardner/ catalyst added to it and then sanded smooth before painting. Maybe H-D has been trying to get away with skipping a step to save some dough? More likely the battery off gassing like was mentioned before?