Paint question..

[mopar]

I've read that the F6B paint wasn't clear coated. I'm pretty my '14 GL1800 is clear coated. I haven't seen any color when waxing. So can someone enlighten me as to what paint was used on the Wings? Also, are the black wheels clear coated?

[MMR]

mopar, here is the answer. The 2013 F6Bs did not have a clear-coat on top of the paint. Some folks "believe" that there might be some clear-coat mixed in with the color of the paint, as some riders have not had an issue with their paint. I am in the camp that believes that Honda did not use a clear-coat on top of the colored paint, because they have switched to a water-based paint. All the 1800 Wings that were built in Marysville, Ohio, from 2001 to 2010, had pretty good paint. You can always find a small percentage that did not like their paint on the bike, but during those years, it was closer to 90 + % that thought the paint on the 1800 Wings was very good. I know I owned three of them in that time span, and all had excellent paint.

Then in 2011 the GL1800 manufacturing process was moved to Japan, and the bikes that came out in 2012 and 2013 did not look as good as the earlier bikes. The bikes that really noticed the "bad paint" were the 2013 bikes, especially the F6Bs. I would say that a safe estimate is that 75 + % of the 2013 F6B owners think they have bad paint. Again, there will always be a smaller percentage that think there is nothing wrong with their paint, but.....with more than 75 + % thinking they have bad paint on their bikes...there truly is an issue.

I have personally seen brand new....sitting on the dealer showroom...2014 Goldwings in all Black, and the paint has swirl and scuff marks in the paint, due to lack of clear-coating. The dealership owner was standing right next to me when we both saw this, and all he could do was shrug his shoulders, as Honda will not admit fault.

Honda currently refuses to acknowledge that there is a problem with the paint. Of course...think of the costs involved in repainting thousands of bikes.

From what I have seen, any of the newest Wings...late '14 and '15, that have a metallic paint on them, do have a clear-coat on them.

As for the balck wheels, they do NOT have a clear-coat on them either. And...the casting of the GL1800 wheels is much more coarse than it was on the GL1500 wheels. Many GL1800 owners have complained since day # 1...back in 2001...about the casting of the coarse wheels on the newer Wings. The balck ones are simply Black...but otherwise the same.

My solution, on all 4 of my GL 1800 bikes I have had the wheels powder-coated with a 90 % high gloss Black, and it makes the wheels much easier to clean up, they look better, and a lot of other owners have done the same thing.

[mopar]

MMR, Thanks for the explanation. I have done a little more digging and it appears the 2014 are not clear coated. Mine does scratch easily and has swirl marks, but I don't get color when waxing. Tomorrow, I am going to try a small place with polish and see what happens.

[MMR]

mopar, a lot of folks with these later year bikes have been using Liquid Glass as a polish...and it works.

[Biker John]

Sense moving back to japan, the paint sucks, all the chrome is gone, and we now have a stumble that was never there.
Oh yeah, higher prices too.

[JeffP]

Black while looking good is always going to show the swirls and scratches more. I used the Liquid Glass on mine and it did help the paint look much better. Took about three coats.