Bicycle Detail: Rupes iBrid Nano Scratch Removal & PPF Protection
by Ivan RajicOne of our regulars recently asked if we could take care of a couple bicycles for him, so we decided to give it a shot. His main concern was protecting the paint in a few areas as it was already chipping or rubbing off, but along with that we polished most of the frame since it had a few random scuffs.
We started with a wash and I wanted to outline the process, but lost all those photos so that article will have to wait a little. This is all I got from the washing photos…
Here are a few of the defects we were trying to fix and prevent. The cables wore through the paint here…
There were random scuffs around the frame…
Some chips here that would’ve been prevented if film was already on the bike…
More scuffs on the top tube…
It was a no-brainer to use the Rupes Nano for all the polishing and while we tried a couple different pads, the Rupes blue coarse pad worked the best!
Just a few passes with the polisher removed most of the scuffs completely and left a really nice finish…
After the polishing we added film to a few areas, mainly where cables rub on the frame…
We didn’t have any touchup paint and the client just wanted a quick fix, but this should prevent any future paint issues with cables rubbing. While it’s not something we offer as a service, bicycle detailing, PPF and coatings is a great idea for professionals and enthusiasts. Both myself and Roman my partner have wrapped our own bikes and it makes cleaning so much easier, not to mention the protection it provides.
I definitely use my bicycle and sometimes beat on it, drop it, etc but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to try and preserve it as much as possible. I think this mentality applies to motorcycles as well because most people think of them as a “tool” and don’t take too much care. However with just a little regular maintenance both can be preserved really well and look amazing for years to come.
As I mentioned above I am hoping to soon do an article and bicycle washing and protection, but for now just wanted to throw this out there as most people don’t even look into it as an option on personal or clients’ bicycles.
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Love this. Have an old Bianchi bike in red and have wiped it down with meguiars stuff over the years. Reading this now I want to do better with it!
PPF is great for those cable rub sections, it is the only solution in my opinion. I need to do it on my collection of bikes, wish I had used it years ago!
Nice work! I have used ‘helicopter’ tape for protection on mountain bikes in the past, but any ideas on protection for a matte finish paint?
Ryan – I would use something specific for matte paintwork. Something like the Gyeon Matte is a durable coating that is formulated for these types of areas.
You can use matte film for matte paint. It may not match 100% but it will be very close. Keep in mind also all matte films are different, so the finish of Suntek may be slightly different from Xpel that’s slightly different from 3m, etc. If you really want to get crazy you can maybe try to get a sample of each one see which best matches your finish, but we use Suntek on matte paint and haven’t had any complaints.