atlantis

Hi !

I ride a Trek 7.1 fx Matt Black , how do you clean and polish a matt finish. I use a turtle wax for my glossy finish bikes.

Any suggestions

mechBgon

Washing it with sudsy water and rinsing it off (gently) would be a good approach if you want to maintain the matte appearance. Tangentially, the Finish Line Pro brush set is excellent for this.

fietsbob

do some Polish Keilbasas on the BBQ, and, the bike: just ride it. ..

wash with soap and water, and clean and lubricate the drivetrain

FastJake

You can use car wax on a matte finish too, it works just the same. It won't make it shiny, but it will make it much easier to clean next time.

Booger1

Same way you clean your shiny bikes,you won't make it shiny by cleaning it.

atlantis

I was told that if I use a normal polish on the matt finish , it would loose its matty look and kind of go glossy. dunno !

FastJake

I doubt it. I think you'd have to spray it with clear coat to get it glossy. Even then, I'm not sure if you'd get good results.

LesterOfPuppets

Possibly with some serious buffing and rubbing compound. I don't even know if that would do it though.

To be safe about it just get a product that says "wax". NOT one that says "polish" or "rubbing compound".

BCRider

Avoid any car waxes that look milky or sort of like Milk of Magnesia. Those have a super fine abrasive in them to aid in removing swirl marks. On a matt finish it's near impossible to buff away all the white abrasive so it ends up looking chalk'y. A real mess. If the instructions say to rub on then wait for it to go hazy then buff off there's an excellent chance that it has some of this white polishing compound in the wax. And certainly as mentioned any reference to "polishes as it protects" or "Removes swirl marks from cleaning" or words to that effect is good evidence to avoid that one.

Actually there's really no need to do ANYTHING to it. But if you want to protect it a bit then use a transparent wax product. Plain Johnsons paste wax would work. Just wipe on, wait a few moments for it to dry and buff off the excess.

Another product is Eagle One Nanowax. It's a clear liquid that goes on and buffs off all in one go. It shines up my new car lovely and the spot I tried on my matt finish motorcycle tank came out looking just a tiny bit shinier than stock. Still very much matt. Haven't done the whole tank yet but it seems good enough that I'm going for it the next time I clean the motorcycle.

ultraman6970

Do you want to make a matte finish to look glossy?? Doubt you can do that unless is a 2 stage paint. If its a 2 stage paint u can sand the clear up to the color, then re-clear with non-matte clear coat or polish the paint color. If single stage paint I dont think u can get it glossy at all unless reclearing, i might be wrong because i never tried to convert matte to shiny finishes.

As for the wax, that thing wont do anything, u need a paint polisher compound after sanding, that will polish the paint right. wax is only to protect the finishing but not for polishing.

Ratzinger

How did you score a finnish trek?





/lame jokes

ultraman6970

???

ecnewell 

Atlantis--What do you mean by "polish?" If you just mean you want to protect the finish, I'd go with a few coats of yellow carnauba wax. As others have mentioned here, it will add some depth to the look of the paint, but won't make it very shiny.

Camilo

The only thing I've done with my matte finish Felt is to use some UV protectant. It makes it a tiny bit less dull, but doesn't shine it. It does feel much smoother/slicker and I believe helps keep it clean. I might try paste wax (not polish) next time to see if that slick/cleaner look lasts longer.

One thing I don't like about both (a) black color and (b) matte finish is that both combine to pick up and show every little bit of dust and dirt. Not that I really care because I'm not a clean freak w/ my bike. But my old glossy Cannondale just seemed cleaner all the time even though I never cleaned it either.

bikepro

There is polish and wax. A polish is slightly abrasive and is primarily used to restore the shine to a paint finsh - car, bike or whatever. Wax is used to seal and protect the paint finish.

The confusion arises because some polishes contain wax, and some waxes contain polish.

In the case of a matt finish, a simple wax -- without polish -- would probably be the best. Even so, the wax could leave it slightly glossy. It would probably be best to just wash it.

atlantis

Thanks for all the replies !