Remedemic

Some ***hole dropped my bike today while he was unloading his neighboring-bike from the bike rack, and now there's a 0.5 square centimeter sized scratch in my fork. Pretty small, but noticeable and its biting away at my soul.

The fork is pure white by the way, so can i take a little white nail polish to cover it up? But i've heard that nail polish ends up looking terrible, or something. Should I just ignore the scratch, or will nail polish be ok?

Thanks everyone.

Jed19

I took my bike to a hobby/model shop when shopping for touch-up paint. Testors enamel paint, at about $1.50 for a small bottle, was the solution.

MikeX

Nail polish is almost always a ketone (acetone, MEK) soluble lacquer (words: nitrocellulose, acetyl or butyl cellulose and so on); sometimes they include some aromatic solvent (toluene, xylene) stuff. Totally harmless to metal frame bikes (steel, aluminum, titanium), and almost totally harmless to fiber reinforced polymer (carbon/graphite-epoxy) frames (you’d have to soak the frame in the solvent over night to cause damage). Check the nail polish label to see if a major ingredient is a ketone or aromatic (usually toluene). If so, use it, and if you don’t like the effect wipe if off with a rag wet with lacquer thinner and try again. Maybe try one of the clear coat nail polishes to start with? OK, I’m assuming that your frame maker/painter used enamel, which is mostly impervious to lacquer solvents. To find out, try a bit of your preferred lacquer thinner on an area of your bike that you don’t care about and see it damages the original finish. If it softens/comes lose = lacquer, if nothing (other some minor rag staining = enamel). Testor’s is usually an enamel and thus harder to remove/change if you don’t like it. Positive side; enamels usually hold up better to aging and wear than lacquers.

frantik

if you want it to look good you'll need to wet sand the scratch down, then paint, then wet sand/use rubbing compound.. otherwise it will look like you painted over a scratch with nailpolish

the color also might not match

it's a bike. it will get scratched.

mulveyr 

Life gets a whole lot more pleasant and simpler when you don't worry about scratches on a machine that should be spending lots of time out in the elements.

brian3069

Get a bottle of Testors bright white and a bottle of cream. Mix them to match your paint. The only person who will notice it is you. Don't forget to use primer first.

tanguy frame

Drop it on the other side to make it even. Next time get an unfinished Ti bike if scratches eat your soul. Come on - there are starving babies in Biafra.

SurlyLaika

is your bike new? The first time my Surly got scratched, I freaked out. Now each scratch is just another mark of maturity. I do cover the scratches with black nail polish...black frame. It's not a perfect match but I forget it's there unless I'm looking for it, not to say it's that inconspicuous cos you CAN tell. Mostly I do it cos I hate the look of rust. I say just go for it or don't go for it. Either way, it won't matter to you soon enough.

justadude

if it's a steel fork, maybe apply a primer and enamel to prevent rust

bikepro

You need to be careful when painting over existing paint. As a rule, enamel is safe over most other paint. Be careful using acetone or lacquer based paints as they will soften the original paint. It is best to get the touch-up paint for your specific frame, if possible.

SurlyLaika

available at any hardware store? Well, I asked my LBS about it and they gave me black model paint. I think it should be fine.

frantik

i just use clear nail polish to seal small scratches

jezmellors

I've used nail varnish on my bikes for years and i've even mixed colours to get a better match, i find the finish is acceptable, much better than a nasty scratch which draws the eye, but never perfect.

FBinNY 

Folks have been using nail polish successfully for at east half a century, so go ahead if you can match the color. Unless it's a show bike, you should only care about rust protection, and camouflage, not an actual perfect match, so don't waste your time sanding or otherwise making this simple act a ritual.

It's a bike, if you use it it'll get scratched, the sooner you accept this the happier you'll be.

Steve530

I use automotive touch-up paint. A lot of auto supply stores have a display with small bottles of paint in hundreds of colors. I found one with a brush and a pen applicator included.

lostarchitect 

If it's the kind of bike that you can't deal with a scratch on, why on earth are you putting it in a bike rack?!