randyjawa 

Having recently acquired a frame and fork set that was, probably, issued with Cromovelato paint, it occurs to me that I need to figure out how to apply such a coating. With that in mind, does anyone know the process?

I am going to be painting an all polished chrome Rabeneick frame/fork set and hope to mimic the original appearance(I believe this bike is from the sixties, mine is a late fifties issue...



This is, basically, the I am shooting for...



In days, long gone bye, I used to apply candy paint to model cars, remembering that the undercoat had to be silver. I assume the chrome finish, on my frame set, will serve as the silver undercoat. I hope to use a two part paint, color and then clear coat. Which brings up art.

Gus Soloman has a decal set that comes close to what I want, for my Rabeneick 120D...



Can I shoot color coats directly over the chrome, sans primer? Should I put one coat of clear on, prior to mounting Gus's water slide, not vinyl stickers, decals, then bury the art in more clear?

Anyway, as I await the arrival of the Rabeneick, I am preparing my plan to build the set to as close as I can to what would have been issued originally.

steelbikeguy

you might try contacting John Barron on the CR list. He displayed a resprayed cromovelato Magni at the CR gathering last year. Beautiful! IIRC, he won an award for it. Apparently it's not a lost art.



John has (had?) a small business of selling vintage parts. "Velostuf". Not sure if it is still operating or not.


Steve in Peoria

francophile 

I was always of the impression it was similar to candy-coat, only your base was the chrome.

AZORCH

Randy, it's probably a different process but you might see if you can find the catalog page for the 1984 Centurion Turbo. I seem to recall that it described and illustrated the paint layers for their version, which looked an awful lot like what you're trying to accomplish. I also recall that there were multiple layers - maybe three or four? My memory is fading, and I can't locate the file I saved either but maybe one of our Centurion enthusiasts can provide a link. (Sorry to tease you with an appetizer and then not provide the feast!)

jiangshi

I'm going strictly by faulty memory, but I think the problem duplicating it easily today is the lacquer required to stick to the chrome. I think it may be very toxic.

63rickert

Velostuf is definitely still alive. Maybe not busy, alive. John would be happy to talk to you. Just put 'velostuf' in search bar and you will have his contact info.

qcpmsame 

John is good people, purchased/won several things from him on the 'Bay. Good call @steelbikeguy. Here is his website: https://www.velostuf.com


Bill

randyjawa 

Yup and that is helpful. Thanks for the heads up on the catalog and paint information. Looks like a lot of $ and work to make it happen, particularly for a guy with a paint brush. Guess I will have to rattle can this one.

Lascauxcaveman 

That sounds rather unlikely. First of all, vintage chromovelato finishes are notoriously delicate, in other words, they never were very solid. Second of all, I don't see how any modern transparent-over-chrome finishes could be any more delicate, given the technological advances in finishing materials. I think chromovelato finishes, however cool they are, just sort of fell by the wayside because shiny chrome isn't a very solid base coat for anything.

But you're right about old-school lacquer finishes, they are high-VOC danger zones when being applied.

Drillium Dude

I like John. He has one or two of my early drillium pieces

FWIW, I think gold undercoat with clear red or green would closely replicate the finish in the above photos.

DD

63rickert

Until those photos of the red and green Rabeneick showed up I had not known cromovelato was a choice for those bikes. The ones I have seen have normal paint.

There has to be more than one process for creating the effect. They do not all look the same. Some of them were wildly delicate but not all.

randyjawa 

I have not seen the frame and fork set in the flesh, so to speak. I cannot help but wonder if black was an original color option? If so, black just might be the combination of all colors that I seek, but that red, with green head tube does blow my kilt up. The original frame and fork set, now in Duluth - I hope!

Bikerider007

A similar finish was done on 80s high end BMX.. It is still done by a guy for the new Hutch stuff. Looks similar to chromelvato but I think is candy powder coat. If you log into FB there are photos and reference to contact for the guy that does for them. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...45243925571154

randyjawa 

@ 63rickert - That seems more likely to me and, even though the red green bike is very pretty, I am going to try for as original as I can get the build to be(except for the steering stem - that Mrs. Me would NOT understand). The information offered by the following picture might be a pretty good guide, regarding color choces, for now...

jiangshi

The information that I thought I remembered was on another bike forum, velocipede. It shows up near the top in the Google search