Robvolz 

We have an Industrial Finishes store that only sells auto paints. They also have the color spectrometer machine to detect all hues.

I brought in the following….
1972 kessels, frame and fork off
1973 Dersosa, frame and fork off
1973 Colnago, frame and fork off.

It was my theory that that local (Milano) auto industry shared components and personnel with the bike industry. I imagined auto painters getting off work and painting frames on the side.

I kept thinking Alfa being in Milano might be the obvious choice.

I was wrong.

all three bikes used the exact same paint code.

and this is key… unlike today, where most use a light grey primer, back then a brownish primer was used. But, under the fork, the true color without UV fade or primer was found on all three specimens.

here is the answer:




Lancia.

I have seen evidence that this color was a special order for Lancia starting in 1969 which tracks when this color was first used on Molteni bikes.

this book, not from Lancia but Glasurit has 1971 listed.

Regardless. The machine spit out this answer for all three!!

hope this can be of some help to someone.

Velo Mule

Good detective work @Robvolz . I would have thought Alfa too. But Lancia sometimes flies under the radar, especially in the US.

panzerwagon 

I don't suppose you have access to an original 1993 bridgestone xo-1 in pumpkin, do you?

Robvolz 

I have a friend with one, but she uses it as her daily rider. And I don't know how to ask her to take the fork off.

If the moderators would allow, maybe we restorers get a sticky going of original classic paint colors.

Lattz

You mean these?

tiger1964 

OT, but some day on the Lancia forum there are going to be a lot of WTB's for Fulvia bumpers. They went somewhere...

Lattz

But as per US legislation, the sixpack of Carellos/Hella's can't substitute for a bumper on road, no? (I'm sure not even here, but (outside Germany) policemen are more likely stop you to check the car and congratulate. Here its a bit different.

AngryScientist 

The problem with some of these paints, especially those of yesteryear without good UV inhibitors is they really changed over time with sun exposure, especially the brighter colors, So sometimes the colors we have etched in our brains have faded over time and are a different shade today, so matching 25 year old molteni might not be what came out of the paint gun. Good investigation though!

Lattz

I usually see it from the other side, the problem with modern paint systems in any C&V application that they never age
Backing what you write, would you ever guess, the these two were the same color? The top one is my Triathlon, which was really used for what it was build for (at least holds a Utah Ironman participant sticker) the bottom one is its indoor track sibling. Believe it or not, with all the scars the faded looks marvellous in life. I on't get it repainted because I afraid it would lose the mysterious blueish/greyish/silverish/purlpish hue, and a well done modern paint would give it bling but without the extra awesomeness.



But I think the Molteni Orange is one color in which most fell in love based on Eddy's pics when it had fresh paint.

Robvolz 

That’s why I used the fork off bike system, the headset where no sun ever touched it on all three.

satbuilder 

I have jumped down this rabbit hole before, in search of a shade of orange to match my '73 Super. Bought all kinds of RAL shades, and wasn't able to get anything close. I had much better success matching the Celeste on my '73 Bianchi.

Rob is onto something here. Having the real article in hand makes a big difference, when paint matching. While I'm still not 100% certain there is only one shade of Molteni orange. I have nothing to back up my claim. Snapshot below is from the Speedbicycles site, a collection of photos I have saved while searching for the correct shade of orange. All shown in the photos are original paint.

My '73 Super has lots of battle scars and I'm not sure I'd touch it up, at least not yet. Given the paint chip information Rob has shared, it's worth another dive in.

Robvolz 

Eddy almost looks happy

Pompiere

I live in farm country, so I would probably use Allis-Chalmers orange from the Rural King or Tractor Supply store.

Insidious C. 

Fed Std 595, 13415 (school bus yellow) would get you pretty close.

Kabuki12

My 1975 Super had a very nice orange color that seemed almost golden in the sunlight . I think it was some pearl that was used. It needed a paint job so I sent it to Jack at Franklin Frame in Ohio, I wasn’t too concerned about the match so much but I told him I wanted the golden hue when it was in the sun…he nailed it.

In the sun before repaint

After repaint, not in the sun

Out and about in full sun

Robvolz 

no,

no it doesn’t. Too much yellow. Not dull enough.

I dismantled three bikes to get you the exact match both electronically and visually.

I offered the exact color. based on all three who produced Molteni frames.

that looks like a Trek color. Pretty, but not Molteni orange.

satbuilder 

Going thru a fairly exhaustive internet search for a paint match for a Lancia, So far I've hit a wall, but am still looking. I have an email into one of the larger companies supplying touch up paint for vehicles. Will post up results once I get some feedback from them.

Kurt

repechage

in Ventura County it is Kubota Orange

repechage

digital color fidelity is not a thing.

Robvolz 

try old Dizler which has been bought and goes by something else.

Some states like CA only have water based. I don't know what your state does.

The books I took pics of were Glasurit. Which I think is a BASF thing now.

satbuilder 

Found this. May try to contact an automotive paint shop that was able to help me out in the past.

The color is called giallo olanda

https://lanciatouchuppaint.com/lanci...touch-up-paint

Andy_K 

I'm pretty sure this used to be sticky: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...-database.html

panzerwagon 

Does anyone know how close the Merckx molteni re-issues from the early 90s were to the original shade(s) of molteni?

I can confirm the 90s repros were RAL-2011.

Edit: I should add that application of RAL-2011 touch-up paint to a 30-yr merckx corsa molteni frame created a perfect match. However, did not compare the color on the steerer.

Lattz

Unless someone is doing a full respray fhe steerers orig color is just a nice to know info, no?

Especially for touch ups getting the xyz years old faded versions match is the fun part. When I got the Rossin tria i posted above I was smiling at the Subaru rally blue nail polish touch ups because i didnt have a clue that originally the whole bike was like that. But while the modern paint resisted the uv, the orig Rossin Du Point System one didnt.

satbuilder 

I had purchased several different shades of RAL orange touch up paint, when trying to match what was on my ‘73 Colnago. RAL2011 was one of them, and was close, but still not a match. But there are a lot of factors here, age of the paint on the bike, fading, primer base color, that sort of thing.