F***! My paint has gone dull!

popette

just cleaned my new bike (again) and the top tube seems to have dulled. I sprayed muc-off on the bike - not too much - but then farted about with the chain a bit maybe for too long? There's a section of bike which is now dull and I@m gutted. I got oil on my hands when messing with the chain and I may have transferred that to the bike when holding it to clean the other bits. I've put on fairy and water and it looks a bit better in that the black has gone but the paint is still dull on this one section of bike.

is there anything I can do.

I don't feel good right now.

Monty Dog

Muc Off is highly aggressive and literally eats paint and many elastomers, including tyres- suggest you get some T-Cut and wax from an auto accessory store and get polishing! And lay off the Muc Off - fine for oily bits, but keep it off your paint and tyres

allen

You can get colored car wax which is meant to cover scratches. If you get the right color and polish may do the trick. As ever small section with care. I m sure that I read some were that Muc off does more harm than good..............

popette

Monty Dog wrote:

Muc Off is highly aggressive and literally eats paint and many elastomers, including tyres- suggest you get some T-Cut and wax from an auto accessory store and get polishing! And lay off the Muc Off - fine for oily bits, but keep it off your paint and tyres

ah, you're a gem.
This stuff? http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_123054

or T-cut original and separate wax?

How can a bit of dull paint make me feel so crap?

nickwill

A less aggressive solution might be to try using some Muc Off 'Bike Spray'.
If its just the shine that has gone, this will make it all shiny again, and protect the paintwork. I regularly use Muc Off with no ill effects, but I've always washed it off quickly, and followed up with the 'Bike Spray'

meagain

allen wrote:

You can get colored car wax which is meant to cover scratches. If you get the right color and polish may do the trick. As ever small section with care. I m sure that I read some were that Muc off does more harm than good..............

I'd try this first and only involve T-cut if the "coloured" wax fails. T-cut won't help (and could worsen things) if the paint is pretty thin anyway. Has the Muc taken off a laquer coat? What sort of finish are we talking about?

popette

here's a picture



http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/popette74 ... 6638524338

See how the left part is dull compared to the right?

popette

sh!t - look at that dust on the skirting board!

mab bee

popette wrote:

sh!t - look at that dust on the skirting board!

More to the point: there appears to be a patch of vomit, just above the skirting board, about a quarter of the way along from the right.

popette

FFS - you're right! I'm sure that it's not though :oops:
The bike sleeps in my bedroom at the moment, behind my big cross trainer machine - I don't use it anymore and obviously don't clean around it. I'm too busy cycling and cleaning my bike to clean the skirting (and vomit) behind my gym equipment.

Right, I'm blushing for real now.

Mog Uk

Crikey that has taken the shine away....

A decent car polish and then a wax will see that right....

meagain

LOOKS as if a lacquer coat has been removed.

allen

Dont use T CUT that will make it worse ! Its designed to take old wax, discoluration off metal my guess is that it will eat your carbon. As meagain says it does look the lacquer has come off. Colored wax and elbow grease woud by my defo 1st try

gkerr4

agreed - DON"T use t-cut - it's far too harsh for that sort of job.

I wouldn't use the coloured stuff either as it will just make a mess of any components it gets on

any regular car polish will have enough cleaners in it to take off the oxidised paint (caused by muc off) and bring the sparkle back

don't use muc off again!

popette

gkerr4 wrote:

don't use muc off again!

Definitely won't.

Will go to Halfords tomorrow and get some car wax.

shooter560

As already mentioned DO NOT use T-Cut, firstly its amonia based and so will cause damage, next up the cut in it does not break down so it cuts the same no matter how long/hard you polish, lastly it'll clean up the discolouration but will remove way too much paint, thus causing more harm than good.

OK you said Halfords, get some AutoGlym SRP, use a soft cloth (t shirt material) apply a small amount work in straight linesgoing over the affected area about 30 times back and forth, light to mid pressure, then allow it to haze off and then buff, repeat to the rest of the frame to ensure that is cleaned up properly and also it'll be protected.

When using Muc off, mix it with water 1:1 and then it'll do a lot less harm while still softening and removing dirt. Although its done damage this time Muc off in general is far less harmful than the likes of fairly liquid etc.

on the road

Next time use ordinary car shampoo. I use Triplewax car shampoo on mine.

fossyant

Car shampoo is the best ! Car wax works well for polishing stuff up, and might help here !

Hmm the advantage of having good olde steel 'eh.....

geoff_ss

popette wrote:

sh!t - look at that dust on the skirting board!

Don't worry! I'll show the pic to SWMBO when she gets back from her Brittany cycling trip tomorrow evening and she'll be totally sympathetic. Like all hobbyists (ie non-boring people, like you) we live in relatively luxurious squalor ... and we don't have any children to distract us

All I use Muc-Off for is cleaning glow fuel residue (castor and synthetic lubricating oil) from my model aeroplanes. It works very well for that. I tend to use petrol for cleaning oily things and car shampoo for paint work, though I've never been a polisher. Our car gets a rinse a couple of time a year and the camper-van is due for it's annual clean before we go away for our 4 week assisted continental cycling trip.

Geoff

System_1

I once used Muc Off on my carbon frame which turned it from glorious shiny black to a dull greyish colour. Crapped myself when I saw it, like you thinking I'd wrecked my bike. Thankfully it did brighten back up again over the next few days (not sure why or how), but I've never used Muc Off since. Like many others it's car shampoo for me.

SteveR_100Milers

I've used the muc off spray on my carbon and ally frames with no ill effect, but then i rinse it off within about 15 milliseconds of applying as I'm paranpoid about the same thing happening. It's cr@p anyway (pardon the pun) at cleaning so I don't use it anymore, just soap and water (fairy liquid is pretty gentle on CF too)

Doobz

I have only ever used muc off on my old cars alloys and it seemed to do the trick :shock: .
Personally I only ever use johnson's baby bath diluted in warm water to clean my bike. Not only does it clean really well but it leaves a nice protective layer on your bike and also helps keep it nice shiny.

TheBoyBilly

This subject (re: muc-off) has been brought up before.
Firstly, never use washing up liquids as they contain salt. Muc-off itself is agressive and needs to be rinsed off quickly to avoid damage to paint or lacquer. According to some knowledgable folk on BMW bike forums (who are obsessive about their machines) a far better cleaner is Castrol GreenTec which, I think, sells for around £7 a litre.

over-the-hill

I have been warned against Muc Off and I would be very gentle with T Cut. You can get a very gentle finishing paste in Halfords. I use a product called FS10 for cleaning.

musto_skiff

I hope you got it polished up today ... :?

popette

musto_skiff wrote:

I hope you got it polished up today ... :?

hiya, no - not yet. My friend is coming to see me tomorrow (to help me fit Fulcrum racing 1 wheels! ) and he says he is bringing car wax with him so we'll do it then.

Thanks for all your replies guys - really much appreciated. I'll let you know how I get on tomorrow and will take another pic (no dust/vomit this time).

Geoff - thanks for your reply, felt tonnes better after reading that. I'm glad I'm not the only one not religious about cleaning 8)

red dragon

To add to the confusion all I do is use a very weak mix of car shampoo, rinse off thoroughly with CLEAN water. Bounce bike to remove droplets, dry with paper towel and use furniture polish - bike gleams and nil damage to paint on frame.

HarryB

What's wrong with using baby wipes and Mr Sheen?

Slow Downcp

HarryB wrote:

What's wrong with using baby wipes and Mr Sheen?

Mr Sheen's way too harsh for a baby's arse

fizz

It specifically says on the MUC Off bottle to not let the muc off dry, I wander if this is what you did whilst you were fiddling with chain. It is quite harsh so if maybe you did leave it on long enough for it to dry out it might well account of the discolouration.

I've been using it on my motorbikes and my carbon framed pushbike for ages. but I never leave it on for more than about 30 seconds before I rinse it off again. Never had a problem.

The Castrol stuff somebody mentioned above is also as good, but I find the MUC Off works better on a really filthy bike.

allen

Did you ever get sorted ?