Paint that flatters / highlights tarty tubing

A 1993 Explosif sits in my shed ready for a re-spray it has a lovely shaped seat tube and of course the ribbed down tube. Frankly the original paint does nothing for it! I'm thinking a nice deep inky blue metallic paint on the frame and forks.

How does solid, metallic and candy paint emphasise (or not) detail? I'm going for powder coat, probably Triple S who do some excellent work on motorcycles. I need to discuss options with them on Monday and would like some advice, please.

SP

Best color and finish would be a silver in fein metallic shiny. More " extreme" colors such as black or white will drown out details ( white being more graphic and black emphasizing highlights). Generally when trying to asses a shape ( for example a car) silver shiny will give you the best compromise between reading volumes and highlights. It's a somewhat boring choice for a color but works well. Generally bike frames don't have enough surface on them to really make a difference so picking your favorite color would do just fine, but if you're concerned about details, I would say some sort of fine flake silver metallic (preferably automotive grade wet paint). Powder coating is for garden furniture and industrial equipment not bikes, but that's my personal opinion.

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Yeah, I did consider silver but as you say, it is a bit dull! Triple S are very good and I think it'd be difficult to tell the difference from a 2 pack wet paint job costing twice as much.

Thanks for the input, a sparkly blue should work well.

As long as the color doesn't end up too light or dark I would say go with your favorite color. Imagine silver with a color added to it. Just pick the finest flake for the metallic effect.

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Oh dear, this has all gone to bits. Basically most powder coat companies when I tell them how thin the tubing is (0.5mm) won't put it in thier blast cabinents :facepalm:

I have found a local blaster who will do it with bead or vapour for a reasonable price. They have an agreement with a local spray company who do enamel and powder coat but only in solid colours :? This gives me black, like the 1990 - 1992 Explosifs or dark blue (RAL5002) like a 1992 Kilauea.

To do the job properly, including repairing the small dent in the top tube and a silver to dark blue fade like the original including lacquer over the decals is going to work out about three times the price of powder coat :shock:

So I'm now thinking that if I re-paint it, it'll never be original and frankly I don't like the original colours anyway. So why waste hundreds doing it this way? If I get it blasted locally it'll need to be posted elsewhere for metallic which just drives the price up. So in short I'm thinking:

A: leave it as it is, just touch up the worst bits (I have ordered a paint pen)

B: Paint it gloss black and put some stickers on it - job done at minimal cost.

Have you considered using paint stripper and chemically remove the old paint? Zero possibility of damaging the tubes, and you can do it yourself (at the cost of the paint stripper and some crappy brushes). fair enough it's a very nasty and shitty job (use some serious protection, outdoors would be ideal, the stuff is really nasty). After its stripped just clean up some areas, fill in dents, give the frame a quick sand and you're ready to go... another possibility is to spray the frame yourself (tons of rattle-can colors available). then you can do all kinds of fades and such for a decent price (even decals under clear-coat).

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I did consider doing it myself but blasting will get the rust off better. Blasting was actually very reasonably priced. I had a brainwave, if I paint the frame purple-blue and black frame and stem then voila 1991 Explosif paint job

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Rich Pink will show the ribbing well ;-)

And anyway Ultrastrong is 0.7/1.0

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Pink?! Then it'll look like a Hahanna!

Top tube is Ultralight, down tube is ultrastrong.

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Soda blasting is very gentle.

Also if your filling a dent with filler you won't be able to powder coat it as the filler will just drop off! The only way is to fill it with weld or braze and then powder.