Aardwolf

Hiya Folks,
I'm doing some spot rust repairs since I've only had the bike for 3 months and it probably wasn't attended to for many years.
It's a 1982 Holdsworth Avanti with quite good original paint except for cosmetic rust where it has been chipped etc.
This is just a touch up and rust prevention so I can see if I'm happy with the result or need to save up for a full respray sometime.

I've now got to some rust spots that have bled over the DT decal, so I was thinking of painting over the 'T' with white/black enamel (Humbrol).
But I would probably want to touch in some of the other letters since they are getting a bit yellow and flakey.

Then I remembered I don't really know what I'm doing so I thought I'd ask here

I'm guessing the options are touch in the letters with paint or replace the decals with new ones.
Painting on the existing decals would probably make them tricky to remove so I thought I'd ask first.

1989Pre 

I'd touch it up with a very tiny paint-brush. Mix a little grey or yellow into the white if you want, to give the mottled look. Testor's White will be too white. Even if you were somehow able to lift the down-tube decal off in one piece, it could leave troughs in the clear. I actually remedied that, once, with brush-on clear-coat, but you want to avoid that. Have faith, keep your hand steady, and it should work out fine. Re-decal later, when and if you decide to re-paint.
Get smallest size, 3/0: https://www.dickblick.com/products/p...52F0%25207050R

Aardwolf

Cheers, good to hear I'm not doing something completely stupid (yet).

And I like the idea of mixing some off white to avoid having to repaint all the decals.
I did look at paint pens after seeing https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...one-tried.html,
but obviously you can't mix those.

Luckily I inherited some Rowney sable brushes, which are size 0 (about 1mm).

What brush on clear coat would you suggest ?
I've been using nail polish clear coat so far (only in areas I've repaired).

unworthy1

clear nail polish (which generally is lacquer) SHOULD be safe to use over model enamels (like Testor's but not sure what you can find in UK). But best to let the enamel cure for a good time before clear-coating (maybe 1 week, and low heat will also help) and DO may a test strip on something disposable and let that be your fool-proof insurance.

PilotFishBob 

If you have an airbrush you can get an extremely smooth repair, fading a little into the actual decal. For things like this I use a small piece of poster board with a hole cut in the middle as a mask and do multiple passes, holding the mask a few millimeters above the surface to avoid sharp lines.

Aardwolf

Air brushing is way above my current skill level, but I like the idea.
If I do more painting I should probably learn how to air brush.

Weeee, while I was typing the first bit the postman put 3 pots of Humbrol Enamel through the front door
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Humbrol-AA0...IKG/ref=sr_1_1
The tins are 3cm tall.

Doug Fattic 

One of the challenges is that (like 1989Pre already mentioned) your decal is going to be some shade of an off white. The white on the decal is influenced by the orange base color . Because, in other words, the decal doesn't block out entirely the color it is placed over. And of course with age the color in the original decals changes.

I was going to suggest maybe using a felt tip pen. Not the paint type but rather the ink type. The Sharpie brand is what is commonly available in the US. I don't know about in the UK. This would be a less permanent option that can more easily be wiped off. However the white is going to be whiter than the decal white and perhaps give it a blotchy look. Of course if you put on the white from the ink pen on thin enough, the underneath color might be enough to take the edge off the white.

In my arsenal of tools, I have lots of Sharpie colors that I can use to patch up decals before putting on a final clear coat. If you are going to use paint, you might want to paint the whole letter so the color differences between the decal white and patch white is less obvious.

Aardwolf

I did try an old paint pen I had lying around (Edding 780) but it was too white.
I think that's an alcohol based pigment, it wiped off easily anyway.
A black pen might have been the thing to redo the black lining in places.

Luckily one thing I do know about is cameras and colour calibration,
The centre of those decals is RGB 219/219/219, which is slightly grey white.
Towards the bottom edge some are getting to 219/219/205 which is slightly yellow.
There's also a hint of red in places near the edge which I think is from me cleaning the DT paint and may clean off.

So I think I'll mix some white to 219/219/219 and see what touching up some spots looks like.

Aardwolf

Thanks for the help folks,
It turned out much better than I expected. It's not perfect but from more than 12 inches it looks fine.



It took about 4 days to mix the off white (white with lots of yellow and a touch of black), but it's a very close match.
Here's before and after:

sbrudno

That's pretty close to perfect. Well done!