Who has acquired matching aerosol paint from an auto body shop?
 

What kind of shop was it, how much did you pay, and what was your experience like?

My last acquisition is an orange Crescent with a lot of missing paint on the top tube. The decals are in good shape, so I want to mask them and match the original orange. I would think acquiring a spray can from somewhere like a body shop would be the safest route. Hoping to keep this under $30. Thoughts?

There a company in SoCal called Shilpark that will put your paint in an aerosol can to match your color. Mostly located here in Cali but im sure they can ship.

The latest technology allows them to mix the paint, put it in a can and the can also holds a separate harder. Gives a more durable and higher quality finish but I'm thinking $30 a can. I you use this solution you only have one shot with the can as once it hardens it's done.

You can also get the shop to mix in a standard can. Call around to see does it locally.

...most of the body shops buy their paint from stores that deal in automotive finishes. Here is the one I have experience with, but there will be one near where you live.

It's more difficult to use their color matching equipment on a bicycle, because you need a flat surface a little larger of the color you're trying to match to optically scan. But it comes out pretty close, and then if you have someone who cares, they will further adjust and test on whatever you bring in. I usually just bring along the fork.

With your plan of masking the decals and overpainting the frame, you'll end up with some raised lines where you mask at the edges. If there's any way at all to just find some reproduction decals, painting the whole bike at once, without interruption, and then applying decals and possibly clear coating everything is preferable and often easier.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...97a10d99d5.jpg

...that's about the cost of a single spray can of auto color coat custom mixed at my local paint place. You can probably mask ritght at the lug lines of the top tube, paint it carefully with some sort of masking on the rest of the frame, and come out within budget by just painting the top tube.

Thanks, guys!

What kinda place is it? Paint only, auto body, auto parts ..?

Gotcha. This isn't a super nice keeper or anything. I just want it to look more decent with the new paint matching the old. I'll probably buy a cheap clear coat can to finish the whole thing.

Most Crescents I see are low level. But this one is a pretty nice, mid-level lugged frame with a sweet hodgepodge mix of suntour, sugino, and campy. It deserves to be touched up with a good can of paint.

...they only sell paint and the other stuff you need for painting things like cars and trucks. If you have to wait for a while, you see that a lot of the people in there are from smaller one or two person shops.

They must move a lot of paint through there, because it always seems to have a few people in there.

They also deliver to the larger shops, who must order online or over the phone, and have accounts set up.

...the top of the line Crescent bike frames were French made and imported. I don't know who made them.

Hmm. The head tube reads "made in Sweden."

The french threaded Maillard pedals were quite a surprise. Glad they took to an overhaul. whew!

I've have custom colors made at auto paint suppliers that were in put into spray cans.
Most suppliers can do this. It ran me @$30. which saved me a lot of time and money not going a full compressor and gun set up.

I would also recommend getting a can of base primer and clear topcoat to do the whole frame after you got your color on.
I had very good success getting factory level finishes on small projects.

michael

Under $20 gets you a color chip match. Take your frame into a place that can mix colors and make you a custom spray can, and match one of several thousand paint chips to your frame. If you can't find an exact match, or one you're willing to live with, you can leave your frame off and they'll iterate until they do have a good match. That'll cost you abotu $50 at my local place.

What places (names?) do you go to in portlandia? I'm up here in seattle.

https://industrialfinishes.com/distribution-centers/

Nothing in the state of Washington, I'm afraid, but call around to automotive paint places, you're bound to find someone who does this.

I took a couple of frames that needed matching paint to a local home improvement store and had the teenage girl at the paint counter match the paint and mix me up a couple of small cans at €10 each. One for each bike.

I used a medium-sized paint brush on the first frame, and came away very happy with the results. In this case the fork needed to be matched to the frame.

When I bought the bike:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e30a538bd2.jpg


The result:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b50ef61925.jpg

What kind of paint were they able to mix for you?

I am totally clueless when it comes to paint, so I had to go check the tin. It's an alkyd-based enamel. The color is called "Confession", BTW. :)

As with the others, not a body shop, but a body shop paint supplier.
Most of them also do paint matching with a digital camera-like thingy.
Last time, it cost me $45. Worth it.

I've done a couple times. Auto paint supply store. If you have an option go to one you know many companies use. Mine does a lot of high end and custom low rider stuff so they know paint. Runs $25-30 + depending on paint. My second one had a flake so it was $30. Came with spray can and small Testors size touch up bottle.

If you are gonna clear by can, get it there too. It's better. Was about $9 for that, cheap auto parts store stuff with bearing in can was close to that.

I left my fork with them both times to help match, came out amazing.

Try places like this.

https://www.sherwin-automotive.com/s.../store-locator

http://www.finishmaster.com/locations/

https://wescopbe.com/store-locations/

Awesome info, fellas. :thumb:

Now, I have zero excuses. Am pretty excited about this.