Bike touch up paint?

[ED209]

Can anyone recommend anywhere to eitther buy some proper matched bike touch up paint or get some minor repairs done to the paintwork on a carbon frame (in the north east, don’t want to be posting the bike off)

My wife managed to drop her Liv Avow against a wall in our garden damaging the paint in a few places. I am confident there is no structural damage as the bike literally fell over. I have always been less than impressed with the quality and durability of the paint on the bike but now it could do with a touch up.

As far as I am aware giant/liv don’t sell touch up paints. I have emailed them asking if they can assist or supply the paint code and I am waiting to hear back.

I have also read nail varnish might do the job but how the hell do I find the correct colours?


upload image


upload image



upload image

[joshcowin]

Personally I wouldn't bother, they don't look to bad and when it comes to resell people can see that its not enough damage to have been involved in a big crash.

Lovely colour scheme on that, got a pic of the whole bike?

[ED209]

joshcowin said:

Personally I wouldn't bother, they don't look to bad and when it comes to resell people can see that its not enough damage to have been involved in a big crash.

Lovely colour scheme on that, got a pic of the whole bike?

Leaving it won’t stop her moaning about it though ha ha.

[moonigan]

Agreed, it is a really nice paint job. The metallic fleck would be nigh on impossible to match and those chips have gone straight down to the carbon, so they would have to be sanded down to flatten them and then blended back in.

I would get some clear coat to cover up the chips just to protect the rest of the paint. If you wanted to disguise the chips a little you could maybe get some permanent marker which is what I did but my bike is black so easy to cover and then apply the clear over the top. You can buy little bottles of clear on e-bay for a few pounds.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284332889292

Edited by moonigan on Thursday 12th May 17:07

Just re-read your initial post regarding nail varnish. Good shout tbh, you won't get an exact match, but anything close will be fine and then go over it with the clear coat once its dry.

Edited by moonigan on Thursday 12th May 17:13

[leyorkie]

Difficult with a paint job like that but you could try G Paint

https://www.gpaintbikes.co.uk/tablet/index.html?gc...

[leyorkie]

Difficult with a paint job like that but you could try G Paint

https://www.gpaintbikes.co.uk/tablet/index.html?gc...

[ED209]

Giant don’t sell paint but they have helpfully sent me the paint codes. Will investigate getting some made up.

[Barchettaman]

I’ve had great success matching paint colours with cheap nail varnish.

I wheel the bike into the shop to get a better idea for what matches. Normally get a few funny looks but as long as the place is quiet they allow it.

One tip: don’t use the supplied brush. A fine artist’s brush gets an infinitely better result.

[snotrag]

Yep. Take the fork out, and take it into Superdrug (or wherever your wife reccomends!).

There'll be something close.

[boombang]

I'd probably use acrylics and hand mix to try and match the colour change.

DecoArt Metallic Teal would be a good starting point, would need blending with a black and purple to get that range. It has more flake in but would be confident of a close match with a bit of mucking about.