Dare I suggest that the paint jobs on Raleigh Industries machines other than black were, well, crap...!

So many of the club bikes, sports models etc. I've seen from the 1950s-60s in all those "polychromatic" colours just NEED repainting. Badly. Even if the chrome is good. The paint is chalky, has that 'orrible "cancer" and... what's all that still lustrious BLACK underneath? Well... the custom was to dip every single frame in black back then. If a frame was to get a fancy paint job, it was then sprayed. Well obviously the colour coat was not only lighter than the heavy "dunked" black but it didn't adhere very well to the black undercoat. These colour finishes simply defy rubbing and polishing compounds, shoe polish and all the other "tricks" we have. There's not much left except to repaint. And then have to match "Polychromatic Napoleon Red" or "Polychromatic Lilac"!

I believe things improved in the mid 1960s when colour frames became more common than black. These were sprayed directly over the spra-bonderised surface. Black frames were "dunked" right to the end I think although other black bits were sprayed.