Scratches on Duraflex Buckle

[imagineez]

Does anyone have any recommendations on how to best treat scratches on a Duraflex warrior buckle?

Feeling OCD as I just got my beloved Maker's Bag in burnt orange. (This bag completely rocks!) I had scraped part of the buckle against a cement wall. I'm looking to conceal the scratches better, make them less noticeable.

Maybe a specific type of oil might help?

Thanks!


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[haraya]

Black Sharpie? That may at least make the scratches less visible. Possibly buff it with a piece of notebook paper first, to soften the rough edges, then go over it with a Sharpie.

If that doesn't work, you might try painting over the entire area with something opaque - perhaps black nail polish. Spray paint? (I'm not very knowledgeable about that medium, but I bet a good art supply store could advise you on what colorant will adhere best to plastic.)

[snayak]

my advice would be to prep/sand, fill it with a compound (bondo?), sand, and repaint - especially if its going to bother you.

Or, as suggested, sand/buff it a bit and then ink or paint over it.

I wouldn't expect it to take very long at all, but personally I'd just leave the scar.

[imagineez]

The black sharpie turned out to be good enough for me.

Easily resigned now to the scar and adding more scars.

Thanks again for the input.

[NomadiCat]

I've had this problem myself with my Imago (and my total lack of depth perception. poor bag.) and I was delighted to find that TB sells spare parts for all their bags under their "Parts" page. I can't quite tell which buckle the Maker's Bag is rocking from the photo, but your new buckle will set you back about $2 for the part, $4 for shipping, and 3 minutes to thread it on. Good luck!

[tpnl]

You could definitely get both connector parts as replacements inexpensively from the TB parts page.

I agree that if it were the bottom connector (the male end), it is easy to remove and replace. The top half of the connector (the female end) is usually sewn in permanently to the top flap. It is usually this end that gets dinged and scratched and shows it more. Unless I am am missing some trick, you would need to remove the stitching to replace it.

A "hack" might be to saw through the plastic section that keeps the female end of the connector attached to the bag thereby allowing you to manoeuver the scratched original female buckle out. The same saw cut would need to be done on the replacement part so you can manoeuver the new part back in.

@Ilkyway did something like this for some TB clips:



This hack is a little less secure but should hold up fine IMHO. If doing this, I would make the cut at an angle and near the centre to minimize the chance, no matter how remote, of the buckle slipping out).

Note that this hack will void the warranty for the female buckle part of the bag.
The resewing option would void the warranty for the extra sewing you would need to do.

Hope this helps
Cheers!

[imagineez]

Scratches on Duraflex Buckle

You could definitely get both connector parts as replacements inexpensively from the TB parts page.

I agree that if it were the bottom connector (the male end), it is easy to remove and replace. The top half of the connector (the female end) is usually sewn in permanently to the top flap. It is usually this end that gets dinged and scratched and shows it more. Unless I am am missing some trick, you would need to remove the stitching to replace it.

Of course, it would have to be the top half of the connector (female end) that got dinged/scratched - to be expected too given its exposure. Removing the stitching was the only way I too could see replacing that female buckle end.

Thanks again for the hack advice/info tpnl.

I love this bag so much, so even a few scratches was a bummer. But I'm embracing the scars for a bag well lived and enjoyed.


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[tpnl]

I have seen people remove light scratches from their glossy laptops using an automotive product normally used to remove the haze from car headlights. It is easy to use, easy to get from an automotive shop (e.g. Canadian Tire here in Canada) and is basically a liquid you put in a cloth and rub into the scratch. It works great on car headlights. I am going to try it tomorrow for one of my buckles that has scratches. Will take pics with results.

Cheers!

[imagineez]

Excellent!

Looking forward to the pics!

[Ilkyway]

As to my cutting job that tpnl has shown up there: this works quite well (I stole the idea from ceepee by the way), but I would recoment to have the cut slightly more away from the edge as I had done it in shown picture. This particular one tents to slide out again as the edge of the webbing has it easy to find the "exit". But the once where I wend slightly more towards the middle with my cut are working just fine.

Hope this makes sense
Ilkyway


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[imagineez]

As to my cutting job that tpnl has shown up there: this works quite well (I stole the idea from ceepee by the way), but I would recoment to have the cut slightly more away from the edge as I had done it in shown picture. This particular one tents to slide out again as the edge of the webbing has it easy to find the "exit". But the once where I wend slightly more towards the middle with my cut are working just fine.

Hope this makes sense
Ilkyway


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Yes it helps a lot, Ilkyway. Thank you. The more I'm reading about this, the more I'm contemplating this hack as an option. Making that slanted cut towards the middle sounds like it would definitely secure the female end of the buckle very well without it sliding out from the webbing.

Now I would have a perfect excuse to use the little saw on my Victorinox Farmer multi tool.