I have over the last year and a 1/2 aquired quite a lot of scratches and dings on my Road King that I couldn't get out by hand with polishing compound.
So last week I went to my local paint supply house and asked for help, they sold me a small set of 3" buffing pads ($20) for use in some kind of air buffer, after reading the RPM requirements of the pads I decided to use my variable speed electric drill instead of buying a $150 slow speed air buffer and I already had some medium rubbing compound.
This kit has a wool pad for fast cutting, a yellow pad for medium cutting and a gray pad for polishing, I use the yellow pad with just a little water on it and my medium compound and proceeded to buff the scatches out, this worked so well I can hardly believe I had been trying to do it by hand.
The top of the fender and the top of both saddlebags took about 10 minutes to do and must have gotten rid of 90% of the sctratches that where on them, you can still see a couple of the deep dings but they look much better because they are smoother and the color came back, I did part of the gas tank also and it flat made the light scratches on it disappear.
This is the best $20 I've spent in a long time.
I've included a before and after picture of one of the worst dings on the side of the fender I got from wacking it with the zipper on my coat, and a picture of the pad kit.
I hope this helps someone else with the same problem!!

 

my electric drill and my harley dont seem to mix...

 

Thanks for the info. I have some scratches but there on my wifes SUV. I'll give it a try. No scrathes on the 09 Street Glide yet.

 

I got a $20 Ryobi (orbital buffer) at Home Depot. I used it with the Harley scratch remover. I was suprised. It worked pretty well for the fine scratches.

 

Nice job. It's always a nice feeling when you can get something that actually works like it's supposed to!

 

I might try that out. I've got vivid black and it scratches when you breathe on it too heavy. I can usually get em out by hand with Maguires Scratch X, but not always. This kit have a name, or can I find it anywhere? I have a Craftsman "buffer" my brother lent me, but I imagine it's really more of an orbital waxer, I can't imagine it's fast enough to do much other than wax

 

i've heard that you really need to be careful with the buffer or you'll make it worse

 

If you want something a little easier to spin your pads, Harbor Freight usually has a 1/4" die grinder on sale for $9.99.

This will spin those pads pretty well and is very inexpensive.

I usually use Turtle Wax polishing cream that way, although I haven't (knock on wood) had scratches that deep.

 

google PORTER CABLE 7424.....you will never go back to buffing by hand again. Hard to damage paint with a RANDOM ORBIT POLISHER...not so with a straight rotary.


Here is a quick demo (actually a plug for Pinnacle though)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZVDsiEQ8-w

 

Be careful using a high speed buffer. If you never used one you can make things worse real easy. On dark colors its worse. A cheap orbital buffer will do the trick and a fine scratch remover.