ukny

Hello fellow Wheelers. This is my first post to the forums.. (don't applaud just send cookies)

Heres the thing fellas I have a 1950 Raleigh Clubman almost all complete. Still waiting a set of bars from UK and missing the original cream/white fenders. I am engaged in renovating the cycle and thought to do it in the original Electric Blue... or near enough.

Thing is these cream/white fenders are unobtanium... but I know where theres a new set of black Bluemels Clubmans.

Question is how dammed to eternity would I be if I decided to paint the bike steel grey so the fenders set it off ok. BTW I do have a set of decals.

Would I be sent to bed and no crumpets for tea if i stray from the standard paint job.

Hey heres a though maybe someone has a set of fenders out there... ??

rhm

Photos, man. We need photos.

I like the electric blue, personally, but as long as the decals are correct I think another color would be okay. How bad is the existing paint, though?

ukny

here are the pre Resto photos as it was advertised on Ebay
Its all in bits right now.

https://71.18.58.209/CLUBMAN/index.html

rhm

Oh, that's lovely!

And welcome to the forum, by the way! Check your private messages. As a new member you can't send 'em yet, but I think you can receive them.

I think my first post to this forum was very similar to yours: I got this old bike, how should I paint it? And everyone shouted (very politely) don't! Looks great as is! So I didn't, and I'm glad. Anyway, time to return the favor: Don't do anything hasty to that paint, it's beautiful! There are various ways to make it look better without hurting it. And once the chrome is cleaned up, the bike will look great, even with that paint.

ukny

Well it looks better in the pictures than in the flesh. Theres barely any of the top paint left only in two places.
I have made the decision to paint it.

I saw that private message and responded but i guess you didn't get it. Can you send again with a way to contact you. I am very interested.

auchencrow

+1000 ! ! !

headset

Hopefully you're willing to reconsider this.
The bike is beautiful the just way it is. No amount of money can replace the spirit of age it has. Once stripped of its original paint it just becomes another ‘restoration’. If you want a shiny bike find something newer.

ukny

So you think I should ride around on a frame that looks a complete mess. No not for me . I would rather honour the brand by bringing it back a la Pete Kohler. There are some great picks of his resto of a Clubman on retroraleighs.com
The whole point of having the vintage bike for me is to enjoy the vintage ride; something a "newer" one can never have. When we were kids the first thing we did was start changing things around to suit our personal styles. And I bet if a young lad back in the fifties had a bike with rough paint he would think nothing of re painting it.
It's not original if all the paint has fallen off.. in my judgement (and its hard to do in the pics) this bike would be better served with new paint and decals.

Bet you are going to be jealous when I post the finished pics tee hee.

headset

Hardly.

Good luck

rhm

No, and yes, respectively; most of us are already jealous, based on the pics you've already posted!

I do believe you, that it looks better in the photos than it does in real life. That is normal for bikes in this condition. But if it looks that good in pictures, you can make it look that good (or better) in real life without repainting; the pictures show the potential that is definitely there. Please, hold off on the repaint for a little while; read up on the various wizardry that people on this forum will recommend, and try some of it. You can always repaint if you don't like the result.

That said, I am probably going to be doing a full repaint on a bike of similar vintage in the next few months. Haven't seen it in person yet, so I'm not making any rash decisions. So... assuming a full repaint... who? how? Tell us more.

sciencemonster

I'd leave it as is also, but that said, the paint on those Clubmans is so bad...you will never get that thing to look sharp.

The decals on your bike are in primo shape...that would give me pause...

ukny

Sorry guys but what you are looking at is faded undercoat and really tatty decals. the frame shows through in parts and the black areas are where we are looking at undercoat. The only parts of the bike that have a semblance of the original paint are just under the head badge, although its mostly greyish there. And when I removed the shift cable clip on the top tube I revealed a 1/8 wide ring of something close to the original color. I defy anyone to bring out color that is just not there. You are looking at photos and I am inspecting the real thing. You may think you are seeing dirt and build up. That is not the case, you are seeing undercoat coming through.

Anyway I began this thread to ask about customizing but some how it became a discussion on the heresy of repainting.

auchencrow

Very.

(Well you asked!)

mickey85

Leave it alone and fenderless. If you do decide to add fenders, get a set of newer grey or white fenders (Planetbike has white fenders, SKS greys are nice), and call it a day until you can find the unobtanium white Bluemels. There's no sense in repainting the bike because you can't find fenders to fit the color. Frankly though, I'd think that the black would look good as well.

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

No you didn't. You started the thread with this question

and half a dozen people gave you an answer. Its not their fault you don't like the answers you got.

Protip: if you've already decided to do something your way it's pointless to solicit the opinions of others

Personally I think its your bike and you should do what makes you happy with it. If that means paint, then get out the brush and roller.

clubman 

If you decide to paint, it really doesn't matter a whit what colour you choose. In the future, your Clubman will be far more desirable left as is. You'll think the same way, you just don't know it yet.

Instead, find a ubiquitous beater Sports model, tart it up with other performance parts and paint it instead.

cudak888 

Time for some blunt, plain speakin':

Since you're obviously set on throwing the original paint to the wind, just do it - and don't mention it here on the forum again, unless you want quite a few folks to hold it against you.

Alternately, if you prefer not to alienate everyone, get yourself a beat-up pre-1964 Raleigh Sports, repaint it as a Clubman, and build it up to suit. If public opinion is of no consequence to you, just continue with your existing plan.

-Kurt

auchencrow

(For posterity)

ukny

Jesus i joined this forum thinking I might be able to share something or at least find some like minded folk. And instead I am being burned at the stake.
So so ridiculous to compare repainting a Clubman with a do over on a sports model. Completely wrong metal wrong frame etc etc. not even really going there.
The world is full of English lightweights that have been re painted and customized over the years. Not a one of them ever stayed factory original. And BTW it is not factory original to have the paint falling off and metal showing through.
I say again you are looking at photographs that make this machine look 200% better than in reality it is. No one who has actually seen it in the flesh (or in this case the almost bare metal) has disagreed with me. When I first saw it on Ebay I thought it looked pretty good too. It aint.

So I guess you guys don't have anything too constructive except saying you are all going to hate me for making it look as good as it rides. Is there anyone out there who does resto vintage bikes who wants to chime in here.

ukny

Forgot to mention those bars are after market too.. and yes they are going in the trash in favour of Maes drops...(OEM)

ukny

And you make your living as a restorer.. Do you hate all your customers ??

AZORCH

Trying to say it nicely, then: Please don't repaint it.

Andrew F

Sounds like you want to do a full restoration on the Clubman. Great! Every Cycle doesn't need to be preserved as found, sometimes a careful restoration is in order. The Clubman wasn't a one-of, it came off a factory line by the thousands, ok maybe hundreds. Preservation is good but so is a thoughtful restoration.

Regarding your question, Why not repaint in the original color, White bluemels club special fenders come up on ebay ever so often, ride it without fenders until you find a nice appropirate set.

ukny-If I get exiled along with you, we'll have to ride some time

ukny

careful now you may find yourself on the gallows with me.. BTW just an interesting point on heritage. I am an English made machine myself, hence UKNY get it..

And just by the by my great grandfather ran a steel works in Nottingham.

I have been talking to a painter about color matching the two little spots we have.. Though I am not convinced of the sacrilege of changing the color. We did re paints when we were kids. And we were English and in England.. does that make it ok. Why does everything have to be authentic.

cudak888 

Cordial, aren't we?

Your location suits your attitude.

-Kurt