Carbon Paint Care

sonny73

I scratched my new carbon bike frame and following sound advice from this forum I gave it a small lick of clear nail polish and it now looks great again; so all good there

When I told my cycle partner about this he said that if I'd mucked it up it would have been no problem, as simply to use a little nail polish remover and to start again!!!!

I said he was mad, surely this would ruin the base paint coat??

As he had never actually done this himself I said I'd throw it to the forum to find out if he is mad :shock:

keef66

nail varnish remover is based on acetone. Not sure it would remove the paint, but I'd be very wary of applying any kind of solvent to a carbon frame, especially a scratched area.

If you have an uneven finish you'd be better off rubbing it down carefully using very fine wet & dry paper and soap / water.

spondonchris

I would be very careful what you put on a carbon frame. Both my roadbike and my mountainbike are carbon framed and in one of the manuals it says not to put anything onto the carbon at all as it could eat into the resins / glues that hold the carbon frame together. I would think acetone or similar would have the potential of doing some damage.

I was thinking of re laquering my mtb carbon frame as it has a few scratches and the manufacturers are looking into whether I can do this without afffecting the bonds.

perhaps you could ask the manufacturer

howiejmidlands

Nail polish remover is mostly methyl ethyl ketone, which is a solvent used in many types of industry including printing, where i used gallons of the stuff. It will dissolve many plastics and coatings, and i would not put a drop anywhere near any bike frame, be it carbon, aluminium or steel.

howiejmidlands

Nail polish remover is mostly methyl ethyl ketone, which is a solvent used in many types of industry including printing, where i used gallons of the stuff. It will dissolve many plastics and coatings, and i would not put a drop anywhere near any bike frame, be it carbon, aluminium or steel.