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Schwinn colors ??

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Koolest Kolers are only copying touch up and spray paint Schwinn colors. Radiant, Opel and all other types are not metal flake, and that's the problem. Schwinn's touch-up and spray paints are metal flake. Opal, radiant and all other metal reflective original colors are tinted transparent/translucent over lays, top coats.

Koolest colors are faking Schwinn's original factory paints. Moreover because they require a clear coat to mimic original it's pointless to use an aluminum base. Schwinn's spray can paints are a solid single metal flake color. It's not the simi transparent with metal flake they use. Using just a red lead or in some cases, gray primer, primer an original Schwinn spray can and applying a clear top coat you'd get a similar effect.. Including that; which ever color of primer is very important too. All color or absence of color plays a vital role in what objective, target color you what to achieve.

However, is the quest for Spicy Chestnut, I've seen original touch up or spray cans offered at ebay. just use that and clear coat it.

The problem is: if you scan original Schwinn bike, the metal reflections from aluminum base coat is distorting Schwinn's colored, translucent/transparent top coat in the scan for blending..

I.E. you have to eliminate the distortion from the aluminum base coat. Maybe, as I've I've contemplated for some time, to fliter out the metal flake Koost kolor's; use, strain that metal flake out. of their color coat.

To reach an exact duplication, you would need to filter all colors being reflected from within, aluminum base. That base, biased on my personal magnified observations ,, Under the badge, unaltered by sunlight, bright and brilliant as new, is very complicated. apparently, metal fleck mixed in clear And not simply clear but a clear that seems to have cracks or crackle behavior once set. .. Plus add in that, paint batches are not always perfect match each time a large batch is mixed.

I had a 81 Spicy Chestnut cruiser and, it had a batch mix change near and around the bottom bracket, It stood out but area was small enough to not interfere in whole appearance, the small area was slightly darker.

Schwinn would have to used a large paint suppler such as Dow or DuPont who were also making multiple layered, candy colors for auto Co.s. but who, like today, even back then shelf paint was only a single coat, same as Schwinn's spray cans from Schwinn stores.. Who made Schwinn's paint, no different in coating a Cadillac, but who made the color and what was the blend for each layer?

Or maybe if could get hands on a quantum super computer and design program to filter and figure it out.


;)
There are 2 products in PPG that can possibly mimic the original under tone. They have a toner called liquid metal and super fine metallic.
 
Thank you for that input Jeff. That’s a whole lot to consider. My search for Spicy Chestnut continues...
It's actually easy to spot a fake providing you know what to look for. Whether it's from Schwinn shelf paint or Kool Kolor's application.

In good sunlight under magnification, you can see the aluminum base, remove the top coat, in your mind, as it were or whatever. There's absolutely no ,metal flake or metallic in the colored top coat at all. You can see that, the Aluminum base has a textured appearance and that's causing the illusion the color coat has metal flake in it. That's wy in

1950's Reds were called candy apple. Cinnamon spiced candied apples were dipped in red translucent candy. Candy Apple red, prob the most popular in 50-60's paint on autos, are a transparent/translucent red top coat over metallics. I have a 1981 red Schwinn 10 speed. I've never bother to see if called radiant but, it's the same as 50's opal. 60's radiant paints. Candy..

Kool Kolers has ,metal flakes 'Metallic sized, in colored coat. Schwinn's shelf paint color is solid, no different than cheap metallic paints in a spray can, single coat auto paints, etc.. I.E. if inspecting for a fake paint job that's claimed to be original? Maybe a Kool Kolor job, or glossed clear over Schwinn's shelf paint, remove the veil, look thorough the looking glass.
 
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There is red enamel/spitfire red/light red, opaque red, opalescent red, radiant red, flamboyant red, maroon dark red, burgundy, holiday rose, I not sure one size fits all.
 
There is red enamel/spitfire red/light red, opaque red, opalescent red, radiant red, flamboyant red, maroon dark red, burgundy, holiday rose, I not sure one size fits all.
What would you call this color? 1980 cruiser.

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Hi, I have a little background with Schwinn products starting around 1958 when my family became Schwinn Dealers. In 1978, I went to work for the Schwinn family in bicycle distribution on the west coast, and continued until after 1992 when Scott Sports Group purchased the assets of the company. As you know it was a very turbulent period with many changes. The beginning of the end of the classic Schwinn period most of you are interested in was the UAW strike at the Chicago factory in the 80's. The strike was settled, but almost all of the production began to be sourced from different vendors and not solely produced at the Chicago factory. I toured the Chicago factory, and attended the Factory training school as a 12-year-old kid.

During the 1950-60-70's the factory paint line was a Ransburg system. It was a large, automated conveyor line which paints the parts hung from the conveyor as they went thru the paint line. It had a water fall on the wall to catch the overspray. The paint, and the parts were electrically charged to make the paint magnetically attract to the parts with all of the curved tubular surfaces, much like powder coating is done today. They did a "hand spray gun" with the color around the crank housing and kickstand area first to make sure it got good coverage in the automated system. The logistics of building all of the models, and painting all of the different parts, times all of the colors was amazing. Remember, they did not build the parts to put into a storage warehouse, they were built on a "just in time" system, and then were installed on the bicycles going down the assembly line. Keep in mind they were building frames, painting parts, chroming parts, building wheels, boxing the bicycles and putting them into railroad box cars at the rate of over half a million each year (some years more). They had women hand pin striping the painted fenders. As a kid working in the family dealership, I always wondered when assembling the bicycles why some Schwinn Bicycles had pin striping on the "inside of the fenders". I saw firsthand during my tour that they practiced getting the correct amount of paint on the pin striping brush by using the inside of the fenders instead of a old phone book like common with a sign painter/pin striper.

They had many different colors and shades of colors over my years. Just like the automotive manufacturers it was a way of keeping things new and different. For example, the Dark Radiant red/green/blues of the 50-60's became lighter Flamboyant red/blues/sky blue/lime green/campus green/burgandy/coppertone, etc. in the 60-70's models. They are not the same colors as the 50's colors, but the paint process was the same. It was an Aluminum Undercoat, then the Transparent Color was applied over the top. Much like the Candy Colors popular on hot rods. Chestnut was just another color shade that was shot over the Aluminum Undercoat. None of these colors were ever clear coated. They all went through a heated baked on process. I think the process has been proven by time that the Schwinn Chicago bikes had a very durable paint job looking at some of the original paint vintage bikes today. I do not know who the paint vendor was, I could only guess it to be Sherwin Williams or maybe Ditzler (PPG today). All of the original factory paint colors were available to Schwinn dealerships for resale touch up. They sold large and small spray cans, and also sold brush-on enamel in half pint cans. During the 1970's someone came up with the bright idea of making paint sticks (like crayons) in all of the factory colors of that time. The paint sticks dried out and became hard. They would be a great collector item today, but only if you had the original packaging.

After the UAW strike, Schwinn began to look at other vendors that could product for their dealerships. Cespal in Hungary built some cruiser models, Murry of Ohio built the popular juvenile models, and a very small bicycle company in Tiawan was given the task of producing a lugged frame lightweight ten speed at a low price point. This was an urgently needed product for the dealerships at the time. Schwinn felt so strongly about this they sent their head engineer (Frank Brillando) to live in Tiwan at this company to spearhead this new volume project. In the end, the company did a great job of getting the models to Schwinn dealerships, but they had one major problem. One of the first popular colors on The World model was a deep dark maroon red. The transparent color was applied over a white undercoat. Any time a dealer put one of these new World models in his front window display and sun hit it, the bikes faded to white on the side to the sun. The color went away FAST like in a month or two, it was not UV safe like Schwinn's normal paint. Frank Brillando completely rebuilt this company's bicycle paint system and brought it up to Schwinn standards. The company name is one we all still know today Giant Bicycle and was built by Schwinn's Engineering.

I believe that the Paramount bikes were "hand spray" painted. I have never seen a Terra Cotta Schwinn model that the paint job looked good, they look light covered. It was a very difficult color to run in a mass production line and was quickly discontinued. However, one of the most beautiful Paramounts I have ever seen was painted Terra Cotta and it looked great. I even saw a Paramount track tandem in Bakersfield at Vincent's in Terra Cotta, it was stunning.

John

 
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