4/13/14 10:41 PM

I got some cool Metallic Tint Paste. A company in .DE called MIXOL makes it. I've been using MIXOL tints for all my guitars I have made. I just use clear lacquer with tints for the colors instead of buying pre-made colors since I use a compressor and air sprayer etc, buying lacquer the gallon etc.

I got the metallic tint for some solid body guitars. But decided being I wanted to paint the Bridgestone I would try the stuff on some bikes first. The friend I originally went 1/2s on the Scott LTD had a very well painted spray can flat black old steel frameset. So I offered to paint it, and black is a good base for sparkle finishes. You can see the flat black on the steerer, guessing it was red prior. ;)

So the now Platinum frame before clear coat pictured. The frame in primer is my Bridgestone, now with a yellow base coat over the primer ready for some metallic treatment. The metallic tint pastes are Silver [like on the pictures], gold and copper. So I am going to shoot the Bridgestone with gold over the yellow base coat.

Last pic is the Metallic Tint media [expensive!]

4/14/14 9:13 PM

Bridgestone 400 before and after. Awaiting a clear topcoat after some pattern air brushing in the yellow panels and crown I have planned. The gold looks a little more champagne metallic.

4/16/14 8:23 AM

Looks really nice! Is the paint durable on a bike?

4/16/14 1:59 PM

Durable?

How durable is the minute clear coat on my Carbon Scott? Or scratching the chrome on my Paramount?

No is the answer, nothing = powder coat IMO. ;)

I used lacquer, this is what was used on cars for decades and decades. With the metallic in there, maybe better than usual as binders and aggregate kinda sorta, will find out. ;)

I see the bigger issue making it less durable is how much material winds up on there to stay soft for a long while.

When it get scratched up after some years, I will strip it and repaint it. ;)

When a kid, I used to paint my bike every winter. Everyone thought I had a new bike. With the new tires and grips and stuff my Grandma would get for me, I pretty much did have a new bike every year. ;)

4/16/14 2:03 PM

BTW, it will get baked in my DIY heated encapsulation tent when the clear goes on top. Rube as it is, heat is heat. ;O

4/16/14 11:27 PM

Careful there so as not to start a fire! ;-)>

Paint finishes can be fascinating, trying to guess how a finish gets it's look.

Schwinn did one called Campus Green for many years, on perhaps a million bikes.
I've concluded that it is a gold metallic with a clear green top finish.
It hides scratches and blemishes of all types better than any other color I have owned, and is the color of my first bicycle that I got in the late 1960's, shown below (me riding) with the longer fork I installed.





And here's custom-painted Torelli that I found on Craigslist last month. The original owner had it redone before he ever rode it, and rode it less than 100 miles since that time back in 1991! BTW, he sold it cheap! Cycle Art calls this "Smoke".

4/17/14 2:32 PM

OK, the green tinted clear has me thinking, bad maybe.

Going to test some clear with yellow and a touch of red. I have tinted clear yellow a ton of times on wood like black walnut with figure. It makes the grain pop.

Will see if it make the sparkle pop. Talking like2-3% yellow with .5% red.. think on drop red in 8 oz. VS 4-5 drops of yellow. More if less coats are to be applied. The tints builds pretty fast I have learned. ;)
Minimal clear top coat planned, there is a lot of paint on this thing already.

Might be cool to get the yellow orange/salmon and the gold more orange.

The saddle and near matching bar tape I already have is a med brown. Although I also have some materials to do a cloth harlequin 3 color bar tape to lacquer over as well. Maybe later on that... 3 rolls on right, white light orange and black. Same tinted lacquer should make for yellow/orange/black.



The triple tape idea like this:


Last edited by Sparky on 4/17/14 3:57 PM; edited 3 times in total

4/17/14 2:47 PM

Before I forget, Seen many a Land Shark with the smoke paint schemes. Some cool, some very cool. ;)

4/17/14 4:12 PM

I love CyclArt (I've had them do 2 bikes), but that Smoke don't do it for me....

They have one pattern of a dark sky with stars that's a knockout IMHO.

As to clear coat, I think the stuff on my Ottrott would withstand a nuclear explosion. That bike still looks brand new after 9 seasons.

4/17/14 5:27 PM

you have WAY more patience than I do when it comes to wrap...

4/17/14 6:46 PM

That remains to be seen. ;O

The clear top powder coat on the Strong is unreal. Hard to believe looking at it I got it in 2000. Just has surface scratches I am sure I could semi-chrome/polish out. And a few chain stay nicks from my heal tapping apparently. I always expected chips on the edges on the breezer drop outs, but nope.

I had the decals sent, not put on initially before they powder coat. So when he updated the decals, so did I. ;)

4/18/14 11:23 PM

I would like to be able to wrap bars in patterns like that at my usual production speed. I haven't even tried it yet to see how much effort is involved.

You're right to go light on the paint/clear thickness, since many a lugged frame gets over-coated and the look isn't good.

I have a "Team Carrera" Battaglin with a red/black "smoke" pattern that is detailed on a smaller scale, so looks like single-color from a distance.

And the Torelli looks a lot different outside than in that picture that the seller took:



The rare Xenon gruppo is patterned after the older Athena Synchro gruppo, only the brake levers are actually molded plastic and the overall quality level is several tiers down.
Xenon was replaced by Avanti Ergo as the enty-level gruppo in 1992.
Luckily for me, Xenon indexes perfectly with a modern Sunrace 13-25t 7-speed freewheel with 9-speed chain, so the bike is functionally a first-rate training platform at a total cost of about $300.

Last edited by dddd on 4/18/14 11:31 PM; edited 2 times in total

4/18/14 11:25 PM

Some folks just got too many bikes... ;)

4/18/14 11:32 PM

A good number of bikes to own is N+1 I'm told.

4/19/14 1:56 PM

How is this for a flame-boyant style paint scheme?

4/19/14 2:52 PM

Acid green, on fire?

That paint is wild, but that frame is still as ugly as ever.

Looking at the lower head tube area and surroundings, doesn't look like a shape that evokes elegance, beauty, sleekness, etc.

4/19/14 3:10 PM

yeah, I agree. My Roubaix is before they started that curved tube thing. Looks like hydro-formed Aluminum on a carbon frame. A style period in time that beckons to go to the next one if yo ask me. For better or worse. ;O

Apparently the masses fall prey to the GM new model, model... ;)

4/21/14 6:50 PM

A friend brought over an S-Works Roubaix today for a service tweak, appeared to be this same model frame, but the original paint/graphic/stripe scheme sure goes a long way to making his bike look good. It was mostly white btw, but the tapered stripes cross over the frame/fork junction to make the un-graceful disruption invisible, and further slims the head tube itself like a pair of striped slacks.

5/1/14 1:13 PM

Some tangerine tinted clear coats applied...

Funny how to the eye is different than the pictures. There are no spots visible to the eye that look more orange like in the pictures. The sun hitting the gold sparkle under the clearcoat to the camera looks more champagne and less orange. The clear is making the sparkle pop nice too...

I was causing the shadow on the head tube and the ligher color looks less of a contarst to the camera than to the eye. Look like the panel on the seatube in same sunlight...

Few gnat artifacts included, they liked that yellow!

5/1/14 3:13 PM

Bugs love yellow. My first car was yellow. I'd come back to the parking lot and my car would be the only one covered with bugs!

5/1/14 8:16 PM

Inside after last clear coat under florescent lights.

Going to give it a few days out in the sun, and a week or two inside during sun hangings and wet sand and hand polish...

5/7/14 9:00 PM

Fucking chipped when I tightened the binder. And I used two washers on the side that you tighten just in case too! Now I am glad I used lacquer. Very easy to blend as the thinner eats into the coat you are putting a drop fill or touch up on. Sucks though...

Makes me wonder what a pro bike re-finisher does regarding that.