'PC' (what's your Christian name - I thought it was a list no - no)
I feel you're looking at this ability to reproduce replica 55 year old paint finishes and transfers from a too simplistic viewpoint.
I'd wager that there are few out there, on this side of the pond or on your side, that could recreate from memory or from record the exact colour and transfers for each model and variant for all of the big British manufacturers around in the 1950s. Add in the small to medium lightweight builders, and the number of variations and possibilities becomes phenomenal and the task impossible.
Sure someone will have repainted a 1948 Clubman before, but the chance of even that very same person was supplying you with an exact match for the colour from the Raleigh name "Lenton Green" is extremely unlikely. If they did manage it, it would be by luck rather than by design. There are just too many variations to provide any kind of certainty. All of this is analogous with the very common description "British Racing Green" - Ask 50 painters worldwide for that one, and you'll get 50 different dark greens. Ask for it in a flamboyant, and you'll probably get another 50 takes on what a "flam" finish is.
Transfers are no different - perhaps even worse. Manufacturers big and small used different companies, often used different transfers on the same frame at different times, producing too many variations. To expect a small transfer supplier - like Nick Tithecott, to keep every design on the off chance that someone might need it is asking way too much. He can and does do one-off work, but the correct result doesn't come particularly cheaply or quickly.
As always, there is the alternative - using the likes of Cyclart on your side of the pond - who are, I believe, equipped to do this kind of specialist matching work with accuracy. The downside of course is the cost, and to get a full refinish in exactly the original colour, with exactly the correct transfers would cost considerably more than $400. But for the extra cost you would expect more in return.
What few people replicate are the methods that were used in the 1950s to produce the finishes that were available then, and trying to replicate a mass produced Raleigh electrostatic application and oven baked finish from the 50s using modern paints and spray application methods will in most instances give you just that - a modern take on a 50s theme. Ask your friendly painter if he can replicate a 1950 flamboyant finish - coloured translucent lacquer over a dull nickel plated frame and watch him faint, or watch the dollar signs go round in his eyes...Deep lustre and hand lining don't come cheap, varnish fix transfer with all the errors of 1950s printing methods comes at greater cost.
There are plenty of painters out there, who can give you a decent approximation of any colour from a sample, and transfer makers who can supply good copies of those used, but if you need a museum quality replica finish, indistinguishable from an original, be prepared to dig deep. It's not about secret handshakes, it's just what it was in the 1950s - commercial sense.
Bob Reid Stonehaven Scotland
http://www.flying-scot.co.uk (mapped)