I borrowed a friends bike over the weekend and noticed a paint chip partly under and on the side of the downtube. The bike is aluminium (quite expensive) and I have gotten hold of the official manufacturers touch up paint.
The paint is a metallic colour but when applied in layers it looks darker than the rest of the frame.
Anyone have any advise how to lighten the paint? Will letting it cure and polishing it lighten the paint shade, or should I add another colour to the paint!
I appreciate its a mtb and if it was my bike I’d just get on with it! But as it isn’t I feel bad for chipping someone elses bike.
The chip is around 10mm diameter.
Can you tell what colour the base layer was? If the undercoat was white it might make a difference
It may be that the paint on the frame has faded? Car repairs aren't my area but don't they colour batch to the car as it is now, rather than what it was when first painted. It's a skill to get the colour right. That said if you have enough paint you could do a test adding a drop of compatible white. Not sure how you'd find that though.
Metallics can be tricky to colour match as it not just colour but also the way the metallic pigment "sits in the coating". Imagine it a bit like the way you roll grass to make stripes.
Does it look the same in all lights? Sometimes things look worse under different light sources so it may be bad in the garage but ok in daylight.
It may well lighten as it dries/cures. Give it some time.
Not that that really helps.
The bike is a dark ish metallic red. At the moment it looks darker and more metallic than the frame.
It needs to be polished with a rubbing compound to level it - and then leave it to cure for a few weeks - maybe that will get a closer match?
Otherwise I’ll have to remove the chip paint with a product called Lanka Blob remover and have another go, whilst mayby lighting the paint by adding a lighter metallic colour to the red metallic.
Why do manufacturers decide to paint mtb’s a fancy metallic colour knowing they are getting chipped at some point? 😄
I would just colour match (the current colour) with nail varnish. This is what Transition suggested I did for my wife’s bike as it was easier than using pain, there’s lots of different (nearly the same) colours, and it comes with a built in touch up brush.
How did you colourmatch the nail varnish - or did you just go with something ‘close enough’?
Maybe it was there already?
