We often hear from people who say that they have an older bike they love but it needs some care to make it new again. When we get a call like this we know two things, it’s gonna be a big project and when we’re done it will be better than when it left the factory. VéloColour opened it’s doors back in 2008, then we were known mainly for restoration work, British, French, Italian even some custom steel bikes carefully brought back through detailed corrosion removal and restoration. Now that carbon bikes have been around for 15+ years we are starting to see more and more restoration requests for carbon frames too. Quite frankly we love it! There is nothing more satisfying than keeping good bikes on the road and making an old bike feel better than new with new paint. For it’s long time owner or maybe a second hand purchaser who saw some potential the reward is huge. Truthfully it’s a big part of why we got into this business.

This 2012 Colnago C59 gets a fresh new look while staying true to it’s original design.

This bike had seen lots of kilometers over the years and clearly lots of flying stones too. The wear and deep gouges needed special preparation to be sure all the new paint was going to adhere properly. Paint chips around the loosened bottle bosses, tire rub-throughs in the wheel well, gouges from a previous chain drop, some familiar peeling around the cable ports and more; this frameset was rough but functionally in good shape.

From years of catching sweat the aluminum stem clamp was heavily corroded - deep pitting and powdery white oxidation are visible here. In some cases we would recommend replacing the bars but most of the damage looked superficial. It’s good that we got to it when we did. Masking off the carbon and media blasting the aluminum we were able to remove the surface corrosion. This requires immediate protection so directly out of the blast cabinet aluminum is gets a good cleaning with acetone and is coated with epoxy primer within the hour. Some filling and a bunch of sanding later these bars have never looked so good.

Clear coat delamination; a common carbon issue.

Over time, with exposure to the elements and encouragement from chain slaps and flying stones clear coat has a tendency to pull away from carbon in spots . This can be a problem of age, clear coat thickness and also bad preparation. You’ve seen it before, the clear coat becomes milky or cloudy and may start to flake off. Once you start peeling there’s no end. If this has happened to your carbon frame it’s best to have it looked. It can leave the carbon susceptible breakdown from to the elements, UV, road salt etc. aren’t so good for your unprotected carbon.

For us it means sanding and more sanding. We need to get down to the raw carbon to remove all of the delaminating clear coat before we can start the repainting process. After the entire frame is sanded and filled we can re-apply clear coat to the raw carbon, re-tint the blackened areas like drop-outs transitions and cable guides then prepare for masking and coating the rest of the frame in a high-quality primer before moving ahead with colour.

Saronni Red, a perennial favourite. It’s safe to say candy red is one of the most popular colours to come out of the VéloColour paint booth.

Sarroni candy red is an eye catching colour, one that looks electric in the sunshine. For this we start with a base of super-fine, water-based silver, over that we carefully apply a number of coats of red tinted clear. This gives the colour a vibrant and incredibly deep look. Sunlight reflects off of the base silver below and shines through the translucent red. It relies on the physical depth of the paint and it’s pretty amazing to see. From here we mask and paint white panels before finishing with graphics. For this restoration we used a combination of decals and paint. The solid white fork, seat and chain stays and C59 top tube graphics are all executed with stencils and white water-based paint. The larger black and multi-coloured down tube and seat tube graphics along with Erenstos signature and the classic Colnago head tube club are applied with high quality, super thin decals. From here it’s clear coat, sanding and final clear coats to achieve a finish that Ernesto would drool over.

After 30+ hours spent on this Colnago C59 it’s ready to hit the road back in Calgary, AB. Given the durability and quality of our finishes combined with our careful preparation processes this bike has easily got a decade or two of life on the road ahead. How many gears do you think we will we be running by then?

Scroll through the final images below, we can’t get enough of this one. Be sure to email us if you have any questions about what we can do for your new or old bike project.