nail polish vs. auto paint to touch up bike frames
- Thread starter big Pete
- Start date
Spray paint? Eh, you'll never get it right. I've never spray-painted a bike, but I've spray-painted many things in many contexts, and you'll run into big problems...SunBurnt said:
...like the spotty, fuzzy edge of the spray shot, for instance. You're going to have to mask the bike off somewhere, and wherever you do it, you're going to see ugly evidence that something was sprayed against that edge.
Unless you're evenly coating the entire frame, you'll get major texture differences as well -- areas where you've feathered off will catch light differently than the areas you've colored more solidly. Spray paints were designed to be applied evenly, which is going to work against you if you're interested in spot-treating or touchups.
Spray paint is also messy and sticky. You can never protect quite enough from overspray. Get enough in the wrong place -- a BB thread, or near a pivot point of any sort, and it'll never be the same.
Lastly, even assuming you've got some technique down, you'll never, ever, ever get a good color match. There just isn't a nuanced or deep enough spray paint color selection to ever suit your needs.
