Re: [CR]flamboyent / candy / polychromatic - touch-up paint?

(Example: Framebuilders:Norman Taylor)

Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 12:15:54 -0600
From: "Steve Kurt" <kurtsj@mtco.com>
To: Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: Re: [CR]flamboyent / candy / polychromatic - touch-up paint?
References:
In-Reply-To:


From: "brianbaylis@juno.com" <brianbaylis@juno.com>

"Here in SoCal, painting capital of the world, most of us use these terms: ....snip.... Candy apple= a color that involves a metallic base coat and a translucent top coat."

Dear listmembers,

Now that we all have a good understanding of these assorted paint styles, do we also have a good knowledge of methods used to touch them up?

Specifically, I'm thinking of the Candy Apple style. I'm fortunate enough to own three bikes with this type of paint. One, an '82 Olmo Competition, has a red translucent layer over a gold base layer. The other two are Raleigh Internationals from the early 70's; one with copper over gold(?), and the other with brown over gold.

The Olmo must be a great bike, 'cause it appears to have seen quite a bit of use. The brown International has some pretty significant damage to the paint in a few isolated spots. A local auto paint shop has been very generous with their time, as they did their best to try to mix touch up paint for these bikes. Typically, they ended up with quite a bit of pearl in the mix in an attempt to get that luster/glow that is typical of the candy apple paint. The end result was certainly worth the modest price they charged, but I'm wondering if better results can be obtained.

Is it possible to emulate the candy apple process when touching up spots? i.e. is it possible to put down the gold base layer, and then put a translucent layer over it? Any experiences or opinions are certainly welcome.

thanks much,
Steve Kurt
Peoria, IL