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Choosing frame color for vintage bicyle paint job.

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Choosing frame color for vintage bicyle paint job.

Old 06-17-22, 09:34 AM
  #1  
PimpMan
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Choosing frame color for vintage bicyle paint job.

I am building vintage looking road bicycle.

Bought white tires slim tires 700c, what frame paint will look best with them?

I am thinking:

Teal


Light Green



Dark Green


skyblue

Last edited by PimpMan; 06-17-22 at 09:41 AM.
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Old 06-17-22, 10:09 AM
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I like where you’re going. 😀 I used seafoam green with white trim for my vintage tandem. It just seemed like a classic scheme to me whether or not it was actually one that was used back in the day.
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Old 06-17-22, 10:16 AM
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I plot my bicycles out on a color wheel a try for something different than I already have.
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Old 06-17-22, 11:27 AM
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Old 06-17-22, 11:35 AM
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Given your internet handle of PimpMan

i would go purple with gold accents

Or--

Green with gold

Green is for the money and gold is for the honey
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Old 06-17-22, 01:01 PM
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Purple.
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Old 06-17-22, 01:06 PM
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If the style leans French, then blue! British, dark green! Italian, either celeste-ish or red!

Actually, anything you'll enjoy looking at.
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Old 06-17-22, 01:08 PM
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Mauve.
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Old 06-17-22, 01:22 PM
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cream with brown or copper accents
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Old 06-17-22, 01:36 PM
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Red. Always red.
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Old 06-17-22, 01:41 PM
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I may not be the best person to ask about this, but I think you need more information. What brand of bike is it? Does it have lugs? If so, which ones? What color decals, saddle, bar tape, cables, and water bottle cages do you want to use? What components will you be using? So many factors to consider?

Or you could just choose black.
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Old 06-17-22, 01:43 PM
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candy apple green (note this may be a forshadowing)


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Old 06-17-22, 01:46 PM
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Pink.
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Old 06-17-22, 02:44 PM
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Originally Posted by iab
Mauve.
+1

I had to look it up.
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Old 06-17-22, 02:54 PM
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I have a seafoam green tele that is like to see as a bike color. Are u worried about dirt on the white tires?
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Old 06-17-22, 03:26 PM
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If you are going to stick with soft pastel-type colors, go Puce.

If you are going to stick with a color that represents your screenname, go electric purple with some shimmer.
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Old 06-17-22, 04:18 PM
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Too much to get into but I'll give you my quick take:
American 60's to 70's candy apple like Schwinn, but there are exceptions even in the Schwinn line up.
American 50's - non metallic colors
American before the up to 50's - muted colors with accent colors Coffee and cream for example
English 60's to 70's - metallics for Raleigh and some other brands, solid non-metallics for other with contrasting head tube and down tube stripe/patch. Sometimes included box lining (pinstriping) This looks so nice on these bikes.
English 50's - darker solid colors or black, by the way black may sound boring, however, the paint was good in my opinion and black paint when it is good looks great. It reflects well.
English before the 50's - black, of course remember to paint the rear mudguard white on the lower portion.
French 60's to 70's metalics and candy apple (flamboyant) were common. They also had plenty of solid colors as well like Motobecane's black with red head tube and accents and lug lining. Some French bikes had box lining like my Astra (pretty paint too). Many bikes of this era had Foil decals.
French 50's - I don't know, but if you have a French bike from the state that and there are lots of knowledgeable members here that can help.
Italian 60's and 70"s solid color paints that were done well. Lug lined. Sometime contrasting headtube like Atalia.
Italian 50 and before - I don't know but, I know @iab does. Although, he would be a good consultant on any vintage bike paint.
Japanese 70's - solid colors with lug lining. For some reason yellow Fuji's stand out to me.
Japanese 80's - metallics
Dutch bikes - I don't know.

90's bike became international and at least for sportier bikes pastels and fad paint jobs were popular. Also some bright colors with accents.

I also have to point out that categorizing bikes by country is not quite accurate either. This is a generalization and there was lots of influence going all different directions.

Now that I wrote all this and I am thinking about all the exceptions, perhaps it would be best to get a better idea of what this bike is. Do you have a picture of the bike in question? What era are you looking to emulate? Are you going to paint it yourself? All of your color examples look good on a vintage bike.

Personally, I like the extras, like either lug lining, box lining or a contrasting head tube for a vintage look. Don't forget about the graphics. They add a lot of character to the bike. More pictures.
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Old 06-17-22, 04:27 PM
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I may be adequately good at this, however: I am no expert. Please feel free to make corrections, additions, modifications or flame away at my arrogance.
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Old 06-17-22, 08:19 PM
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@PimpMan if your tires are all white and not white wall with black tread, then I think a lighter, simpler color is a great idea. Light blue, light green, pastel yellow, all good. If the tires are white wall with black tread, then the world is your oyster.
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Old 06-17-22, 08:21 PM
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Originally Posted by ClydeClydeson
cream with brown or copper accents
Many years ago I painted my wife's bike cream with brown and gold accents. It got a lot of positive comments. I really liked it. Something to consider is the kind of paint that will be used. The bike that I took over to Ukraine, I painted a House of Kolor Khameleon that, depending on how you looked at it was either a goldish red color or green. That would be a nice accent color with a cream.
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Old 06-17-22, 08:31 PM
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...your tires probably won't stay white if you ride the bike, so I'd go with what pleases you.
Personally, I like the metallics you can buy now, but the solid colors (with no metalflake) are easier to apply smoothly.

"Vintage" covers too much territory to give you much guidance, but Velo Mule is pointing you in the right direction.

Most of the really old bikes I've seen came in black, or in black.
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Old 06-17-22, 08:35 PM
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Bike Pimping! Warning: Editorial Content!

Originally Posted by DMC707
Given your internet handle of PimpMan i would go purple with gold accents

Or--

Green with gold Green is for the money and gold is for the honey
Pimpmobile: a large ostentatious car, of a style associated with pimps.

A classic 1970's era Cadillac Pimpmobile....



A Pimp DeVille



A Pimp Bike



Being from a different era, when I hear the word PIMP I think of a low life abusive criminal panderer who lives off of prostitutes!

Getting back on to bikes, I see a lot of requests like this on BFs, CR and other sites: "mommy, what color socks should I wear"....

Google is your friend! Start doing some IMAGE searches for bikes like yours - You'll come up with hundreds of color photos that can give you an idea of what your bike might look like in different colors!

For starters: BLACK or RED !!!!





I've been accused of "matchy-matchy".....

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Old 06-17-22, 11:14 PM
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Of the examples in the OP I like the first two best.
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Old 06-18-22, 08:21 AM
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Something like this


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Old 06-18-22, 06:41 PM
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If you have nice lugs, flaunt them.

Head tube lug details
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