Re: Matching GIOS Paint
If the cyclart web site is to be believed, then matching GIOS paint might be one of the hardest tasks in the vintage bicycle painting field. And so therefore, it would be good to do several "test runs" of paint, and this means laying down primer and base coat and then blue coat using several different blues and primers and thicknesses until you get a good match for your gios.
Paints change color over the years (a roommate of mine did an undergrad thesis on how to predict the color in 20 years), and so remember that even if you match your 20-year old frame perfectly, you will not have the original paint - you will have the "20-year old" paint color on your restoration.
Companies like GM pay big money to predict the future color of paint so that when you go to buy touchup paint for a car that's 10 years old you actually get NEW paint that has been formulated for the CHANGED color, e.g. the paint sold this year is a different color from the paint sold last year, and yet both are freshly manufactured.
And so it behooves you to find the one square centimeter on your frameset that still has all 3 layers (primer, base, final coat) and that has had the least exposure to dirt & UV rays. Then cover all the adjoining areas with masking tape and match this one tiny spot with your experimental colors.
I have heard that sherwin williams paint shops will often have a real expert in matching enamel paint colors. The car restorers think that computer matching systems don't work as well as the human eye. A trip to sherwin williams might be cheap ($35 for a gallon of paint) because you'll spend only an hour rather than 10 hours (or more) of trial & error at home.
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA