schleven

So, I recently came into possession of this setup and I would like to touch up some areas where the paint is chipped. Any suggestions? I went out and purchased a small can of Duplicolor since the mechanic at my LBS said I could just lightly sand it and fade in the Duplicolor. He said it would turn out very nice. What do you all think?

Here is the paint:


And here is the frame with some of the areas I'd like to touch up:





Here's a quick pic of the bike (Sorry for the non-drive side view):


Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

-Steve

King of Kadence

I'm not trying to sound like a smart ass, but bikes ride better with chipped paint.

schleven

Thanks for the constructive feedback.

Old Fat Guy

Feather the edges with 1000-2000 grit sandpaper. Make a mask out of a piece of cardboard. Spray, dry wet sand, repeat until satisfied.

Make sure it's clean, like surgically clean, before you start.

Kommisar89

That spot on the top tube will take a bit of work. I will defer to others with better painting skills than I to give specific instructions other than to say I suspect you will want to use a sandable primer first to protect the bare steel and fill the deep srcatches there. You could use the same method for the other chips or just get the matching brush-on touch-up for those small chips. The paint will probably come off the fork ends where the washers rub anyway so I'm not sure what you can do about that.

Fred Smedley

Wax and grease remover , paint pens from Wally world, mix two colors if needed, strip entire bike, wet sand with 1200 then paint with a enamel fizzbomb from a automotive clear. Blend that big gaff is going to be hard IMO.

gridplan

For smaller areas (not necessarily the larger area on your top tube) I too like the paint pens you can get at most any craft store. They're cheap and come in a variety of colors. Some pens have tips that are narrow enough that you can easily fill small chips. It's not going to look like a concours winner, but from a few feet the results should look fine. With your bike being black, it would be easy to find that color. I've also read on the CR list that some use fingernail polish. Like the paint pens, nail polish comes in a variety of colors and dries really hard.

Dr.Deltron

Let's see...all my bikes are sweeet to ride!

They all have chipped paint.


I'll have to agree with the King!


As for that beautiful Romic, just put a Campy sticker over that top tube gash & call it good.

A sticker can easily be removed. A hack-job touch-up...not so much. ..just sayin'...

gridplan

You might also want to check out Ray Dobbins' results using plain old Testors enamel. I think the results look pretty good.

https://www.raydobbins.com/pantografa...er_touchup.htm

schleven

You're in Monterey correct? I'm in SLO. Would you be able to do a quick and cheap touch up job?

j0e_bik3

that frame has WAY too many defects to be "touched up" and not have it look like a kid with a magic marker did it, and is WAY too beautiful to do an amateur touch up job on (please, no offense intended) besides the chances that the (worst paint on the planet for durability) dupli-color paint will match that black (yes, there are currently about 357 different shades of "black") are about as good as me winning the tour de france next year.

I used to do touch ups for used car dealers back when I was pinstriping for a living, and I can tell you, filling JUST the chip, without damaging the surrounding area, then matching the paint (in it's current faded condition, NOT the color code match), and then blending in the clear is an art form best left for those with infinite patience, and plenty of experience/practice (I was ok, some guys were just amazing) it's just one of the hardest things to do in all of painting.

it's actually LESS WORK, to have it media blasted and painted (you can get the decals reproduced, or maybe even NOS) than to try and mess with THAT many defects.

so I agree with doc, put a sticker on it, or top tube pad and have fun riding it, or re-paint it.

it's just too nice of a bike not too.

Dr.Deltron

Yes, I am.

I credit Keith Bontrager with this one..."Good, fast, cheap...pick two!"

Which means that if I do it quick & cheap, it won't be much good.
Which means you could save money by doing that yourself.
Or PAY me to F it up FOR you.

Not tryin' to be harsh, just as stated in an above post, it's easier (and better) to RE-paint than to do as much touch-up as your Romic needs.

Still not disuaded? PM me & we can get together and spray some touch-up.

roccobike

I touch-up my bikes and I use Dupli-Color paints. I approach each touch-up job with the same decision process as a cosmetic surgeon, will it look better after I make the change or is it better to leave it alone. If you want perfection, then repainting the entire frame or frame member professionally is the best way to go. If you want improvement, but can live with a decision to simply make it look better (and way less expensive), touching up is the way to go.
IMHO, color match with Dupli-Color is a major problem. If you can get it, great, if not, well I have a Univega right now that I can't touch up because I can't get a close match. On the other hand the two bikes below have been touched up. The top of the seat tube, continuing into the top tube about one inch, on the Raleigh Record has been resprayed. The match is perfect. The Schwinn Traveler has been touched up with a brush, using spray paint that was sprayed into a container, then brushed on, two coats. Close-up, about 3 to 4 feet from the bike you can see the imperfections of the touch up. From a distance, like in these pics, it can't be seen.
One of the worst matches I ever had was trying to touch up my yellow 05 Rockhopper using original factory paint, a horrible match. So much for "factory" paint.
Good luck with your decision.

tellyho

I prefer the touch-up pens - get as good a color match as possible, sand, clean, and go to town. Rubbing compound and wax at the end. It all depends on how much you like the frame (and probably how much you paid). Masking to spray is too much work.