Repairing paint chips on carbon brake levers?

luv2ride

Lost the front wheel on a gravelly bend last night and in the ensuing "off" managed to chip lots of paint of my right hand Sram Force 10sp carbon brake lever :roll:


The levers had been in pretty great nick despite their vintage, so a bit miffed but guess could have been much worse. Thankfully it was a fairly slow speed slide...probably comical to watch.

So, am I best to wet/dry sand around the chips, then over with some clear nail varnish? I jnow the chips will still be visible but looking to protect against further lifting of paint mainly. Might pick up a replacement right hand lever if I can find one cheap, but until then....

Cheers

lemonenema

I personally wouldnt bother chances are nobody else will even notice, but if it bothers you you could even use black nail varnish and clear

manglier

I would go with body filler and touch up with car chip repair paint.

lesfirth

I would use nail varnish. Unless you have some considerable expertise I think any attempt to use body filler will result in a mess.

Matthewfalle

manglier wrote:

I would go with body filler and touch up with car chip repair paint.

errr - no.

far too complicated - its a brake lever.

sand smooth. nail varnish. job jobbed

#KISS

redvision

What about covering it with some grip tape or something?
https://www.bikeradar.com/features/budg ... grip-tape/

Matthewfalle

redvision wrote:

What about covering it with some grip tape or something?
https://www.bikeradar.com/features/budg ... grip-tape/

shrink wrap would do a better job

pilot_pete

Sand flat to get rid of the ridge on the edge of each chip. If you can remove the lever (just the lever arm, not the whole hood) all the better. You could respray both levers with car paints, which is a faff but quite therapeutic if you enjoy that sort of thing.

An easy alternative would be to wrap the levers in a wrap colour of your choice, I would think carbon fibre or a black finish would suit. This would make a very neat finish and it is not hard to do. Just google ‘carbon wrap’ to see what I mean. It is really cheap for a single sheet too.

PP

pilot_pete

Another alternative may be Plasti Dip.

dizzydane

I use T-Cut Scratch Remover to get surface marks out of my levers. Follow up with clear nail polish.

daniel_b

Pilot Pete wrote:

Sand flat to get rid of the ridge on the edge of each chip. If you can remove the lever (just the lever arm, not the whole hood) all the better. You could respray both levers with car paints, which is a faff but quite therapeutic if you enjoy that sort of thing.

An easy alternative would be to wrap the levers in a wrap colour of your choice, I would think carbon fibre or a black finish would suit. This would make a very neat finish and it is not hard to do. Just google ‘carbon wrap’ to see what I mean. It is really cheap for a single sheet too.

PP

+1 on Vinyl wrap - dirt cheap.

pilot_pete

dizzydane wrote:

I use T-Cut Scratch Remover to get surface marks out of my levers. Follow up with clear nail polish.

Scratch remover is never going to touch those levers. They need sanding back with various grits of wet and dry to get a smooth finish. Only then can you apply anything which will not show through.

If you like a splodge of lacquer (nail varnish) simply to seal then fine, but aesthetically why not just do the job properly and respray/ lacquer (from a spray can or gun rather than a brush made for putting it on nails)? Using the former you can get a very good finish easily, with the latter you are always going to see it unless you spend many more hours trying to finish it.

It all depends how much time, effort, and ultimately money you want to spend on it and what sort of finish you want to achieve.

PP