thz123

Does anyone know where I can buy some Schwinn Campus Green touch up paint, cheap? I know about Koolist Kolors, but was wondering if there are other options? Thanks

Velo Mule

I was getting ready to paint a Schwinn Continental in Campus green. It is a tough color to match up with a car touch up color. Even though, I was painting the whole bike rather than touching up, I still could not find a automotive paint that was close enough for my tastes. I woulld look at cars as I commuted and in parking lots. Here is my list of cars with green paint that is close, but no match:

Toyota Spruce Mica Paint code 6V4 on a 2010 Camry, also used on Tacoma and Rav4
2010 Jeep and 2007 Jeep Liberty, it is a dark green
Mini Cooper Jungle Green Metallic
Saturn Ion Eden Green Metallic

Testors also makes a Metallic Green paint which is too light. It can be mixed with black or even better, brown to darken it up.

Several people have described Campus Green as being between hunter green and olive green. That might serve as a guide if you are going to try to match the color with Testors paint.

An additional factor for touch up paint is that the paint on your bike has changed over the years. It is no longer the same color that it left the Chicago factory when it was made. I think most colors lighten a bit with age. From what I have noticed, it seem that Campus Green and Chestnut darken with age. But that might just depend upon the storage conditions.

I ended up going to Koolest Kolors to get the paint for my Continental project. In my mind, it looks like it just left the factory when it was done. Also, this paint color changes quite a bit depending upon the light. Sometimes it looks dark sometimes, like in this sunlit shot, it looks light.

daverup 

I think the Mini Jungle Green would only work on a really faded Schwinn. Here's a little pic of the Mini paint on a Mini,

thz123

Looks great! Thanks for the information. I was thinking about hauling the bike to Sherwin Williams, and have them do a computer color match in oil enamel. The smallest amount they will mix is a quart (around $25). Then for an extra $12, they can put the paint in a spray can. I bought the bike for the the decent fenders, which I put on the bike i ride. I recently converted it from a road bike to a up right. The donor bike frame had stickers all over it resulting in the paint being pulled off when the stickers were removed by me. I just want to make the bike presentable cheaply, so that i can sell it. It's a 1974 ladies Varsity.

Velo Mule

I agree daverup . Seeing the picture of the bike and the picture of the Mini, it is far off.

Also a possibility is Mini Cooper's British Racing Green. You can't get this in a Duplicolor spray can but you can probably get it at Sherwin Williams.

Velo Mule

One other note about Schwinn paint like Campus Green, Sky Blue, Coppertone, Flamboyant Red, Flamboyant Lime and others is that they are what Hot Rodders call "Candy Apple" paint. Also called flamboyant paint. Schwinn had a four step paint process. The first was a chemical to clean, and etch the steel and the second was a primer/rust inhibitor. The next coat was a silver paint that was the same color as the Schwinn used for the Grey Ghost and also called "Silver Mist" on other bikes. This was the shinny undercoat for their candy apple colors. Then over silver Schwinn applied their color coat.

The color coat had to be carefully controlled. Too little paint and the color was lighter than it should be. Too much paint and the color is darker than it should be.

If you are going to be spray painting larger area, you may want to use silver first and spray your Campus Green over it so that you get that nice translucent finish.

Schwinn bikes weren't just expensive because they were built like tanks. They were painted like custom hot rods.

Vintage Schwinn

Velo Mule's idea of finding an existing automobile exterior paint finish in a very close GREEN hue is the way that I would proceed.

Green is not popular today as an automobile color but it was once widely popular from the late 1950's to maybe the mid 1970's.

The following cabe link has several explanations on how they attempted to re-create CAMPUS GREEN for their restorations.
There are several other GREEN automobile paint hues that are mentioned there, in addition to the several fine GREEN colors that Velo Mule mentioned earlier.

https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/re...thread.169680/

msalvetti

How about Porsche Mamba Green metallic?
https://www.rennbow.org/porsche-colo...een%20Metallic




Mark

Deal4Fuji

^^^^ that looks really close, but getting it from a Porsche dealership would probably cost more than the average Varsity

teejaywhy

Weird. I've stumbled upon two threads with mentions of Campus Green. Something stirs in the deep recesses of my mind, the name sounds familiar and I realize this was the color of my Schwinn Collegiate 5-speed that I had when I was 14 years old. I got it for Christmas. My parents too cheap to pony up the extra $10 to get the Varsity, I suffered the awkward shame of having the 5-speed while all my friends had 10-speeds. I did ride it a lot, including 210 miles of TOSRV 1970 before I saved my money and put my 10-speed envy behind with the purchase of a real Italian race bike in 1971.

Pic of me with said Campus Green Collegiate. Note the upgrades - clamp-on bottle cage and some toe clips. I'm pretty sure I ditched the chain guard and dork disk at some point.

msalvetti

My parents got me a 5-speed Raleigh when I was 12 in 1973. Their argument was that it was less likely to be stolen than a 10-speed. At least you had drop bars, I had touring handlebars. I know it was a stretch for them though, we didn't have much money. I wish I hadn't gotten rid of it.

Mark

xiaoman1 

Only way to make it "right" is with spray/blend...metallics do not do well with a brush, the particles (they settle) never seem to even out the way they do when sprayed.
GL, Ben