Marin Splatter frames - questions for the Marin aficionados

Been seeing a few Marin splatter frames on the site and want to find out a bit more about them.

I've seen white, yellow and green based Eldridge frames (I'm interested in the Eldridge in particular).







These all have similar groupsets/decals etc so are they the same year or a few years apart? The '91 catalogue shows the yellow Eldridge - so what years are the others?

Reason for the question - I have a '91 Zolatone Eldridge, stripped back to bare metal waiting for renovation......and I'm really tempted to have a go at replicating a splatter paint job.

Might be a bit of a crazy thing to attempt but I like a challenge.

Anyone know how they achieved these paint schemes in production?

(Apologies if I've used your pic in this post - Juice - you're the only one I can credit! Lovely bike!)

Cheers!
Mart

I had one, and loads of info these on my build thread

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=255228

Great bikes, 1990

Re:

The missus had a black and white one. She hated the pink lettering.

Re:

I'm pulling up a chair and getting comfy.

UK models seem exclusively to have been Zolatone. However other regions (definitely Asia / Australasia) and I think parts of continental Europe had splatter paint. Certainly it was around 1989-91. Spec was otherwise identical to UK Zolatone models.

I used to have an Eldridge exactly like the fluoro yellow / orange one in your picture. I bought it secondhand when I lived in Singapore 15 years ago.

Good info - cheers guys.

So 1990 - White, 1991 Yellow? What about the green - different market?

So how difficult to replicate do we think? Love to know how this was done in the factory.....

I'm tempted to copy the white version as I really like it......even with the pink decals!

Hi Mart,

what i can tell you is that mine is the youngest of these three frames. Mine being produced still in 1990 due to its frame number but of course for the 1991 production line.
Have a look at the seatstays and the dropouts and notice the differences. This thicker design on my bike is called Afterburner.

My guess on the other two is the white one is from early to mid 1990 because this exact colourway can also be seen with the later Afterburner design and the green one is the oldest of the pack maybe produced late 1989/early 1990. I saw three of the green version in my life...and all were in the U.S. but of course that could be random. The U-brake on the white one is no hint to the production year, that's because this white frame is very small. This can be seen throuout most production years with the smaller frames.

I think i remember someone on here wrote that the splatter were done by hand with brushes so with a little bit of practice this could be replicated....somewhere outside of course.

All of the above of course could be nonsense so correct me if i'm wrong.

Maybe forum member Benandemu can share some more informations. He is the man who knows the most about Marin bikes on here and i think he also has a 1989 catalogue.

Cheers,

Adam

Yep - I agree with the points made above.....my frame has the thicker Afterburner stays and the cast dropouts, making it a later model (late '90 - for the '91 range). Looks like copying the white is the way to go.

Does the paint that's been splattered on sit proud.....i.e. raised up v. slightly off the base white/yellow? I'm assuming if it's been flicked on after the frame has been painted in the base colour that you'd be able to feel that it's slightly raised (just trying to get an idea on how it was painted)

Good call about doing this outside.....not sure this is a job to do in the kitchen

Here's mine currently:

Yes it does. There is a thick clear coat on top of it all which evens it out a bit but you still can feel the splatter everywhere on the bike.
It's difficult to photograph but maybe you can see it a litte bit in this picture.

Thanks Adam.....posting that has made me wonder whether I should paint yellow/orange instead Love it!

So it sounds like the process is:

Primer
Base coat (White/Yellow/Green depending on scheme)
Application of splatters in appropriate colour (possibly the hard part )

then either

Clear coat then decals

or Decals then clear coat.

All the Marins I've owned have had decals on top of the paintwork but I guess it wouldn't harm to clear coat over the decals........

Hmmmm.......tempted to give this a go.