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Touch up paint chips or leave it alone?

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Looks like the primer came off with the top coat as well.. Schwinn used red primer on their dark colors and silver primer on the lighter colors...

You can't get any lighter than white. Red oxide primer under all of Schwinn's paint colors. Prewar models are exempt though. Schwinn's advertising of a 4 coat paint job was definitely at the time the Opal candy colors came into play or even later. The solid color paints only had a 3 coat paint job since they did not have the aluminum silver base that was used on the candy colors.
1.Phosphoric acid dip coating
2. Red oxide primer dip
3. Aluminum reflective base coat, candy colors only
4. Color coat

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You can't get any lighter than white. Red oxide primer under all of Schwinn's paint colors. Prewar models are exempt though. Schwinn's advertising of a 4 coat paint job was definitely at the time the Opal candy colors came into play or even later. The solid color paints only had a 3 coat paint job since they did not have the aluminum silver base that was used on the candy colors.
1.Phosphoric acid dip coating
2. Red oxide primer dip
3. Aluminum reflective base coat, candy colors only
4. Color coat

View attachment 1722963
🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓
 
Not only was their red primer underneath my orange paint, there was red primer, I guess, under my chrome seatpost. It was pretty chewed up in spots and you could see it plainly.

I initially thought that there was red tape, or something, stuck to the chrome before I realized in was an undercoating.

I still don’t understand why all the scratches on my paint were black though. Maybe the primer had oxidized?

Anyway, the frame looks much better now.

Waiting on a new front tire, then, pics!
 
If the bike is of high collector value (owner has to decide how much is "high value"), you want it as original as possible, and so no touch-ups. If the bicycle is more as a rider, or parted-together, or customized, then touch-ups are acceptable.

I touch-up most of my bikes, but most of what I own is not of extremely high collector value. I use disposable plastic eyedroppers to mix oil-based enamels until I get a close match. I do the matching under two forms of light - a relatively harsh LED shop light and natural sunlight. If the dried touch-up (match dry-to-dry, not wet-to-dry) matches well under both lights, then I go with it the mix. I try to write down the formula in case I need more for later.

The paint should be carefully layered into the chip until level - no need for big blobs of paint. Sometimes a small amount of feathering needs to be done to get a blend, but it's a doable thing.

Some paints will be doable in a single-stage application and some require a two-stage (aluminum and then a translucent color topcoat, for example).

Care and patience are needed to do a good job. It's not difficult to "touch-up" an old bike, but it is quite difficult to do it well.
 
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