Help painting Serotta rear dropouts

[pdxharth]

I have a project and seek some wisdom. The frame is a Serotta in great shape, but the previous owner had both dropouts replaced. The guy who did it tig welded some Breezer style dropouts on there and the result was very ugly, plus it was not well done and the wheel was off-center. Not good. So I had some Serotta dropouts installed. Now I need to paint the thing without spending much money. I had custom paint made. This may not work, but I figure it’s worth a shot. I am looking for suggestions to help make this successful. Do I sand the existing paint so it is a straight line, then mask it there? Any tips at all would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

[Bentley]

I would offer that blending that is going to be a trick, really for someone that knows what they are doing. Clearly it needs to be blocked, which means laying down some primer and sanding, then doing it again and again until you have a continuous transition. Then you get the opportunity of matching the paint, which is another trick, its old, has patina so there is that too.

I would suggest its a job for a pro, but that is me

Ray

[unterhausen]

I have seen a Bilenky repair that was blended. It looked pretty good, but the color was off. I suppose that is to be expected. I know there are painters that do blends, but not many. I recently saw a post from someone who was quitting, but I think he said he was still going to do repairs. unfortunately, I don't remember who that was.

[johnmdesigner]

Getting it to blend would probably be impossible even for a pro.
You could possibly,
1. Strip the paint completely off the chain and seat stays. Then re spray.
You would lose your serotta logo but that is easily reproduced.
2. You could band the juncture with pinstripe tape or mask a paint line or a chevron in a contrasting color. But if you sand too far past the cable stop it's going to look weird.

[Gsinill]

I did the exact same thing on my Serotta CSI.
Here's a thread on it: https://forums.thepaceline.net/showt...hlight=phoenix

Mine turned out almost perfect; I would argue that you can't see the repair unless you know about it.

The only time-consuming part was matching the paint as others have mentioned already.
Yours is even a little more complicated since it is metallic.
Once you have the paint matched, 2K primer fading out from the end towards the good paint.
Sand, apply topcoat same way, sand.
Finally 2K clear fading from the DO to the good paint.
Let dry and polish out the overspray.

Result:

[Peter P.]

I wouldn't try to match the paint unless you're patient AND experienced. You're likely to be disappointed.

I would mask the chainstays and seatstays and paint it silver. I had a Libertas with such a treatment and it looked good. Bonus points if you can find colored tape to cover the masked transition line.

I would test your custom paint on a scrap piece of pipe first to check for a match.

Sand-clean with alcohol-primer-sand with finer grade-color-sand even finer-color-clear-sand finest-clear.

Note: some spray paints (at least in a can) will require you to wait 72 hours after sanding before adding the next coat, otherwise the underlying paint will crack and craze. I learned the hard way, and Rustoleum kindly set me straight.

[speedevil]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

I know there are painters that do blends, but not many. I recently saw a post from someone who was quitting, but I think he said he was still going to do repairs. unfortunately, I don't remember who that was.

It was Duane Waller from chestercycles.com. He does superb paintwork touch-up and repair. He's done 4 frames for me and the results are spectacular. You can contact him through his website.

[Spaghetti Legs]

Originally Posted by speedevil

It was Duane Waller from chestercycles.com. He does superb paintwork touch-up and repair. He's done 4 frames for me and the results are spectacular. You can contact him through his website.

+1 if you want it to look like new.

If I was going to do it myself I would do the block technique in a different color that goes well with the bike. White to match the logos maybe? My one attempt at silver/chrome rattle can paint on a bike did not look good.

[pdxharth]

Now I remember your post, Gsinill, but I forgot to go back and look for it. That was my inspiration to try it myself. Thanks for posting it back on this thread.

I paid to have the paint matched, so we will give it a go and see what happens.

If it doesn’t work, painting it silver is a good option, and so is sending it off to have it done properly. Thanks for the tips everyone.

[MURDERF4CE]

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