Yet another lava dome!!! (1994)

[stephan]

I suggest if your going to use the nail varnish, clean the scratches out with 70% Isopropyl alcohol, or at least clear nail varnish remover and let it dry out, then get some steel/car panel primmer paint and apply that to the scratches with a small/fine paint brush to build up before a coat of your varnish of choice, the varnish itself wont fill the "void" of the scratches.

 

[bold stelvis]

planning to treat with rust convertor first which should give a primer like base I think?
must admit, I have not done this before so all tips welcome!

I'm pretty sure the nail varnish will also likely need some kind of sealing top coat to be more than a temporary fix - if I get that far I may end up applying some 2k laquer over everything for additional gloss/protection

the pack I went for was this one - includes 2 metallics one of which at least looks to be in the right ballpark
I was thinking the other colours give me at least some wiggle room to dial it in if necessary by mixing them

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BVBJT3SR

 

[stephan]

planning to treat with rust convertor first which should give a primer like base I think?
must admit, I have not done this before so all tips welcome!

I'm pretty sure the nail varnish will also likely need some kind of sealing top coat to be more than a temporary fix - if I get that far I may end up applying some 2k laquer over everything for additional gloss/protection

the pack I went for was this one - includes 2 metallics one of which at least looks to be in the right ballpark
I was thinking the other colours give me at least some wiggle room to dial it in if necessary by mixing them

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BVBJT3SR

Is there rust on it? To be honest I would keep away from that stuff on your bike, it has a strong chemical reaction and actually changes everything (in not a good way on a finished bike). Am sure some fine steel wool or fine wet n' dry in specific areas would be all you need, just go canny with it, with some warm soaping water and really fine wool or fine paper, if you think you need it. Keep away from that rust convertor on that lovely Kona.

 

[bold stelvis]

interesting

Any rust? - not much at all surprisingly, given the age of the frame and the amount of stone chips it has that have gone through below the original primer. I'm aware of what rust convertor does - was planning on using it very sparingly, but I'll heed your advice

anybody have any tips for a good primer that does not come in a spray can I could use instead?

 

[90's Ninja]

How much time do you want to spend on the frame? There is nothing wrong with just scraping as much rust from the chips as you can with a metal pick or dental tool, cleaning with rubbing alcohol and building up a couple coats with enamel based touch up paint or nail polish (lacquer), both of which will adhere well on bare metal. It will be difficult to sand inside a tiny rock chip and if you end up scratching the paint around the chip, you'll be worse off.

The decals look like they have some patina so going for a clean riders condition frame with easy touch ups and a nice polish will still look fantastic. If you are going for perfection and have the time to do the primer, base coat and clear coat then I admire your gumption. But be forewarned, after a paint correction to that degree, those decals will stare at you and be prepared to put in an order with, Gil

 

[bold stelvis]

definitely not looking for perfect

option 1 is probably just to accept the paint as is and do my best to seal it and live with the authentic patina, slightly rat bike look - which I can certainly dig.

option 2 is to try and deal with the bigger chips at least, and try and improve it somewhat - been looking at some car restoration videos for inspiration and its certainly possible to make even quite bad stone chips look a whole lot better without resorting to spraying - just a case of prep, layering in the depression with paint, light sanding, then probably some additional 2k lacquer, sand that back again, then cut and polish - its the last steps that really blend in the repair back to the surrounding paint (if done well of course)

Getting the colour right is of course an issue here and I'm writing off my 7 quid on nail varnish as a failure - the colour was a bit off as expected but the much bigger issue is that the metallic nail polish has MUCH bigger and more obvious flakes than the original paint - almost feels like someone threw some glitter at it

It's a little weird that even slightly bad repairs tend to actually look much worse than the original damage. Gonna maybe look for some automotive paint or miniature style enamels and see if I can find something better. Time is of course the main thing as you say - but feel like I'm not quite ready to give up yet

 

[stephan]

@bold stelvis I have spoken to a "buddy" who has a collection of old Kona's, he was unsure of that actual colour and what he did was take one of his frames to a local sprayer or car paint mix shop and they should be able to try and match it, then mix some for you, you would only need to buy a small amount from them.

Looking in the Kona brochures they state the colour (1994) is "3D Green" am sure Kona mixed their own paints rather than use "Ready batched Car Coded paints" I read somewhere Kona would not ship their paints, or touch up paints due to environmental factors, this may just be a recent thing though re: shipping.

 

[bold stelvis]

thanks for the research @stephan

I'm pretty sure the 3d green is essentially a 'candy' as well - ie semi translucent green painted over a silver metallic base coat so its likely gonna be very hard to match exactly with a single coat touch up

 

[bold stelvis]

once it dried the nail varnish actually wasn't that far off colour wise - the flakes though (lets just call them glitter) are another story!


This hasn't properly levelled out the chip indent, nor been flatted back adequately but you can see the issue

 

[stephan]

"Glittering"

Looks more even on the nails page: