Hey guys, good day! I was cleaning my bike yesterday and found a "scratch" on the tank. I'm a new rider and while I have dropped the bike a couple of times, I'm 100% sure that there hasn't been any damage on that part. This is more like a "spot" than a scratch and I'm unsure if this could be removed, so far I have only tried water and a soft cloth. I also found similar marks after removing the tank stickers (the ones about the RPMs, oil and helmet) Tried cleaning it with soft shampoo and a matte detailer but I have been unable to remove those marks so far :/ Any advice will be highly appreciated!
Jose. See if you can find a car detailing/valeting specialist within travelling distance, take it there and ask for their professional opinion and advice. Matt paint finishes (usually) require specific treatments to maintain their finish. https://www.drbeasleys.com/blog/2012/06/29/can-you-clay-matte-paint
Tar remover, let it soak a few mins Koch Chemie do a matt paint specific one, though the autoglym was fine on mine Whatever you use, wash it afterwards so nothing stays there for too long, fine to use washing up liquid as a one off degreaser, obviously heavily diluted not neat If your north west I can give you some of the Koch Chemie The mark may never come out, you can't polish matt, but those sticker marks can definitely be removed
Looks like the stickers were on for quite some time before being removed.....sun has changed the paint. I would worry the mark could be made worse trying to improve it.
Any matt finish paint I had left those marks from the stickers. I removed the stickers when the bike was new but the marks were always visible even after years worth of washing. Another reason why I hate matt paint.
The coloured paint is all the same, its the lacquered finish that determines if its gloss or matt. If you look very closely at the matt finish you can see its textured and not smooth. The texture means the light doesn't reflect the same and gets scattered giving it that non shiney appearance. Thats why you can't polish it and also why you get bit bits going shiney where your knees rub the tank for example. The finish looks cool in some cases but I hate it! You can't do anything with it bar a respray if you mark it, and its very easy to mark and looks really messy if you do mark it. I've had 3 or 4 different bikes with matt finish and they all had marks after a short time. Horrible stuff, I try to avoid it at all costs. What annoys me even more is Triumph usually only offer 2 colour schemes on a model and more often than not, one is matt, leaving only one pratical colour option to consider.
