Bicycle Mechanics - Spot painting

I just bought a nice Trek 2300 on ebay, but the seller packed it poorly and it got some pretty good scratches on the downtube, the seattube (on the decal), and on the fork. He's sending me a partial refund fortunately, but does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix these up nicely, besides just getting a little bottle of touchup paint? The scratches are through to the aluminum on the bike, and the clear coat's off in some spots on the fork, but no damage to the carbon itself.

I just bought a nice Trek 2300 on ebay, but the seller packed it poorly and it got some pretty good scratches on the downtube, the seattube (on the decal), and on the fork. He's sending me a partial refund fortunately, but does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix these up nicely, besides just getting a little bottle of touchup paint? The scratches are through to the aluminum on the bike, and the clear coat's off in some spots on the fork, but no damage to the carbon itself.Touch up paint,clear fingernail polish, professional repaint or send it back and let the moron eat it....I'd shoot for the latter.

That was my first instinct! But between the hassle of reboxing it, shipping it, getting my money back for the purchase, getting my money back for reshipping, etc...

He's sending me 20% of the price back, and otherwise it's a pretty perfect bike.

I'm not a big fan of touch up painting because, if you don't get the color match perfect, you might as well use neon green. Any less than exact color match draws your eye right to the blemish. On a steel frame bike I generally just use a little clear nail polish to cover the metal. On aluminum I'd be tempted to think of the scratch as patina and just live with it.

I'm not a big fan of touch up painting because, if you don't get the color match perfect, you might as well use neon green. Any less than exact color match draws your eye right to the blemish.

A mis-matched red on red draws your eye to a chip repair more than the white or gray primer in a chip, whatever :rolleyes:

Touch up painting works great on chips and scratches and it does not have to be a perfect match. The touch-up fades from view inversely proportional to how much and how loud the the owner cried when the bike received said chip or scratch.

- Get an automotive touch up paint from a car that's color closely matches your Trek, if it has metallic get a metallic paint.

- Wash the chip or scratch with Bestine, Mineral Spirits or similar degreaser and use a toothbrush in case there is wax in the chip.

- Don't use Tammy Faye's mascara brush that is included with the touch up paint, get a small, fine point hobby brush or 6 if you have several days of chips to doctor.

- Put a drop of paint in the center of the chip or scratch but not on the surrounding paint.

- Build up the level in 2-3 coats until it's flush with the surrounding paint.

- You can if it's important to you, take a piece of 1000 grit wet/dry paper and wrap it around a 1/2" x 1" x 3" hardwoood block and wet sand the touch up paint to the level of the surrounding paint. Then use polishing compound and polish the area.

If you are picky and want a very good match...like me..

After you buy the touch up paint, paint in on something and let it dry before touching up the bike you may find that when the paint is dry the color is a little different.

Depending on the color I have found almost perfect matches in nail polish, this works great too.