I bough my bike with painted on flames and pinstripes which I think are cool as hell looking. But there were two sentimental phrases painted on both fenders by the previous owner, which I removed with Easy Off oven cleaner as suggested by many on these forums. The only thing is now I have two shadows where those phrases were and on the front fender you can still see the outline from some of the words. I do not own a buffer, is there a way I can buff these out by hand? What products and methods should I use? If I brought it to the dealer to buff, how much would they rape me for doing it?

 

I have the same thing going on as you. Hope someone chimes in.

 

First off, Welcome to the Forum. First I'd clean the area with a Clay Bar to be sure that there are no surface contaminants that would mar the finish. Then use Meguiars Swirl & Scratch Remover to clean up the area. You may find that this will do the trick. If it makes an improvement but you're still not satisfied try a quality Polish ( polishes are made for renewing the surface, not protecting it ). It that doesn't do the trick you might try riding a local body shop that does detailing also and ask for advice. Don't get hooked up with the local dealer on this task. Once you've achieved the desired look then apply a quality wax. Good luck.

 

Depends whether the artwork was over or under the clear, sandwiched between clear coats or inter-coat clear, or over the base.

If you had to break through the clear to remove the artwork, no amount of polish will help you ( requiring clearing the complete fender ).

Most artwork is cleared over so you may have broken through the top coat of clear to remove the artwork, there may be more clear underneath however you will not be able to remove the 'ring' of clear around the artwork.

Do you have Macro pics?

 

I was thinking about trying the clay bar approach, then polish, and wax. The work was done over the clear coat. I don't have pics at the moment, but if it would help someone to get a better idea of what I'm looking at, I could run to storage tomorrow and snap a few pics. Thanks for the input guys!

 

If you didn't break through the clear coat removing the art work, then it's just a matter of wet-sanding/polishing the clear. There are many techniques and products out there that will do the job, use your google machine to research.

 

On my situation, I have a white bike and it had a red stripe painted over the clear. The red came off fine on the metal (tank and fender).
The plastic side covers, saddlebags, and batwing is a different story. While the red stripe come off, it did leave a pink shadow and is killing me to get it removed. Will the clay bar help me? I have tried polish, compound, about everything I know......HELP PLEASE

Not trying to hi-jack your post bro.

 

Sounds like you both have a similar problem. Find a inconspicuous spot and sand it with some 1500-2500 grit sandpaper. If it comes off with a few strokes you should have no problem getting it all off then buff and polish. I would recommend going by a autopaint supplier or bodyshop and get a sheet each of 1500, 2500, 3000 and 5000 grit paper. Sand with each grit a little at a time, bythe time you get done with the 5000 grit you will have some shine back and it will be very easy to buff by hand. Then polish and wax. If it doesn't come off with a few strokes of 1500 grit then it may have settled too deep to remove, but you would be surprised what you can get out of paint.