what paint to use?

"Joel Mayes" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

G'day All;

While giving a bit of TLC to my bike this arvo I've noticed a fairly
large scratch in the paint work, probably from some bugger knocking it
around whilst its locked up. I'd like to touch this up to prevent
rusting but have no idea what sort of paint is suitable and durable for
a cromoly frame.

Can anyone shed some light, or even better point me to a good supplier
in Melbourne?

While I fully sympathise with the horrors of the first scratch to your pride
and joy, if it's just rust protection you're after, then cromoly frames are
surprisingly resilient. My tourer has scrapes on it that have not been
touched up, with bare metal that has been that way for 4-5 years. There is
only the lightest surface patina of corrosion, and it has not worsened at
all. Cromoly has about 5% chrome in it, stainless steel has about 11%, so
this gives cromoly pretty good rust resistance. For more protection you
could just use Killrust, or even ascorbic acid to neutralise the rust.

Of course for cosmetic reasons you may want to restore the immaculate paint
job. Then I'd suggest going back to the LBS that sold the bike to you, or
try Cecil Walkers, Peter Moore at Abbotford Cycles or any other shop that
builds/repairs frames.

Cheers
Peter

Joel Mayes said:

G'day All;

While giving a bit of TLC to my bike this arvo I've noticed a fairly
large scratch in the paint work, probably from some bugger knocking it
around whilst its locked up. I'd like to touch this up to prevent
rusting but have no idea what sort of paint is suitable and durable for
a cromoly frame.

Can anyone shed some light, or even better point me to a good supplier
in Melbourne?

Cheers

Joel

I saw a product advertised the other day for touching up scratches in car paint. It looked like a big thick coloured crayon type thing used to fill in a deep scratch, and then a polishing compound to use afterwards. Try your local autoshop and see if you can match the colour. I've got a few gouges on my old yellow TCR2 that I'm going to try this out on. I've also heard of some people using nail polish just to touch up the odd scratch.

Otherwise it's the same as car paint. Do a google search there's plenty of how-tos out there. Basically sand back feathering the edges, clean with presol solvent, etch prime any bare metal, then use a primer/filler, sand back, then topcoat. You can use acrylic laquers from a can from your local autoshop and then use cutting compound to get a good finish, but 2-pack shot from a spraygun will give a better and tougher finish.

Adam

On 2005-05-10, adam85 <[email hidden]> wrote:

<snip>

Thanka adam & Peter, will give those idea a go 🙂

Cheers

Joel