Molteni Orange Question

[buldogge]

I was looking a Dupont Imron fleet color chips today, as I am getting ready to pick final paint colors for my new frame.

Dupont 60659 is commonly touted as a Molteni "match", this is a Mack Truck color and is rather deep (on the chip anyway).

I noticed that Dupont 1021, which is Yellow Cabs orange looks closer to photographs of Molteni (I don't have an actual bike to view)...being softer, mellower.

Can anyone compare their Molteni bikes to this:


TIA
-Mark in St. Louis

[Scott Shire]

Imron/Dupont 60659U is always popular. Also try...

RAL 2004

*PPG global BC #61646*
^This one's my favorite. I think it's as close as it gets.

[buldogge]

Hey Scott...Thanx, I have all those as well. Strangely, PPG 60346 looks even closer to me...this is a Mack Truck 1967/68 orange. PPG 61646 comes up all over the internet...but...doesn't come up in a paint database search.

Also, 60346 is a cross reference for Dupont 60659...???

Lastly, I will be using 1969 Bahama Blue (PPG 2281), and 1973 Opel Chrome Yellow (PPG 81876) I believe.

Any experience with these???

TA
-Mark

Imron/Dupont 60659U is always popular. Also try...

RAL 2004

*PPG global BC #61646*
^This one's my favorite. I think it's as close as it gets.

[mike p]

Whoever is painting the bike should know, I'll bet JB could tell you the number off the top of his head.

Mike

[johnnymossville]

Co-Motion's website lists it as

Molteni Orange PPG global BC #61646

[buldogge]

The guy is not a bike specialist painter...

I don't like putting my choices in other people's hands, either.

As I said, the PPG 61646 doesn't come up on the reference charts I have...60346 crosses to Dupont 60659 (also mentioned)...1960's Mack Truck orange.

Waterford/Gunnar calls 61646 (there it is again) Monarch Orange.

I don't need a definitive "genuine" Molteni code, I'm just wondering about people's direct experiences with any of these colors.

I think I've settled on:

PPG 60346, 1967 Mack Orange
PPG 2281, 1967 Chevy Bahama Blue
PPG 81876, 1973 Opel Chrome Yellow

TA
-Mark

Whoever is painting the bike should know, I'll bet JB could tell you the number off the top of his head.

Mike

[akelman]

Which bike is this, Mark? And I'm assuming that the bike will be Molteni, the panels blue, and the graphics yellow. Is that right?

[buldogge]

Hey Ari... Yep...exactly.

It's for a new frame I'm having built. Nothing vintage. It gonna be a go-all, do-all, with a homage theme to the Molteni Merckx. A cross-bike with the nickname "Cannibal". The graphics will be simplified somewhat but the essence of the scheme will remain.

Some frame build pics can be seen here:
http://meechcustombikes.blogspot.com/2011/03/lets-paint-it.html

-Mark

Which bike is this, Mark? And I'm assuming that the bike will be Molteni, the panels blue, and the graphics yellow. Is that right?

[akelman]

That's going to be awesome, Mark. I can't wait to see it when it's done.

[buldogge]

I'll post in the custom bikes section when its done...hopefully in a month or so.

-Mark

That's going to be awesome, Mark. I can't wait to see it when it's done.

[eweg]

love the cab color!

[Peter P.]

You will NEVER be able to duplicate the Molteni orange. It's a little known fact that in order to attain that exact color, Eddy Merckx had a pint of his own sweat and blood mixed in.

Sorry to break the news to you. ;-)

[buldogge]

At this point, I have no doubt in my mind that this is true! :)

-Mark

You will NEVER be able to duplicate the Molteni orange. It's a little known fact that in order to attain that exact color, Eddy Merckx had a pint of his own sweat and blood mixed in.

Sorry to break the news to you. ;-)

[junkfood]

The frame is looking great Mark! I am looking forward to seeing the end result.

Jake

[ultraman6970]

I insist that it would be good to put a sticky with paint colors codes.

[martinrjensen]

I had my bike powder coated with RAL2004 and while it's great looking (IMO) it's not really close to Molteni Orange. It's much brighter and"orangier", It contains less (or none) of the brown that Molteni has in it. As far as colors go on my bikes, I like it better as it's brighter and I always thought that Molteni had too much brown in it for my tastes, but if you are trying to match up with Molteni, this is not it. Where this become evident is when you roll up next to an original Molteni. The difference will be quite stark and the Molteni will look quite dingy, not that that's bad, It's a Molteni after all and it's supposed to look like a sausage.
RAL2004 was all I came up with regarding powder coat colors. I could not find a cross match to the paint colors anywhere.
(note: I chose to do powdercoating and in fact Molteni Orange because I had already sunk too much money into the frame and wanted to cut costs. A paint job would have been several hundred dollars more, especially a multicolored one and the Powder coating was $150.00 and that much because the guy didn't stock RAL2004.
Still, it looks great and rides like a dream. Looking at it, it's not evident that it's not paint (IMO) and it's really durable. Touch up is fairly easy with mixing model paint but I really have only had to do that for a post repair.

[mgd]

jb painted my second rivendell molteni orange. joe said to grant who said to me that real molteni orange is much less orange than people think, or maybe much less bright. anyway, i said do the real one, the closest one, and not the one that people are thinking of, so he did & it was great.

chris kvale says he has a good paint for molteni orange, too.

[feta99]

This orange looks pretty nice:

http://timetogetnaked.com/index.php/2010/11/14/classic-merckx-molteni-orange/

[mgd]

This orange looks pretty nice:

http://timetogetnaked.com/index.php/2010/11/14/classic-merckx-molteni-orange/

from what i can tell on my display. paler, so that it gets that burnt orange vibe when it's dirty.

[buldogge]

That's definitely brighter/deeper than Molteni.

I still think the Yellow Cab orange may be closer...but...I'm gonna bank on the 50's/60's Mack Truck color:

-Mark

This orange looks pretty nice:

http://timetogetnaked.com/index.php/2010/11/14/classic-merckx-molteni-orange/

[vjp]

I have two early 70's Colnago Supers and a early 70's Kessels Eddy Merckx all in Molteni Orange. The 3 bikes have their original finishes and they are all really close in color. From your shots they are kind of between the cab and the Mack truck, closer to the cab. One of the Colnago forks I have is not original to the bike (1 digit off on the serial #) but is quite "muddier" than the others and I believe is the "original" Molteni Orange as I have seen a very early Molteni team bike and it was the same color. Closer to the Mack color with a little added black. I might re-finish this bike and I will totally go for the "muddier" orange, way cool. The older bikes also had a really flat finish compared to the deep clear today....

If you have time you can send me some chips and I can compare them to my bikes, online color matching can get you only so close...

Cheers

vjp

That's definitely brighter/deeper than Molteni.

I still think the Yellow Cab orange may be closer...but...I'm gonna bank on the 50's/60's Mack Truck color:

-Mark

[vjp]

Here is a triumvirate of Molteni Orange on the wonderful Speed Bicycles site...

http://www.speedbicycles.ch/issues/issue_0109.html

vjp

[buldogge]

Hey vjp...Thanx for that. I know monitor colors are always gonna be an issue...but...it seems your collection bears out my thought on the tones.

If I were restoring a classic I would love to send chips your way...but seeing as this is a homage, painted on a 2011 fillet brazed cross-bike...I think "close enough" will be acceptable.

Also, it turns out that MacK Truck pic is actually a different PPG orange...50's Mack Orange was different from 60's Mack Orange...this one is PPG 40345

TA
-Mark

I have two early 70's Colnago Supers and a early 70's Kessels Eddy Merckx all in Molteni Orange. The 3 bikes have their original finishes and they are all really close in color. From your shots they are kind of between the cab and the Mack truck, closer to the cab. One of the Colnago forks I have is not original to the bike (1 digit off on the serial #) but is quite "muddier" than the others and I believe is the "original" Molteni Orange as I have seen a very early Molteni team bike and it was the same color. Closer to the Mack color with a little added black. I might re-finish this bike and I will totally go for the "muddier" orange, way cool. The older bikes also had a really flat finish compared to the deep clear today....

If you have time you can send me some chips and I can compare them to my bikes, online color matching can get you only so close...

Cheers

vjp

[feta99]

Here is a triumvirate of Molteni Orange on the wonderful Speed Bicycles site...

http://www.speedbicycles.ch/issues/issue_0109.html

vjp

Now these look great. Anyone know the color code for these bikes?

[johnnymossville]

My brother had a 1970's Schwinn World Voyager with all Dura-Ace and it looked like Molteni Orange as well. Might have been just a shade brighter.

Didn't Porsche paint some 911's Orange as well back then? Popular Color.

[Steve in SLO]

Porsche Signal Orange L20E is close:

[buldogge]

Signal Orange does look pretty good...hmm.

-Mark

Porsche Signal Orange L20E is close:

[vjp]

Yes, looking at this pic, I would say it is very close!

Signal Orange does look pretty good...hmm.

-Mark

[buldogge]

Here are some Porsche color chips. Signal orange is 2nd from left:

-Mark

[mgd]

Here are some Porsche color chips. Signal orange is 2nd from left:

-Mark

that sure looks like it.