Hiya Folks,
I'm currently trying to create a pearl paint to match my 1982 Holdsworth Avanti.
I'm not really trying for touch-up,
I'm trying to create something that would be a good repaint job and and would look the same if there wasn't an original next to it.

The 1982 Holdsworth Avanti came in 1 colour - Red Pearl:



Here's the fork in closeup:


And even closer:


So my question is - does anybody know how to create that pearl effect ?

Things I do know (probably)

• Holdsworth used a white undercoat - I've seen it and it's very white
• I don't think the pearl is an inter layer or in the clear - it's in the base coat.

Things I'm not at all sure about:

• Is that red pearl powder or a different colour pearl in red paint
• Is that even a pearl powder or is it 'sparkle' or something ?

At the moment I'm trying out some paint on a test frame (1952 Bertin).
I'm trying pearl powder mixed in red alkyd paint over a white alkyd undercoat, results in a couple of days.

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back when i did resprays purchased me supplies from automotive paint stores

IIRC they had some manner of paint matching service, no longer recall details

am in the U.S. so have no knowledge of UK situation; something you may wish to look into...


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Agreed this seems closer to an "automotive paint" than anything else (and very hard to judge even with good close-ups)

But it reminds me of what a lot of Japanese-made cars used in the late 1990s and into the naughts, these were 3-part wet-applied paints with
1. a primer,
2. color layer which had the 'pearl' mixed in and
3. a final clear top-coat.
more common today for autos are powder coatings which AFAIK do not follow the same 3-part process, not even sure if they get a clear top-coat anymore.

There are ebay sellers (probably elsewhere too) which offer "kits" of the 3-part paints in rattlecans, you supply the OEM paint code from your vehicle's door badge...but not sure if they can ship them overseas (HazMat restricted?)

This thread is a tour of the Holdsworth works in 1973: Frames and Framebuilding (1970-1979) HOLDSWORTHY, Ltd

"In the painting a rust preventative primer coat is first applied, then either a white or metallic base coat depending on the colour of the final finish.
White is used under any solid opague final coat and a silver or gold base for translucent final coat to achieve a metallic flamboyant finish"

That says "opaque final coat" which sounds like the pearl is in the top coat.
I'm not even sure there was any clear on top of that (I've applied some myself), and I've repainted some parts of the decals so they definitely didn't have clear over them.

Thats a beautiful color!

John

Yep, I think so too.

I'm planning on getting another (very old) Holdsworth which will probably need repainting, hence I want to know how to do Holdsworth Pearl Red.

Rats, epic fail in the first test.




The only bit that worked properly was the white paint (Ral 9016 Traffic White).
On the ends is UPol high#5 white primer, which is sort of grey.
The bands are 2 coats of BS 564 Bold Red (which doesn't quite match) with 4 different pearl pigments.

Pigments:The first coat was 20g/Litre of pigment and there was no pearl effect. That's the recommended dose (for clear probably).
Second coat was 80g/Litre of pigment, so bound to do something. A slight pearl effect for Gold Ghost but nothing much.

It did occur to me that maybe mica might produce the right effect, I don't know how they did pearl back in the 80s.

I've ordered some Pearl Ex Macropearl which has the largest mica particles of their range so maybe that will do something.

Hi, I`ve painted quite a few pearl bikes - I`m not an expert but I`m pretty good with pearl - the Holdsworth looks to me like a flat red base with an orange pearl (red pearl gives more of a pinky tone rather the red). If I was tackling the re-creation of that paint I`d go with a bare metal strip, etch primer, solid strong red base, orange pearl (make sure you let it breath for a couple of weeks before laquer) then 2k lacquer.

Pearl is suspended in a clear coat that often drys matt - you won`t see it until lacquered - I have a video I`m about to pit on my youtube channel about painting a pearl frame - I`ll pop a link on in the next few days, cheers, Dan.

Thanks for that, I'm slowly finding you're probably right

I had already decided etch primer / white build primer / white undercoat / red base coat was probably correct. My main issue is how to do the pearl.
In Test#1 I tried but couldn't get any real pearl effect with pearl in the base coat. I even tried sanding it slightly, still nothing.

My latest effort was to use a resin alkyd clear varnish to hold the pearl (brushable gloss Yacht varnish) on top of the red base coat.
I'm definitely getting more pearl effect at 20g/litre, but as you say the red pearl is a bit pinky.

Radiant Red:


Gold Ghost:


I think test #3 is going to be satin resin varnish with a lot of orange pearl
When you say "flat red base with an orange pearl" I'm guessing that's what you mean.

Luckily PPPigments do 5g bags of pearl for £2 (https://www.pppigments.com/collections/solid-pearls)
so in theory I could just mix some to get the right colour.

I'm not seeing anything wrong with the existing paint that warrants a repaint. Sometimes its best to leave paint as is with careful touchups where needed, thereby retaining the original mojo.

The existing paint has got a few rust spot repairs - nail varnish so I can remove it if required.

But I'm not thinking of repainting my Avanti - I'm looking to get a knackered (ie cheap) 1960's Holdsworth Cyclone and do a full restore, including painting it Pearl Red.

Ah-- that makes sense! A worthy endeavor. Best of luck, and please continue to post your progress.

Yay, some progress.

Tried the red pearl at 80g/litre in clear gloss varnish.

Hemway Metallic Red:


PPPigments Radiant Red:


I'm definitely getting closer

Just uploaded the video on painting with pearl, Dan

Nice video
I made notes, but a lot doesn't apply to me - only the garden to spray in, I'm not going 2k, and I am going red (or orange) but I don't think Kustom Canz do Holdsworth Red.
I might need RAL 9001 Cream though (HT).

I was also slightly diverted by this turning up on Ebay:




Yep, that's a 1961 Holdsworth Cyclone 22" in need of a repaint
I was looking for 23" but my Avanti is 22" so I could start with this one.

Yay, mine for £127.
Now cleaned up, braze-ons fixed, and undercoated in RAL9016



So I really need to work out how to do Pearl Red.

So far I've found white undercoat / red base / clear with pearl is the way to go (for me anyway).
But I think I'm having issues because the red base is slightly the wrong colour and I've been trying to correct that in the clear with pearl.

So I measured the colour difference in some photos and bought another red that should give the correct colour when mixed 50/50 with my original red.
Of course there's a lot that could go wrong:

• photos aren't colour balanced properly
• paint is only available in named colours (RAL Classic, BS, NCS, NCS 2050 in this case)
• paint maufacturer isn't that close to the named colour

So I figure from 50/50 I can maybe change the mix slightly to get closer.

Looks like I may be getting somewhere:



Paint 1: BS 381C 564 Bold Red
Paint 2: NCS S 3060-R10B
(background is a Kodak grey card)

The 70/30 mix has a measured delta E 2000 of 0.76 - "no difference to the human eye"
So it's now time to play with my pearls


Some links:
delta E: https://www.colorwiki.com/wiki/Delta...lor_Difference
Average colour of an image: https://azer.io/average-color/
RGB to Lab: Welcome to Bruce Lindbloom's Web Site
Lab to delta E 2000: Welcome to Bruce Lindbloom's Web Site

Yay, I think I've finally cracked it, or close enough anyway.

But first a big thanks to Mercian Bicycles, they also paint bicycles and I found this at https://www.merciancycles.co.uk/craftmanship/paint/.
I hadn't been getting very close trying 'pearl' pigments (ie mica) so definitely worth trying 'small metallic flake'.
Yet again it did nothing mixed into the base colour, but worth a try.
Mixed into clear varnish as a flake coat it works:




The effect isn't exactly the same as Holdsworth Red Pearl but the 20g/l is very close.

Being a flake it sticks up from the application layer and you need to clear until the flake is covered.
In the top strip I cleared with one layer of varnish, the bottom strip I tried 3 layers of UPol #1 clear - but I think I messed it up (first time I've used it).

So here's the recipe for my version of Holdsworth Red Pearl:

Primer: 2 coats Upol Acid #8
White undercoat: 2 coats HMG SAH300 1k Synthetic Fleet Enamel RAL 9016
Colour: 2 coats HMG SAH300 1k Synthetic Fleet Enamel (70% BS564 Bold Red + 30% NCS S 3060-R10B)
Flake:Clear: 1 coat 151 yacht Varnish

All paint applied with a brush except the Upol #8.

Now I'm going to paint some forks and check the full effect.

And the results are in: painted my 1952 Bertin forks using the recipe given:




It's a very slightly different shade of red, which is a real shame, but I don't think anybody will notice.
The pearl effect is very similar, and remarkably sparkly when the sun hits it (difficult to photo though).




Update1: Painting my 1961 Cyclone and I've gone for 2 coats of red metal flake - it evens out the effect and it's slightly more sparkly.
Update2: There's now a build thread at 1961 Holdsworth Cyclone build

Note to Aardwolf , was searching in the forum about touching up chips and scratches and came across your detailed story for the paint! Really interesting and what a lengthy process. Anyway, I have all but finished getting the road bike I put together in 1981 back to good condition and original parts. Seeing your bike made me think that mine is exactly the same colour. Claud Butler Colstar frame bought in 1981, seems identical to yours in all but name. Wanted to touch up but not sure I’ll manage to find the pearl effect.

May have to be resigned to retaining the character and ageing a la Repair Shop! Any tips welcome.
Wanted to include photo but requires 10 posts to allow me.

Hiya, glad my post came in useful.

As I mentioned the paint I mixed is based on Holdsworth Red Pearl which is the colour of my 1982 Holdsworth Avanti.
That Avanti did have some rust spots which I didn't paint because I didn't have an exact match.
What I did was find some matching nail polish and touch it up with that because you can always remove the nail polish with acetone and it won't damage the original paint.

A 1981 Claud Butler would have been made by Holdsworth so it could well be exactly the same colour.

There are nail polish matching apps but I couldn't get them to work so I took the forks to Oxford Street (central London) and tried all the nail polish counters.
Here's the best match I found:.
Edit: Scroll down on that link and set "group of shades" to red.

Thanks for coming back so quickly. I think nail polish is the way to go. Love the idea of you walking around beauty departments with bicycle forks!
By the way, a moderator kindly added photos to my previous post: Road bike restoration - quick question if you want to take a look. Frame and colour seem exactly the same.
Cheers and thanks again.

Pic Assist - Jimmer5998's Albums - BikeForums

Thanks cb400bill for adding my photo. Great to be on the forum.