Modern Vespa

Hi guys, quick question. I was getting ready to use the orbital on the scooter and I thought to myself maybe I should ask the group if that's a good idea or not? I was going to use the black polishing pad to take out small scratches. Any advice would be great thank you.

It's a very very bad idea.

Do not do it.

If you polish matt paint.......well , you can't because it's matt.

Bill x

Try going over the scratches with a sharpie, works on my son's matte black BV 350. If you use an orbital you are likely to end up with a patchy semi glossy paint job.

In short, NO!

Matte colors are a real PITA to keep looking nice, and my advice for anyone who wants to buy a PTW in matte is... don't.

However, as you already have one.... Definitely do not ever polish the matte finish. Just wash it and dry it well. Polishing it will make it look splotchy and ruing the matte finish.

Personally, I'd avoid the Sharpie. Odds are you'll make it look worse. If the scratches are minor as you say, you're probably the only one who will ever notice them.

If you ever do get any scratches big or deep enough to warrant touching up, purchase the matching paint from either Piaggio or a reputable paint matching outfit, then touch up the scratch with a very very small paint brush that you trim down so that only 3-4 hairs are applying paint. Do this very carefully and only apply the paint inside of the scratch to fill it.

Don't even think of spray-painting the area with a matching paint. Very splotchy results.

Sadly, I've had to learn to live with my matte-black imperfections.

Good luck!

Surprisingly the Sharpie works well. Use a narrow point one and have paper towel handy. Draw a line inside the scratch then wipe lightly immediately while it is still drying. That removes anything outside the scratch itself. Only problem with the Sharpie method is that it only lasts a couple of months then you need to repeat it if it bothers you.

I had a Kawasaki Z650 a year ago, with the matte white paint. Polished it with Meguiar's Ultimate with pad and then orbital to make it shine like crazy! I think the matte finishes look terrible.

When I was at AF1 on Tuesday the number of matte finished bikes and scooters was amazing. Most of them were truly ugly too. The only one that looked better in matte than glossy was the beige Vespas. In glossy they reminded me of rental cars popular 20 or so years ago when neutral beige was on so many of them. The matte looked like cappuccino. There was sort of a burgundy/brown 150 (don't recall if it was a Sprint or a Primavera) that was truly hideous. Then there was the pinky orange gloss that was definitely a mistaken choice.

I wouldn't do it either.

Matte paint gets easily "shiny" if you'll use any power tools or wax with dirt removing particles. And it does not get evenly shiny, just uneven patches as said above...

I have matte green tank in my Triumph and just love how it looks - but then again, I'm not too picky on imperfections either....no major scrathes yet, and I clean it just by squirting some hand dishwashing liquid on, gentle wipe with a cloth and rinsing with water. That's what my dealer recommended & how they do it at the shop.

Thank you for all of the replies. I am glad I ended up stopping and if truth be told it was my wife who said, do you think its a good idea of do paint correction on matte paint? Then I thought, I know, the Modern Vespa family will know. I have had the scooter for about 8 years now and I use I thought it was time to give it a deeper cleaning.

I love the matte finish but I can see its not for everyone. If I were to get another one I would get it in a blue matte like the one in the photo.

I just use Windex.

Content deleted by tenders. A forum where management/moderators repeatedly quash and delete well-intentioned, constructive concerns about governance issues raised by multiple users does not deserve my participation.

I just use Windex too. For something difficult to remove I'll use a little rubbing alcohol.

I've got three glossies and a matte black. Won't ever do matte again if I can help it.

Matte paint jobs don't appeal to me much other than I may like the actual color hue.
I've done a good bit of auto body work but mostly ignorant about maintaining a matte finish and never shot a car in overall matte.
I just googled- "How to wax matte auto paint?" and tone of the first articles that comes up is from Automobile Magazine. Article seems very well informed and that is a classy magazine anyway, and a good overview of the finishes and maintenance of them. It's very restrictive to maintain that matte paint!!!
When I was done reading it became evident that I'll never own anything painted with matte, well maybe a TV set or some other minor gizmo.

I have nearly always use satin finishes on all of my woodworking projects and always have. When I had students for the two years I taught woods, most of my students seemed to want shiny as they could get.

Harley makes a matte cleaner and wash soap. It's safe for all surfaces which makes cleaning my bike easy as I have matte, glossy, chrome and brushed surfaces.


For spot and quick cleans:
https://www.harley-davidson.com/store/denim-paint-cleaner


Thorough washing:
https://www.harley-davidson.com/store/sunwash-bike-soap

Yes but is it HD priced?

Warm water with a little dish soap is pretty darned cheap.

Nope less than $10 each.

Dish soap is bad for paint. It strips wax and the oils from paint. Better to use automotive wash soaps.

I would say if the paint is a clearcoal finish it should be fine with orbital. They are very slow (RPMs) and it will be very difficult to burn through clearcoat.
Chemical Guys make auto wash and matte detailer:
https://www.chemicalguys.com/Meticulous_Matte_Auto_Wash_16_oz_p/cws_995_16.htm
https://www.chemicalguys.com/Meticulous_Matte_Detailer_16_oz_p/spi_995_16.htm
I've been using both products for last two years on my Moto Guzzi Audace and they work very good. The detailer is very easy to work with, just apply to paint surface and let it dry for half of the minute and you are done. No need to polish, as soon is dry it is ready. It produces great results.

I have to give the Chemical Guys a try. They get great ratings and have lots of products to choose from.

I was never a fan of the matte finish.

But I had previously admired a G Wagon in Matte Titanium on the showroom floor at the local Mercedes dealership. My salesman buddy there said that they couldn't keep the G Wagons in stock with that flat color.

When I went to purchase a GTS I was set on getting a glossy black. But my wife pointed out that the beautiful lines of the scooter seemed to be more pronounced and visible with the matte color than the glossy, with its glare and reflections. I had to agree with her and ended up buying the GTS SS in flat Titanium, still thinking about that G Wagon on the showroom floor.

Having said all that, I am still ambivalent about the color. I worry that the body work that AF1 is currently doing to repair the scrapes from my wreck might not match and look right. We'll see when I get it back.

But I will say this: people go out of their way to compliment the color, so I know that it does appeal to a lot of people.

Personally, I think it's kind of a fad.

Step away from the orbital.

I used a sharpie on my husband's '12 matte Titanium GTS 300 Super. I filled the blemishes it had when purchased and rubbed the ink in firmly with my fingertip. Voila, all better!

And you would be Wrong! Sharpies work great on Matte finishes. Have used them on my MP3 500 and an old car I had a matte black hood on. The scratch disappears.

Agree worse soap you can use to wash anything that is painted is dish soap.

...but it's quite efficient and caring on matte paint, that is typically not waxed. I recommend it highly for basic cleaning of matte paint that is not waxed. So do the dealers around here....of course, there's always the good question, whether we even have the same kind dish soaps at the both side of the bond? Our's is typically quite basic stuff, with surfactant chemicals to remove greese and particles. Not be used on waxed surfaces + of course dish soap just removes dirt, so no comparison with car/bike care products either for shiny surfaces.

Paint has oils in it that dish soap dries out/removes. You will never find dish soap in a detailers cleaning kit.
Great for grease bad for paint. Ask any auto painter.

Can You Use Dish Soap to Wash a Car?


A common question is: Can you wash your car with dish soap? If you think about what dish soap is made for like removing grease and caked-on food then you'll understand why it's not good for your car. While it does a good job, it's good because it's considered an abrasive soap. But, when you use an abrasive soap on something like car paint, it accelerates the oxidation process and gives the car a dull look. Dish soap will also break down a car's wax coat and can be tough on rubber.

With modern cars, it's mainly about wax, as said above. I would neither use dish soap to clean my cars, it's indeed a rather lousy product for that. As well as it removes wax efficiently, it also doesn't have other "handy" chemicals typical car shampoos do, like ones making drying easier without spots. So if I would deal with cars, wouldn't have either dish soap in my repertoire.

But again, if we talk about non-waxed, modern matte paint, dish soap does not do them any harm. Should have added, that it should be watered down heavily - the surfactant contents for getting grease and dirt off your best China plates is many, many times higher than those of e.g. car shampoos - and yes, there are typically the same basic chemicals in both to tackle grease and particles. Talking about dish soap as "abrasive" is thus a tad misleading - but indeed it is, especially if not watered down. But it's still about the same chemicals with different contents, there are no "abrasive" particles or anything like that in dish soap either.

Also, I'm talking about only modern matte paints, vintage paints have different chemistry.

Meguiar's online has an excellent discussion on this subject. I used these search terms: "does dish soap remove oils from modern paint?"
The discussion that I read had comments from a chemist who has worked in surfactant (soap) formulas and several further comments from Meguiar's product specialist.
What I got from reading that is to say that dish soaps are not your paints enemy. As they say modern paints are polymeric.
The use of salts in dish soaps is neither a serious concern with vehicles either as the formulas for car washes vs. say, Dawn are basically the same. The fragrances vary as do the dyes.
UV is the real enemy of any paint, rubber or other vehicle trim. They use UV chambers to test paint not washing with soaps.
That soaps strip grease is true for both car washes and dish soaps. I and most any shop always used a something strong like Tide or Dawn concentrate, along with solvents to clean new AB parts before scuffing and primer.
Buffing matte paint is 100% not a good practice per experts as the matte surface is polished which goes against the paints objective of not being shiny to begin with.