spectastic

I bought a beautiful ridley with custom paint job from a second hand seller. When I got it, I stupidly nicked the rear seat stay while taking it out of the plastic wraps. I've scrapped some of the paint off, and I want to paint it back. good thing is we're dealing with solid colors. on part of the frame, it looks like I scraped the paint off to reveal the primer (white layer underneath). In a different part of the frame, I can see the black carbon. These are small spots. I would like to paint over these spots and maybe cover the paint with a clear protective layer, if it hasn't already.

my knowledge in paint is:
apply primer, apply paint, apply clear protective layer

that's it. can someone who has done this before spoon feed me the details?


Here's a link to the gallery

02Giant 

If that is all you know about what would be automotive refinishing, I would leave it to someone who knows what they are doing, otherwise you will likely end up with a bigger mess than what now exist. Prep is a large part you didn't mention and prep to do spot repair takes skill.

I would say that finish is a base coat clear coat, and matching the color would be quite a challenge for a DIY'er. Have you considered sending it back for repair?

dsbrantjr

I'd take the bike to a store which carries fingernail polish, which comes in an astounding array of colors, and make a match. If you ask nicely they will likely let you bring the bike in to do the color matching.

Get a real fine artist's brush from the art supply store and apply the enamel carefully with that; the supplied applicator is fine for nails but too coarse for touch-up work. The nice thing is that if you mess it up, it should come off with nail polish remover and you can try again. You might even be able to even out the edges with a few judicious swipes with a solvent-dampened cloth.

Or pay the artist at a nail salon to do the job.

spectastic

those were the suggestions from the supplier when I asked them. But I'm not going to ship the bike back to nyc and pay them $500 to touch up a couple of paint flaws. We're talking about really small touch ups. they also suggested the nail salon option.

maybe I can ask the manufacturer what brand of paint material they used, and instead of stripping, just apply the primer on the small marks, and very carefully apply maybe 2-3 thin layers of paint, followed by 2-3 layers of clear coat. I will do my best to get the paint mixture right. will that work?

02Giant 

Maybe they would sell or give you a small amount of paint. If the areas are really small, I wouldn't do any sanding/priming. Get a couple of small artist brushes and carefully apply 2-3 coats of the base followed by 2-3 coats of clear as you suggest. For the clear on really small areas I would pick up a can of Duplicolor clear and apply it with an artist brush, spray it in the cap and apply.

spectastic

any suggestion for the type of paint? will any multi purpose craft paint or nail polish work, or is it better to go with some name brands?

Gyrine

I would take the bike to an auto collision repair shop (small business owner not a chain). I asked my neighbor who owns his own shop and he told me he would look at it and advise but couldn't afford to do any actual work on a bike. Nevertheless, he said if one of his body shop guys wanted to do it on his own time - no problem.

spectastic

to follow up, I spent more time than i care to admit getting the paint blend right. I used water based acrylic all purpose paint in three different shades varying from light pink to red, and the bottom of a mtn dew can to do all the mixing. the clear coat is an off the shelf PU based spray. I was going to thin the pain first, but decided I could get it done by dabbing it a little at a time and spreading it out a little. the first time, the paint darkened when I applied the clear coat, so I wiped it off, and used a lighter blend. the second time, it worked a lot better. Here are the results







I got sloppy on the dropout and didn't make sure the surface was clean, but have since wiped it off with some paint thinner, and reapplied the clear coat.

as I was meticulously going about all of this, I noticed this crack on the rear triangle, near the bottom, behind the bottom bracket. I hope it's a paint crack, but can't tell for sure. It had been painted over with fingernail polish, and I chipped some of it away with my fingernails (haha). But can anyone comment on that?