Frame Paint – Lacquer help needed!

basically i was tarting up my white metallic painted frame t’other day, using some wet n dry type paper to get the scratches out, i then moved on to pretty much sand paper to get some deeper ones out (they have all gone, so result) only problem is now, ive obviously removed parts of the lacquer (shiny coating im guessing) so even when polished now when mud hits it or oil/grease it sort of soaks into the white powdercoated paint 🙁

can i buy a lacquer type spray can from halfords and just as simple as it sounds spray over the bits that ive worn away? or is this going to get messy and look a bodge? do the spray cans even work?

any help appreciated!

or alternatevly is there anything else i can try to stop it looking like its now matte white in places?

Would T-Cut or some kind of car polish not polish it up nicely?

but wouldnt tcut just get rid of any scrapes/marks etc? i put some polish on before a ride the other day, looked brighter, but then as soon as the mud/grit/water got near to it the mud/grit/oil etc started to actually blend into the parts that have lost the lacquer etc?

anybody else got any thoughts? especially on using this aerson lacquer stuff from halfords?

Tcut will remove paint.

With regards to relaquering where you have removed paint you could try the halfords stuff. It should be cool but try it somewhere inconspicuous first. Sometimes it can react a bit funky with certain paints which normally causes the laquer to craze or crack.

Also when applying it lots of fine coats are best and then leave for a couple of days to harden before polishing all nice and shiny with Tcut and then polish.

What grade wet and dry did you use? If you have broken through the clear coat then you won’t be able to polish it or re clear it. If you buy clear coat from halfords its not as easy as just flicking a bit of paint over the area. If you need to polish the paint back up from where you have sanded it down then t cut isn’t abrasive enough. You will need something like farecla g3/g6 which is more of a compound than a polish

if it was powdercoated I doubt it has a clear lacquer.

But to answer your questions…

I would give the frame a very thorough polish with P1200 wet and dry – lubricated with water and then water and soap.

Then de-grease with IPA.

Halfords to a PU lacquer spray which you will find with the wheel paints. This will be tougher than acrylic lacquers and is what I would use. There will be lots of other products you could use but Halfords is convenient and I used their sprays on some wheels which looked very good for years.

Didn’t think you could get a metallic powder coat finish?

google powdercoat colours and you will some very amazing colours – including metallics.

Powdercoat is bascially ground up paint that is electrostatically sprayed and then baked to melt around the part it is sprayed onto.

It doesnt chemically bond to the surface like a proper paint system which is why metals can corrode underneath causing it to be pushed away and then peel off. I prefer paint to powdercoat but powdercoat does have it’s advantages, mainly that is is quite tough compared to a poor paintjob and is single coat and bake and covers blemishes very well.

cheers for the info guys –

basically its pearlescent white paint (so metallicy) not just a solid white…

i rubbed down the scratches etc, and it looked rough after, literally like sandpaper itself….i then took the fine sand paper (wet and dry), and then got some G3 compound stuff and rubbed it down even more, this got the actual surface really really smooth (getting rid of the rough sand paper error)

i then polished with some autoglym resin polish and some muc off miracle shine and it looked fine (pretty gleamy and shiny) but one wet muddy/gritty ride and it looked like it was absorbing the mud/grit back into the frame looking instantly dirty/muddy and basically old and shagged..

i think really im just gonna have to have it re-sprayed, i have had it 3 years and with it being white it has defo lasted well for the use its had i must admit, only just over the last few months has it really started to show its 3 year old paint fatigue…