VeloBrox

I know a thing or two about bicycle mechanics, but I'm next to clueless about paint and finishing.

The other day I wanted to clean up my black 1951 Øglænd commuter by doing what I always do - rubbing some Turtle Wax Super Cleaner on everything except on the decals.

The paint turned out gloss and nice, but horrors! What was dark black has now turned charcoal grey. What do I do? I'd post pics, but I'm too ashamed.

photostudent

Suck it up! You have polished off the original paint. Polish has small grinding particles in it. You probably saw old paint on your polishing rag. The only remedy now is to tape off the decals, prep, and repaint.

rootboy 

WAS your rag covered with black material? If so, previous post is probably correct. But, perhaps the chemicals and solvents in the product you used got into/under the finish, probably lacquer, and "flashed" it. Might be temporary if it softened the finish and may turn dark black again when the absorbed solvents dry out. But, maybe not. Polishing compound, not "cleaners" may help, but you may be stuck with what you have.

cudak888 

Pictures, before anything else. I've yet to see a simple wax (as opposed to compound) remove an entire layer of paint.

-Kurt

Beach Comber

Strange - I looked up "Turtle Wax Super Cleaner" to see what it was. Couldn't find anything called that. But as others have said, if it was a polishing compound, or if the protect description states it has "scrubbers", then you want to use it sparingly. Not as a general washing agent. Even if its "gentle", enough applications will remove an old, thin, layer of paint.

You may have to live with charcoal, and keep it waxed from this point forward.

wrk101

Patina, you've got patina.

randyjawa 

Not exactly sure what happened, but get a tube of tooth paste. Put a dab on a soft cloth and try to polish the dulled surface. That might help. If that does bring back the finish, make sure you wax it later with something like Mothers Cleaning Wax. That is what I use and I have never had a problem. And...

Next time, when attempting something new, try doing so on a small spot, that is out of sight. Doing so might raise all the red flags before any serious, or tragic, damage is done.

Hope the tooth paste thing works out.

VeloBrox

No blackness did soil the cloth. I'll get back to you with pictures.

triplebutted

Oh man! That don't sound good. I hope you can get it back to the way it was! And yes, pictures. This bike sounds interesting.

ultraman6970

Grey?? I'm puzzled, those bikes back in the did not have clear coat or they did? because there is a big chance the thing he used eat the clear coat and thats why he did not get any paint in the rag. If the clear coat is too thin the polisher basically scrap it out the paint. How to fix it?? reclear but with car clear coat, dont even dare to put rattle can rustoleum in there. U can use something called u-pol #1 clear coat, it is a car industry clear coat in a rattle can. Is good stuff and will ready to the touch maybe in 10 hours or less. This means that u could use the bike next day w/o any problem.

Do this ok? use 2 drops of dawn with hot water and put that water in the dull stuff and see if the black comes back to life. If it does, the wax u used eat the clear or whatever they put as final coat in that paint job, so basically u have not clear.

With decals, cover them really well if you go with the u-pol clear because i have no idea what if could happen to them ok?

Good luck and do the test with water and dawn, i suspect the clear is not there no more.