I recently acquired a Nobilette frame and fork that had been tweaked in an on the back of car incident for a too good to pass up price. When I bought it I was pretty sure I would have to replace the bottom tube due to a crooked bb and bend at bottom tube in front of the bb. Well, a couple hours of quality time with my frame table and a frame block and the frame is miraculously in rider shape and true! There is a slight bow in the tube still, but not really visible without a straight edge.

So, since it straightened so nicely I decided to paint it. A 5 footer paint job, but it looks damn good from 5 feet so
Anyway, I had the frame blasted (don't do this, I won't again! surface came out pretty rough. Next time I will stick to chemicals). Black self etch primer followed by a silver metallic with a gold fade from the front and top of fork crown and finished off with house of Kolor Candy Apple Red and clear and I think it came out pretty well. All done with spray cans btw.
The replacement 531c decals are on the way
Before:

After:

Nice work!

Fade jobs like that can make me nauseated. They're just offensive to my sense of what looks good. A vast improvement; well done!

Nearly impossible to have the flake show up in a picture for me though. I am not a fan of that type of fade either. I prefer solids.

Congrats. A Nobilette frame is definitely worth saving! Your alignment tools are paying dividends. Did you find a serial number? I'd guess it's a mid-80s bike based on the decals, fade paint, and under BB cable routing. Btw, anybody know when Nobilette changed from the solid decals to the outlined versions?

Your dog seems keenly interested. Dog hair & wet paint don't mix (don't ask me how I know).

On the other hand, that's a great black/white fade paint job on the dog.

Hard to reproduce in a candy color though

Agreed on the dog.

I don't mind the fade on the Nobilette either.

The new solid color is snazzy though.

Very rich color.

Just keep that frameset in heat for a bit before you build it.

Should work out fine at that point.

Nice color choice. I've got an '88 Nobilette in black, and it's a beautiful frame. Mark told me that most of these frames were solid red, so I'm wondering who faded it, don't think Mark would have, but it looks original. What year is yours? His sequencing is pretty simple, mine is #N118804 , 4th bike built in November '88.

looking super good...and I didn't know you could get any House of Kolor paints in a rattle-can!
Is that something new, or did you get an auto paint retailer to make up custom cans for you?

San leandro color will mix just about anything in a spray can. They are a body shop supplier

It's nice to see that someone shares my opinion about fade paint jobs.

I was just looking through some of House of Kolor's color choices.

Really strong selection.

I jotted down a handful that were possibilities for a future build.

@op Thanks for the reminder about HOK.

looking good, wish i had the skills to paint that well, its too damn cold out here in NY to do a good job anyway ... PS i hope you didn't get any paint on the oranges!