Couple of questions about touch up paint

[Johnsqual]

Hey all,

I've got an old 70's bike I'm in the process of doing up for the Retro
Ronde Van Vlaanderen.
Its got a lot of small scratches that I want to fix by touching up with
Humbrol enamel paint. I want it to look fairly good but be durable enough
to ride for training and in the Ronde itself. I've got a couple of questions about doing this:

1) Curing: do I need to let the paint cure fully after each coat/layer, or just
when the painting's complete? I hope not the former, otherwise it'll take weeks.

2) Does heating during drying/curing actually make the paint any tougher, or does it just speed the proces up?

3) Is there any point in putting clear nail varnish over the painted areas - will it give any more protection?

Thanks for reading this, I'm pretty new at all this so I hope these questions aren't too dumb...

Johnny

 

[Piperdave]

Hi,

i am doing the same thing to avoid a costly respray at present.

I would say that

1) i apply second coat when first is touch dry

2) just speeds it up

3) why bother. It will draw attention to the touched up areas..

Have fun when its finnished

Dave

 

[Old Ned]

I use nail varnish as touch up paint, especially on flamboyant finish bikes. Lots of shades and colours to choose from in Superdrug for around £1 - £1.50'ish. I found an exact match for the bluey-green on my Dave Russell.

 

[Piperdave]

My rule of thumb is that if that if I can't tell where the touchup is from six feet away, I'm happy, especially on the big touchups.

Quoted from the bottom of this page

http://www.raydobbins.com/pantografata/after_touchup/after_touchup.htm

Might help....

Dave

 

[PrimalAdventure]

Hi Johnsqual try to match the colour of your frame to a solvent based touch up stick like what you would find in your local motor factors say Halfords, motor world. Each coat can be dried with a heat gun in a couple of minutes. then you can apply the clear coat which is also available from the same stores. The clear coat should be left over night to cure. If you want it to look mint the best way is to flat the touched in areas with some fine grade wet and dry sand paper 1500/2000 grade then by hand give it a good rub with some buffing compound. This will take the edge of the build up of clear coat and unless you know where it has been touched up it will be pretty hard to tell. Just pm me for any more advice

 

[Johnsqual]

Hey all,

Thanks a lot for these replies. Very helpful. I decided to get some
car touch up paint, following SLM's advice, and because on Dobbins's
site someone says model paint doesn't dry hard enough.

I also found some Tamiya finishing abrasives in a model shop.
Seems like a very very fine abrasive, much less harsh than very fine
sandpaper. I've not tried it yet but I'll let you know if it works.

I'll also try to post some photos when it's done.

Cheers,

Johnny