msl109

Hello all - wondering if anyone had restored a Mink Blue Raleigh and found a reasonably close match for touch up in either a model paint, car color or even nail polish? Wouldn't be the first time I walked into a cosmetics store with a bike frame in hand, but I like to avoid when possible ...

msl109

Nobody?

Fairview

For me, the best approach is to take the bike to an automotive paint supplier. They can use their scanning tool and come up with a formula. A good supplier can put the custom mixed paint into a spray can, touch up bottle, or in a can for professional spraying.

If you don't have a good sample bike, I could take my Raleigh to my local store and get a formula for you. Photo of my bike is below to make sure that is the color you are describing.

Good luck with it. Jeff

msl109

Thanks - I do have a good sample bike, but not sure where I'd find the paint supplier - I do have a local body shop I use. Btw, looks like your Professional is in great shape!

3alarmer 

...it's a particularly difficult color/paint to match. If you Google search "Raleigh Mink Blue", you come up with various stories. My favorite is the guy who wanted his whole frame repainted, but it had to be as close to original as possible.

He found some guy who told him that the original paint was formulated using fish scales as part of the mix...which for all I know is true. I have a Pro in this color, and I have some spots that are currently touched up with enamel that is not a particularly good match, so it you ever get it figured out. I'll appreciate it.

AFAIK, with our air laws here in California, the auto spray bomb thing is a non starter. I'm thinking about taking it over to Nevada.

fleslider 

Is that a respray? or is it Original paint?

satbuilder 

An automotive paint shop will need a flat surface in order to scan. Or any other paint shop, for that matter. I've been down this road a bunch of times.


Most shops I have been to need something about the size of a credit card. If it's an automotive shop, most likely the scanner will match to the nearest available color. This bugged me to no end when I was trying to match the Celeste on my Bianchi.


So basically, you will have to mix up something to get a match, spray it out on a credit card sized surface, then get a shop to scan it. I use the backside of paint chip sample cards at the hardware store.

Fairview

It is original paint as far as I know. Here's a link to some of the other photos if you are interested in seeing them:


https://milepost105.smugmug.com/fram...=2&clickable=1




Thanks, Jeff

Barabaika

Soma San Marcos has a similar color "Tiburon Blue".
It's probably not a perfect match, though.

Soma sells touch up paint: Touch Up Paint

msl109

Hmm, looks choose, would have to see the bike next to mine or at least another pro

msl109

Good to know - so the bike itself couldn't be scanned. Think I'm going to take the fork to one of those huge cosmetics stores - likely some nail polish will be close. It really only needs touch up in a few spots. Anything close enough will blur in from a couple feet away.

And Bianchi celeste - another nightmare - they seem to have made it in 58 flavors.

xiaoman1 

OP, I assume that your bike has been used and exposed to the elements and the paint has changed color because of this, even if you find a paint code chances are the paint will not be an exact match because of this.
In order to get close bring your bike in for the computer system to do the analysis...this may still yield mixed results unless the area that you have to scan is large enough for a flat scan etc.
The person mixing the paint may still have to use their eyes to adjust the color a little more.
Air pressure, as well as air temperature, will also influence the color.
If you are not doing a large area and only touching up chips, do the mix it yourself with fingernail polish on the other hand if you need to spray then you will have to go the route that I and others are suggesting.
Good Luck, Ben

Dboyle

Your best bet is still a shop that supplies paint to body shops. True that they can use a computer to match. Also true that they need a flat surface or the computer will not read the color correctly (I know by experience).


However, these shops usually have a nearly endless supply of paint chips to use to color match. Sometimes the chip has a hole in the center so you can lay the chip over the paint and get a better read than by just placing the chip next to the frame. The shop can then mix the paint. I'll bet you get real close. Just beware that paint chips are made to match a sprayed finish. If you are using a small brush to touch up, a thick coat will look different than a thin coat.

msl109

Well, I'm going to be at a body shop in a few days, can't hurt to check it out

msl109

Thanks, Ben - this one didn't see a lot of exposure and just needs a few touch ups, but I'm sure the color has changed in 39 years. Maybe the flat of the fork would be enough to get a closer scan and then match by eye. It doesn't have to be perfect.

2toneblue

Was doing a search on the forum trying to see if anyone has found a color match for Raleigh Mink Blue, I too am trying to match the color. So far my automotive paint store had color chips to look at and found a color similar but not exact. Nobody in my town has a scan tool to do paint matching, am going to try tinting and see how close can get, if I find a color formula am going to post it, so far have never seen on net anyone find the exact color.

steelbikeguy

This is what I've had the best luck with too. I'm fortunate to have a local shop that can do scans and will fiddle around to get a good match. It doesn't hurt to catch them on a slow day when they don't have any high priorities!
This is a bottle that I got for my Hetchins... about $25, IIRC. The label has all the info that will let them quickly provide a second bottle, if that should be needed. I've never used up a bottle of touch-up paint, but it does seem to go bad after many, many years.



Steve in Peoria

dddd

For the record, the blue color isn't "mink blue".

The "blue" is just metallic blue. The "mink" part refers only to the metallic silver accent panels (it is a two-tone frame).

Iir, the boxes that bikes shipped in had text reading "BLUE/MINK", which was the same as saying blue and silver two-tone colorway.

merziac

Any real paint shop can do this by hand, they find something close and then tint to match, may be spendy, mine charges about $40 for a 2 part spray can with hardener. They also save/share the formula if you need more or want them to try and get a closer perfect match. Find the oldschool guys.

steelbikeguy

not to say that the boxes weren't marked as you say, but the catalog did use the term "blue mink" for the blue-ish portion of the frame.....




Raleigh did have a way with a phrase though... I loved my blue-ish Gran Sport, which Raleigh (and Carlton) called "lagoon blue". Very exotic!!

Steve in Peoria

dddd

My secrets to making touch-ups invisible are 1) keep the paint area no bigger than the defect, i.e. don't sand around the area and don't overlap the edges.
2) mix metallic silver paint with color paint, adding a drop at a time to the mix in a thimble until the color is right.
3) thin the paint so that if/when the applied color appears to need correction, a second layer of corrected color can simply be laid over the first. Adjust as you go in other words.

For "touch-ups" that involve some attempt at preventing rust in damp, corrosive environments, a suitable surface prep and primer will be best, but here in CA I never bother with that and suffer no rust-bubbling of the touched-up areas. It helps that I tend not to sweat on my bikes even when doing hard rides in the summer, but other riders don't seem to enjoy that luxury.

This Raleigh was a weathered mess when I bought it for $80 without the Campy parts (those came from a dumpstered Windsor). I was able to touch up the blue and silver areas using color paint mixed with metallic silver, and even touched up the decals. I think that it now looks good enough.

2toneblue

So far took a blue metallic that was close and started adding the silver toner to the formula and got a match that is extremely close, in my case I need to refinish the entire top tube, but basically a blue that is close and adding silver does seem to work. I doubt we will ever find or know what that blue actually was on the Raleigh pro, as I have searched the net and looked at who knows how many color chips so far with no luck.

Noodlesandsam

Can you share what you used as a base for the blue?

repechage

Color houses with an inexperienced color guy will look at a bike frame and give up.
A typical road fork has a larger radius side surface and will probably work best with one of the scanners.
From there one has to know the toners and how to mix color.
The "old timers" can. Look for a color guy with grey hair.
I know my local guy, (until recently, they might have closed ) I am hoping he took thanksgiving week off.
I can also look at his colors- I earned my stripes with him by mixing the color myself after he was apprehensive- got what I needed with no misteps.
Where did you learn that? In school and mixing car color paint samples for a car company annually.
One important thing many forget- Chroma, or color brightness and intensity drops as you mix = the color "dulls" so, start as close as possible and a bit "brighter".

If you are doing a full respray, allow them to apply a wipe of paint to the painted part on top, good chance (other than flamboyants)- that will help.

msl109

Just realized this thread is still going. Interesting. Silver mink. Didn't think any minks were blue ...