I enjoy painting bikes. I learn something each time. For that reason I look for frames that have suffered rattlecan repaints or with large amounts of surface rust. It's a good thing that bikes in this sort of condition are dirt cheap since, with the cost of good paint and decals, I always lose money on them!

Once in a while I get fooled though. This fine old Capo had one of the worst repaint job I had ever seen but the prep work was so bad that, with 2 days of labor and a small amount of paint thinner and lacquer thinner, I was able to remove the awful paint, revealing the original finish. It had a lot of patina for sure but was nice enough that I was very happy that I hadn't just stripped and painted.

Before



After


I do love the patina of a well-used 50-year-old bike. Anybody have a large, highly-patinated, 60's or 70's Masi or DeRosa they want to send to a new home?
Brent