Can’t decide whether to paint or not?

[Greenarcher]

Hi members, i recently acquired a felt Red Baron last week in good condition.I began to restore most of it’s parts for some are already rusted. My main concern now is the back fender which has some nasty scratches to it. I took the fender to my local auto paint place and they wouldn’t touch it because they said it’s powdered coated. Now, i found a powder coating place but my concern is, they could fix all the scratches but they won’t be able to save the original logo(Baron2) on the fender. Any ideas or suggestions? Please advise.

 

[horsefarmer]

Any way they could buff out with rubbing compound? Or maybe you could find nail polish or car touch up that matches, fill in the scratches with a small brush or toothpick and buff out with rubbing compound when it's dry?

 

[Greenarcher]

Any way they could buff out with rubbing compound? Or maybe you could find nail polish or car touch up that matches, fill in the scratches with a small brush or toothpick and buff out with rubbing compound when it's dry?

Thank you for your input, gonna give it a try but thats a lot of work lol

 

[AndyA]

On my scratch scale those come nowhere near "nasty." It all depends on how much money and/or time you want to spend to make it closer to perfect. I'm pretty sure that Baron von Richthofen had worse scratches on his Fokker Dr. 1. We'd love to see pics of the whole bike.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

It's only original once. I'd say buff it with some car wax or furniture polish and roll with it

 

[Starnger]

You may as well just reproduce the decal.
If it is powder coat then some scratches may heal up once you just heat the powder to the melting point. Usually it is about 200'c or about 390'f. If you melt the whole thing, the decal probably won't stand it, though it depends on a kind of decal. I'd be curious to try. But another option is to just heat the place with the scratches with a heat gun. If you mess it up during this procedure then you at least end up with a good reason to paint it

 

[RustySprockets]

Has anyone had experience using red tinted car wax? Those do appear pretty minor to my eye.

 

[Duchess]

I was thinking heat gun or wax, too. Colored wax is used on furniture to decent effect. Like with the furniture, I don't think you'll get a perfect cover "fix", but it should be an improvement that largely hides them. If not, call it wabi sabi.

 

[Captain Awesome]

If it is powder coat then some scratches may heal up once you just heat the powder to the melting point. Usually it is about 200'c or about 390'f

Sometimes it works. It can be iffy, but if you get it right you can smooth some imperfections. Sneak up on it around 360 and gradually increase the heat

 

[Greenarcher]

Thank you guys for all the comments and ideas you shared to me. Just an update, when I came back to the powder coating place. They were charging me $80 for the front fork ( it’s their minimum charge per work order) which I thought was a little expensive. So I ask them what if I throw a rear fender, would it still be $80? They said yes, so that made up my mind to just get it done also. Here is a picture of my front fork when I got them which I thought really needs powder coating.

 

[Greenarcher]

Here is the finish 2006 Red Baron. She is a beauty.

 

[ronark]

Here is the finish 2006 Red Baron. She is a beauty.

You did a GREAT job on the rebuild.....Now you are hooked my friend......Felts for Life

 

[Greenarcher]

You did a GREAT job on the rebuild.....Now you are hooked my friend......Felts for Life

Hey Ron thank you friend. You guest it right lol already looking for another bike when I’m about to finish the Baron. I love your work too, posted on FB felt page. My membership is still pending there, Been a while now. Wanted to comment on your bikes but couldn’t. Hey thanks again, stay safe and healthy friend.

 

[el Diablo Guapo]

Terrific looking ride!

BTW, some of those scratches were really bad, but i have "fixed" some paint scratches by using the closest colored crayon, from one of those big 64 color boxes. I colored in the scratch(es) and then carnuba waxed the whole surface. It usually worked and sometimes it worked amazing

But that powder coat should really last

Nice job!

hey, what is that stand? would you post a picture of it by itself? Iknow, what a wierdo I am...