Scratches can polish out as others have described with less aggressive than W/D high count fine grit papers. For the possibility that you are seeing marring of the clear coat over the paint, I'd sure try the least invasive methods first so you don't go into the clear any more than necessary or the paint coat.
I've used a very soft polish as a first pass mar/scratch remedy. Had good luck with the fine material provided in a headlight lens buffing kit. Used by hand with a rag it's very controllable both in area affected and force applied (intended for use on a provided buffing wheel with a power drill). I had it so I tried it before buying another. Other home soft polish examples are toothpaste, kitchen or bathroom fixture cleansers, Barkeepers friend. If deeper injuries or actual voids are present, you can avoid the re-paint thing by trying a cabinet touch-up stick. The material can fill the void, be shaped to flushness and buffed to a gloss. I've used the black to cover brad holes in prefinished matching trim for cabinetry and was surprised how I could buff until it had the right sheen for the rest of the finish. I had a black car a while back and it turns out that black paint can be thought of as a specialty in that field and touch-ups are a lot more troubling than imaginable. A car body offers large planes of finish and greater ability to compare original paint to touch up or feathered-in repaint. Bikes are much more forgiving. Andy Cheatham Pittsburgh On Wednesday, February 12, 2020 at 3:18:01 PM UTC-5, Dave Small wrote: > > Hi all, > > Two years ago I bought a new black Sam Hillborne frame from Rivendell. > For reasons not relevant to this post, I couldn't do anything with it then > so kept it unopened in the box in my basement until this past weekend, when > I opened the box intending to take it to my mechanic to have it built up. > Upon removing the frame from the box and tearing away the bubble wrap from > the top tube I discovered extensive scratches on the top of the top tube > midway between the seat and head tubes. Cardboard had rubbed through the > bubble wrap surrounding the top tube and then rubbed against the frame as > the frame wobbled left to right during shipping, and this was the result. > > The scratches are superficial but readily apparent at a glance, and are in > nearly the worst spot possible. I'd like to fix or mask these somehow, or > else I'll see them every time I look down and be unhappy with the bike. > The best solution would be to have the top tube (and only the top tube) > repainted, but I don't know a local frame painter (in Indianapolis) who I > could take it to for that, or if a painter could paint *only* the top > tube and have everything match. I have three other ideas, but don't know > if I'd be happy with them once they're implemented: > > 1. Have a cream panel painted on the top tube to match the cream head tube > and the cream seat tube panel. > 2. Wrap the scratched part of the TT with black or honey leather, which > would provide the additional benefit of giving me a contact spot to use to > lean the bike against a pole if I ever need to. > 3. Twine the scratched section, with shellac if there's no chance of the > shellac hurting the paint and without shellac if there is. > > I'll always have a honey saddle on the bike, if that helps you picture > these options. > > Do any of you know a painter near Indianapolis who could paint the top > tube to match? What do y'all think of the ideas above? Do you have any > better options? I'd appreciate the input. Thanks. > > Dave > Indianapolis, IN > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/06d760c1-97a4-498b-9363-2554e2919091%40googlegroups.com.
