jerod

Hello,
As stated above I just bought my first vintage bike and I'm learning as I go. After cleaning, new tape etc. I decided I didn't like the 'confetti' stickers on the frame and had read of others removing these from the 1400 with a hair dryer. Worked like a charm. However, it now appears the stickers were not on top of the clear coat and there are now the 'negative' sticker shapes on the frame bare paint. Hope that makes sense. Pic attached. A couple of questions:

1. Did I already screw up this bike?
2. Is there any recourse here except live with the patches?
3. Will the frame age in these spots?
4. It's now apparent that the scrapes on the frame are only in the clear coat and the paint underneath is in great shape, is it possible to strip the clear coat and reapply it? Is that too expensive or worth the time?

First pic is the bike before removal, second is spot where sticker used to be. You should be able to see the outline.

Any help appreciated.

NZXTInerTia

It almost looks like there was an, or is an entire sticker or covering that is surrounding the frame. Because it doesn't look like any actual paint was worn off in the removal of the stickers.

jerod

I thought that was a clear coat? To be honest I have no idea what I've done here...

NZXTInerTia

The lines, obviously where the confetti stickers were look too clean to be clear coat tears. In my eyes it looks as if you just pulled off a section of the entire sticker "wrap" covering the entire bike. Also noticed the scratch and tear marks about two inches from the bare frame, it just looks like something tore the sticker "wrap".

jerod

Hmm, then I'm stumped. Thanks for the input!

OldsCOOL

Does anything else seem to want to peel if you hit it with the heat?? Strange stuff.

jerod

Nope, seemingly just the stickers. I did the removal in a dimly lit room and didn't really notice until I got it in the sunlight what had happened. I've read in a couple other threads where people did this and no one mentioned anything strange.

miamijim

Miyata decals are clear coated over. There's not much you can do now other than live with it.

mkeller234

I think this is probably the correct answer. You could use a something like scratch X to shine the surrounding paint to match where the sticker was. You could probably lightly sand the raised areas with really fine sandpaper to make the ridge less noticeable.

jerod

That's what I was afraid of, I leapt before I looked apparently.

wayback

If you don't mind putting in a fair amount of effort, you could also use polishing compound to smooth out some of the sharp edge where the sticker was removed. This would also shine up the surrounding clear coat and make that area a little less noticeable.

Fred Smedley

I would wet sand the whole frame with 1000 grit and then visit a auto paint store and buy a fizzbomb enamal clearcloat , you will be fine. Good time to strip and rebuild BB and headset.

jerod

Thanks wayback and Fred, I think I'd be interested in doing that. I'll search through some old threads, I've seen this process detailed a few times previously. Thanks again for the input.

FrenchFit 

I did the same to my '89 312. (some Miyata's have a light, final clear coat over the decals, others have a very deep clear coat and those decals aren't coming off). It had the same look as yours afterwards; I used polishing compound (as wayback says) to make things uniform, cleaned and waxed the entire bike. Years later, I'm not sure I can find where those decals used to be. But, it was a lighter color, I think dark blue is harder.


I clearcoated another bike and didn't much like the results - I flipped it within the year - the look always turned me off. I would think long and hard before sanding another frame and trying to clearcoat it with a rattle can.