Hi all,

I have a celeste Bianchi from the mid 80's with a lot of paint that has flecked off at looks to be nickel plated.
I am wondering what would be the best way to touch up these areas I have purchased some celeste Bianchi Touch up paint will I need to prime the surface or could I just paint over the nickel plating?

Thank you for any help in this

While the plating will help with rust, I'd still use primer first. Do the primer, let it dry for 24 hours, then fill the chips in with the touch up.

Where did you get your touch up? Celeste touch today is likely to be a different shade than yours. Do some in conspicous areas first to be sure your happy with the color match. Alot of Italian bikes got a crude chroming dunk back in those days to help with corrosion (as noted by eippo1) but some also thought the process did something to the metal.

Pics?

I would advise not touching up in conspicuous areas. Better to do it in an inconspicuous area first.

Hi and thanks,
I got the paint at www.bikyle.com . The bottles are half full which surprises me and I bought two. I did a bit of touch up on it with a mix of testors back in the 80's and where these are they look darker than the paint you can see it in the photo

Well you were right the colour does not match it looks a bit bluer than my frame. I am disappointed at this and now I don't know what to do as you can see the flaking is quite extensive

What I suggest is to buy 3 small bottles of model paint. The colours you need are green (grass green), light blue and white. Use a small glass jar with a sealable lid to mix in. Mix equal quantities of the green and light blue to get a 'celeste' with a very similar hue to the actual Bianchi 'celeste'. Then add white carefully, a little at a time, to tone your 'celeste' back to a colour that matches the Bianchi 'celeste' on your bike.

It's not that hard to do and you will see it come together eventually. I did this for my 1954 Bianchi and you really couldn't tell the difference. It did take me about an hour to get the right Bianchi 'Celeste' though.

Alternatively, and if the paint you purchased is an oil based paint like the model paint, add a little green to the paint. Just a little at a time. I think a little white would be needed to tone the colour back a little as well.

Thats too bad. Gary has the answer, but I imagine you need lots of patience. Just imagine the nightmare I have just thinking about thouching up this Metallic Celeste paint. Depending how and where you look at it it looks white with a hint of Celeste or very Celeste with a hint of pearlesant

Thanks for the info I will give it a try. I believe it is oil base at least it smells like it and has a creamy feel to it.

That's one pretty bike, BG!

I think I'd try taking the frame to a professional body shop, or paint shop that has the capabilitiy to color match the frame.

Another nice Bianchi, BG. As for a colour match - I'm out of my depth here although I have painted a few bikes with pearlescent paints. It seems to spray the same as a solid colour. Perhaps a colour match mightn't be that hard if you can determine the base colours. Your Bianchi has a pretty 'fancy' colour, it looks really attractive.

Thank You

Thanks for the tips but I have no idea what the base color is.

This beauty is for sale, it is a tad small.

It's a very nice Bianchi with one of my favourite, uncomplicated group sets. I like how it maintains the celeste hue yet is different. It's such a shame it is a tad too small for you but that really does make a difference. 1 cm too small is enough to make riding unenjoyable. If it were the other way and 1cm bigger than normal, that's easy to live with - as you know I'm sure.

I've gone to the hobby shop and bought testor's GI Green it is number 00611 at this site https://encycolorpedia.com/006611 . They did not have grass green so I am hoping this will do the trick

I'd probably go with the 'Web Safe Green' as it looks a little brighter. Good luck, happy mixing.