Best paint for touching up a Lemond
 

I just bought a Lemond Zurich frameset (Reynolds 853). The bike's nearly 20 years old and has a few nicks and scratches. Couple of questions:

1) what was the original paint that was used? Was this a two-part polyurethane?

2) What would be the best way to touch it up?

3) Or would I be well served to have it repainted?

4) Where these frames Trek-built in Wisconsin? Do they do repainting?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Bump.

Has anyone ever had Trek repaint a frame?

Have you asked in C&V?

How bad is it? Having it repainted properly is probably going to run you into a couple hundred dollars. An alternative is powdercoating, which costs less and is tougher, but you're still looking $150-200 for a proper job.

As far as touch up paint, best bet is to take it with you into an auto paint shop, and see if you can find a bottle that matches. Others suggest nail polish as a decent touchup, too, due to the incredible variety of shades available.

Often new bikes come with a small vial of touch up paint, to touch up some scratches made while its being assembled.
Skilled assembly mechanics may never need to use them, so they collect in a box in the shop.


I'd get a repaint specialist, Trek only in house paints their most premium race bikes , I doubt they will repaint their old ones.

You Could ask your Trek dealer of course.. (I think they no longer have any business relations to mr Lemond.)

Trek as most bike companies do, these days, have OEM contract factories in Taiwan building most of their bikes.

Only the top line Carbon fiber race bikes remain built, in their Wisconsin Shop..






....

The bike would have been a 1999. I think that they were still making them in my old home state of Wisconsin. I'll check with Trek - maybe they can give me an exact color spec. Heck, I own a Domane Six Series- maybe they'll help a customer out. And yes, Trek did sever all ties with Lemond. And Lemond was in the right. Trek would do themselves a credit if they publicly apologized to LeMond. I'm not holding my breath on that, tho. One guy had written a hilarious message on his frame. Right in front of Greg's signature on the top tube, he'd written "I told you so!" I may steal that idea.

I don't think that the bike is too bad. Pic below. I could just sand down the current finish, derust any spots and get to bare metal at those points, and repaint the thing. Probably overkill. Ideally, I'd just have to repair stuff in the white areas of the paint and could leave the red areas (and decals) alone.

One think I'm anxious to try is something called a "magic eraser". It's a melamine foam sponge. It's really good at removing stains on many finishes. I'll try it on a hidden spot. If it works, and the scratches aren't too bad, and I can get touchup paint that matches, perhaps I can do that and have a clear-coat applied. I will advise.

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/LP4AAO...fQ/s-l1600.jpg

Magic eraser is a mild abrasive. If the stains are embedded in the clear coat, you'll have to remove the clear coat to get the stain off. If the stain is in the paint, then you'll end up going to the primer. I imagine at the very least it will degloss the clear coat and outer layer of the paint, so if you don't want this then I'd test it somewhere inconspicuous.

Scratch-X is good for fine scratches, and didn't cause too much deglossing of the paint I used it on. I followed up with a good paste wax.

I think repainting this frame, from what I see, is overkill. Plus, as mentioned, a good paint job is going to be greater than the value of the frame/fork. the prices I see for a good prep/wet paint/decals start at $500 and go up from there.