Paint touch up with a can?

[centercore]

Hi,

I got a 10cm gash on my bike, its not really really bad but its annoying me.

I got the colour in a spray can. How can I touch up the paint myself without having to sand the whole tank down?.

Cheers.

[Ragingrob]

Hmmm you could sand and re-paint just that specific area... But it would be pretty hard to get an even coloured and layered paint job overall. As in you would probably have a big noticable splash of slightly different coloured paint.

Is the whole thing already a spray can job?

[XP@]

how about a nice decal to cover it...

[Kittyhawk]

fingernail polish
or spray paint onto board then use fingernail brush to touch up

and coarse sandpaper/nail file will work..

noo this isnt a piss take it works!

[Owl]

My advice is similar to Kittyhawk. Get a fine artist brush, spray a blob of paint on to something else and brush the scratch. DO NOT SPRAY SCRATCH!!!

Failing that, you could always go to you local Shell garage and see if they have any "Go Well Go Shell" stickers left from the 80's and cover with that.

[centercore]

My advice is similar to Kittyhawk. Get a fine artist brush, spray a blob of paint on to something else and brush the scratch. DO NOT SPRAY SCRATCH!!!

Failing that, you could always go to you local Shell garage and see if they have any "Go Well Go Shell" stickers left from the 80's and cover with that.

Yeah theres a nice black sticker on the tank now.

Will give the give Kitty's suggestion a go.

[scumdog]

My advice is similar to Kittyhawk. Get a fine artist brush, spray a blob of paint on to something else and brush the scratch. DO NOT SPRAY SCRATCH!!!

Do that two-three-four times until the scratch is now above the level of the rest of the paint and leave for a week or so.

Now get some 1200 wet&dry sandpaper, a bucket of water and a flat board 'of suitable size'.
Wet the area, wrap a bit of 1200 around the board and CAREFULLY wet-sand the repainted area trying not to sand the original paint too much.
If you persevere you wil have the repainted area flush with the original paint, at this point go over it with some cutting compound (not too much though) and then polish.

Viola! magic!

(But the colour may not match EXACTLY as happens - however the scratch/touch-up will barely be noticed to 95% of those who see it -YOU of course will still think it stands out like a staffies knackers but that's life)

[Owl]

Do that two-three-four times until the scratch is now above the level of the rest of the paint and leave for a week or so.

Now get some 1200 wet&dry sandpaper, a bucket of water and a flat board 'of suitable size'.
Wet the area, wrap a bit of 1200 around the board and CAREFULLY wet-sand the repainted area trying not to sand the original paint too much.
If you persevere you wil have the repainted area flush with the original paint, at this point go over it with some cutting compound (not too much though) and then polish.

Viola! magic!

(But the colour may not match EXACTLY as happens - however the scratch/touch-up will barely be noticed to 95% of those who see it -YOU of course will still think it stands out like a staffies knackers but that's life)

1200 is a tad course dude! 2000 is more user friendly!

[scumdog]

1200 is a tad course dude! 2000 is more user friendly!

I guess you could go from 1200 to 2000 but I've got away with 1200 to cutting compound.

1200 is not too bad if you go 'light' on it and keep it wet.