Cromovelato. Seeing that pretty Wilier posted recently, I wonder again, how do they do that? Of course, the owner of that particular bike says it is the copper plated version.

Did you ever Google the word? There's not much definitive information on the process. Yes, I know it was a tinted clear coat over a chrome plated frame. I'm just curious what they used to tint the clear coat? Regular paint with solids providing pigment would degrade the transparency of the clear.

Some kind of dye????

Just curious.

Great question...this will be fun to watch and learn...as I just bought a Razesa that is painted with this technique!

I picked up this Argentinean bike, a Roger competition, painted with this process. It's one of the more unusual bikes I own. The parts are all direct rip offs of old campy designs but made in Argentina. The bike looks good; I need to rebuild it one though:

It'll be interesting to see what kind of responses we get, daf1009, as I'm not sure anyone really knows exactly how they did it.

That's an interesting bike, Bikemig. Interested to see some close-ups of the Campy clones.

Smoke or red tint, over headlights or inside the reflector, is a common custom modification for enthusiast cars. For example, the rear tail lights of an '08-11 Subaru WRX are a style ripoff from the previous Honda Odyssey, and they have a frosty chrome interior and red LED bulbs, giving them a huge ratio of pointless chrome to functional reflectors and making them stick out like a sore thumb. Some of the earlier ones also have a big chrome bar in between the two lights. To subdue the look, people tint all the parts that don't make brake light. I've seen it on rims too. I don't know how the product works chemically, but in the sense of how it works functionally, it's paint.

Products:
Duplicolor Metalcast
Krylon Stained Glass
Testors spray enamel has six transparent colors.

ITALIAN CYCLING JOURNAL: Wilier Triestina "Gioiello Ramato"

Quote from above article:
"The original, beautiful, copper finish was obtained through a process called cromovelato in which copper laquer was applied over the chrome finish (very early Wiliers were actually copper plated according to some sources)."

Of course, that's only one source. The lacquer vs plating seems to be in line with the discussion on the Wilier thread. Will be interesting to see what other responders provide.

De Rosa offers it on a Nuovo Classico for 2015, red or black.

Looks great, too.

Damn! That puts Schwinn's "Coppertone" paint to shame.

I think in the day it was pigment suspended in clear lacquer over chrome. Candy paint process has been around since before it was called candy. Now you can get a clear bonding agent that will make paint stick well to anything. Glass, chrome, plastic. It's common use is to prep plastic bumpers before final paint. It has a catalyst in it.

Chromovelato, candy, flamboyant, all basically the same thing. The chrome or copper base layer is nice, but a similar effect can be achieved with a silver or even black base coat. Raleighs of the 30's-50's often had the black base coat with a flamboyant color over that, sadly pretty fragile.

Love the depth effect and done as a very thin layer. Beautiful for bikes and defining the lugs.

Wouldn't mind experimenting and try the off-the shelf products. Good chemistry today and durable.

UuInterestingly enough, not all paints are opaque, which is what you are referencing above. In fact some tint bases are so transparent that, when tinted, it takes multiple coats to cover up the underlying surface color. Just ask those that have painted a deep red over white. Titanium dioxide helps increase opacity and can be added in small amounts in order to assist, but too much will lighten the color too much.

Not saying that is how the effect you describe is achieved, but it is not correct to say that paint with standard pigments is necessarily opaque.

That's a good point, T-dude. And having a whole box of artist's oil colors downstairs, I should have remembered that. Some are a lot less opaque than others. And some are nearly transparent. Phthalo blues and greens comes to mind.

The copper color Wilier uses intrigues me. Wonder what they used….

Nothing's changed there, except the range and quality of clear topcoats to which you can add the tint of your choice. I think that's the finish in the case of the guy who posted that gorgeous Willier, it looks like a chromovelato. I don't think it's a copper plating over chrome or vice versa, since you dip the entire frame when you do a plating, and won't see, for example, a chrome chain stay on a copper plated bike.

FWIW, a typical professional chrome plating job will have the bike frame dipped three times, first in copper, then nickel, then chrome. A copper plated bike will simply have skipped the last two steps, and have the copper plating polished out.

It glows. Like flame inside the tubes.

I was going to say as much on his thread, and got as close as I cared to before getting in an argument, then bailed out. Decided it wasn't worth it.

There probably were some copper plated bikes in that lineup, but by the late 70's I'd bet they had moved to tinted clear coatings.

in italian there are three words for three process, similar but different: cromatura, cromovelatura, ramatura.
cromatura is obvious
cromovelatura is a process in two steps by bathing first in chrome, then another lightly coloured bath
ramatura is covering with copper

the wilier is worldwide known as the RAMATA, as much as many other bikes were CROMOVELATO.
then it is not a cromovelato copper coloured.

i don't know what chemically distinguish the two process, that's a fact. somebody in the business will make it clear one day....

Somewhat related topic, at the store today spotted this stainless steel kitchen mixing bowl with described 'copper decor' finish. Its not copper plate but sure looks good. Made in India. What's the ingredients to do this?

No ingredients I'd want in my cookware.

That bowl does look nice, and I hate to be a downer, but I can't help but wonder who in India made it, and under what conditions. Plating fumes can be pretty nasty if memory serves.

^ Its not copper plated and looks like an extreme thin finish. I like the effect and wouldn't mind experimenting the same for a bike.

Back in the day my dad painted hot rods and customs. He said they would paint a car or just paint flames, and while the paint was still wet they would use an torch if I remember correctly, turn the oxygen off and blow black smoke on the paint. Then cover with clear, I'd like to try that on a bike frame.

I've seen a Spectrum powder coat that replicated that effect. Tres cool.