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mountaindave

When restoring old Gitanes, what do you guys do with the paint? My Gitane has suffered a bit in the paint department and there is light, spotted rust just about all over. Buffing won't work because it seems like paint comes off when I give the bike a funny look. Did they even prime those bikes? I could practically strip the bike with my finger nail!

So if the paint is too far gone, what do you do? Has anybody had a frame powder coated rather than painted? I'm not terribly interested in a rattle-can paint job. I look at my '97 Kline with a deep scratch in the gorgeous paint that still hasn't touched the metal wishing it could be so on the TdF.

Thanks for any input.

MD

gman309905

Check out my post "Resurrection" in the owners gallery. I purchased it as a bare frame on ebay and the paint was in terrible condition, had it powdercoated a metallic teal. obtained the decals from http://cyclomondo.net/. Velocals.com also has some nice decals for restoration. a lot of the people here would rather leave the paint original but to me restoration means returning the bike, as close as possible to new condition. Powdercoat is reasonable in price and more durable than a standard paint job, available in the full colors of the spectrum.

verktyg

Greetings,

During the late 1960s through the mid 1970s Gitane used both solid colors AND flamboyant or candy apple colors.

The solid colors were white, orange, match (sky) blue and very rare black.

Flamboyant colors consisted of dyed transparent lacquers such as red, blue, turquoise or aqua blue, dark green, purple, gold, burgundy and brown. The dye was prone to fading from exposure to strong light.

The paint on the solid colors was tougher and less likely to chip and scratch like on the Flamboyant colors. Purple and dark green scratched the easiest.

Later in the mid 70s Gitane used metallic silver and a metallic brown.

In 1974 the paint was changed to a more chip and scratch resistant material and kelly green and Gitane racing blue were added to the lineup.

The early 70s bikes had a thick white primer. They primer was also a filler. The lower priced Gitanes where sand blasted with very coarse grit an the filler/primer was very thick to fill up the craters,

In the late 70s metallic colors were added to the mix.

Hope this helps.

vanhelmont

gman's powder coated bike looks great,and might be the best way for you to go, but chas posted something on touching up a couple years ago. Also you can treat bits of surface rust with an organic phosphate from the auto parts store, which they sell for body work on cars. There are several brands, the one I have is called "Great Stuff," I think. I put it on rusted scratches with a q-tip, and let it react with the rust before touching up. Then you don't have to scrape or sand.

Don't get it on alloy or galvanized since it's an acid.

It won't hurt chrome, and I use it on old toe clips.

Dave

mountaindave

It does. Especially the touchup tips. Unfortunately the paint is too far gone and I don't want the metal to corrode further. I'm leaning toward power coating. The bike is white.

The decals have suffered as well. Unfortunately the repro ones don't have the exact color scheme I need, so I'll be keeping my eye on France for others.

I've seen the beautiful resurrection thread, nice work!

MD

gman309905

Having it powder coated white should only run you in the neighborhood of $125 to $150, its a solid single coat color. It's when you get into the metallics and candy colors that require two coats that it gets a little more expensive. Shop around before you make a decision on which powder coat service you use, there can be a wide range in price for the same thing. You should contact velocals.com, they do custom work for decals and might be able to provide you with the color scheme your looking for. They also list on ebay. just purchased a set of vintage trek decals from them in my choice of colors and they look fantastic

mountaindave

I'll look up velocals and check around for powder coasters. For such a small area, we seem to have a plethora.