So my old Cremina has a ton of war wounds now (we just moved across country and it started with a few chips in the paint) and the wife has said it needs a new paint job. It is currently the Harvest Brown, but she (and I) would prefer the Firebird Red. A couple of questions to those who have done a repaint:

What kind of paint did you use and did you use an overcoat? Epoxy on top? I have seen some recommendations for getting an auto-paint shop to shoot it, dunno if I will go that route yet. If anyone hasn't had a pro shop do it - what procedure did you use?

Anyone who has a Firebird paint job, or has redone a Firebird paint job, what color did you use? Since I don't have a red machine, I can't get them to color-match. Of course, the man in me says "ferrari red" or something similar, but I want to keep it as close as possible to original.

Powder coat is the best way to go and Doug(an HB sponsor) at Orphan Espresso powder coating does it for the Cremina case(strips and coats) and has matched the original Oly red which may be just about what your looking for.

Original Cremina red is sometimes referred to as "Ferrari red" but the original color is most definietely not this Ferrari red. The OEM red color has a bit more orange in it than Ferrari, which is more classic blood red....more heat in the blood red, whereas the Cremina red is warm, not hot. Swiss, you know. And the brown is not "harvest" but actually chocolate and some machines have a gold metalflake as well. Original cases, depending on the year have one coat of red preprimer, one coat cream pirmer, two coats color, and a clearcoat. Makes it nice and difficult to remove. these are from the 1980's. Before that they used cream colored primer and then color followed by clear and the oldest ones used just primer and paint with no clearcoat. The coppertone models (Euro origin usually changed over to v110 from earliest production) is the easiest paint to remove, 1980's browns are the hardest to remove. The frames started out silver or grey color then went on a long run of brown, followed by a blue grey on the 2002 models and into the current black. The red has been the same since the first red case appeared, and it has never been Ferrari red.

Apologies for resurrecting a bit of a dead thread here, but I'm going to repaint my blue Cremina soon and have a few questions.
First of all, when I rebuilt the machine, I had the frame powder-coated and couldn't be happier with the results - I feel like it's rust-proofed for the next 20 years.
Unfortunately, powder-coating the case would be considerably more expensive as it would become a a "specialty" colour, rather than semi-gloss black.
I'm starting to think of just doing a quasi-ghetto spray can job in the alley, my logic being that I can always have it sand-blasted and powder-coated in the future.
I've painted bike frames before with spray cans and they've stood up to much more abuse than my Cremina case ever will. I'm just wondering if folks can recommend what type of primer, paint and clear coat to use as well as any other tips that might be floating around out there.
Lastly - bit of a weird question, but any recommendations for an adhesive to re-apply my Cremina label after?
Thanks folks,
GB

(Oh, BTW - the photo below is "pre-restoration")

I wouldn't do it for a machine as valuable as a Cremina. Wonder what it would cost to have Doug at Orphan powdercoat it?

Hey Hal,
I was thinking the same thing, then I realized that Olympia themselves never powder-coated these babies.
The innards are better than brand new and the frame is rust free & powder-coated. I can't help but think I can get a great quality finish with a few layers of appropriate primer, paint and clear coat.
Don't get me wrong, I'm as big a Cremina fan as the next guy, I just feel like if I can do something that's going to look nice for $25 instead of paying someone to do something great for $250 - I'd rather put the savings aside to work on my Olympia Club...
I'm just wondering if an auto body shop would be a decent middle ground or if there are specific paints that might work better than others. Who knows, maybe getting someone with an airbrush would be a good solution...
I welcome any suggestions - just thought this could be a good thread to list some "how-to's" for those of us looking to keep costs low and quality high.

Your suggestion is the way I would go, I have a compressor and spray gun and would just use a quality auto paint, a couple of layers of tough clearcoat. A wax would be nice to protect the clearcoat.
I believe if you purchased quality aerosols and took your time you could get a result which would be far from ghetto. Can't be harder than a bike tank and certainly would not get bashed as much.

garth breaks wrote:Hey Hal,
I was thinking the same thing, then I realized that Olympia themselves never powder-coated these babies.

From the Swiss Products website:

However, not only the inside of the CREMINA is convincing. Espresso machine purists are also thrilled with its outer appearance: the massive chassis, the sturdy casing and the fittings are of the finest quality. The front with it's illuminated operation display, as well as the grate and tray are made of high-gloss polished stainless steel. Frame and casing are elaborately lacquered with especially resistant powder coating.

I can't imagine a spray can will get you there - but really only you have to be satisfied with it in the last analysis.

GB; powercoat is nice... but there is lots of nice looking spray jobs in other applications. I'm thinking a compressor, quality paint & gun, and some experimentation (on non-cremina parts!) is in order.
JC

I have been on all sides of this job....from Krylon to auto paint to powder coat and a lot depends on what issues there may be with the metal. For example, dents in the case are a real difficult problem for powder coating since in this method you strip the case down to bare metal either chemically or with abrasives and add back the coating. If you have a dent or other surface irregularity it will show up, or your attempt to work the dent out will show....so in such a case one likely has to use some textured surface powder after working out any dents as best as possible. Scratches deep in the metal are another problem, even though there are metallic fillers....one approach is multiple layers of metallic primer followed by wet sanding and more primer and more sanding until the scratch is perfectly filled. Has the potential for a lot of hand work to cure one little deep scratch.

Auto paint is great since it is a curing two part system and is formulated to be applied to vertical surfaces, such as you would do if you were to paint a case all in one shot. This has the advantage that you can work out a dent in the normal non metal magician manner, with bondo of course, and lots of wet sanding and glazing etc, to get the surface perfect before the paint. And auto paint is fairly easy to get a good glass surface on the paint and even better with a compatible clear coat.

Generic spray can has the same good points as auto paint, but is far cheaper, but with the basic problem of getting the paint to stay on the case when doing it with vertical surfaces, and if it is done in steps with the panels horizontal there is always the overspray to worry about. But you are right, if it looks bad you can always go to stripping and applying a more luxe coating.

As far as cost, the auto paint route is definitely not cheap. Last year I did some frames and large panels and the quart of premixed black gloss, the accelerator, the hardener, and the solvents....all had to be the same system ran about $100. Custom color would have been more and then clear coat even more. Both powder coat and auto paint are plastic paints....urethanes....which is good because they can flex and therefore resist chips. With powder coating you can invest in a Harbor Freight gun and a pound of powder for a lot less than just the auto paint system, but then again, there is a learning curve involved. In my case the learning curve was to powder coat the same Cremina case 12 times before I got it right....and taking off the coat 12 times. Like any coating job there is a learning curve and little margin for error and less for correction.....not like in the good old days of lacquer paint when you could spray, rub out, spray rub and with enough coats it would be beautiful. Auto paint is a one shot deal these days. Make a mistake and you have to start all over. Same with powder coat.

Actually, the Gondolas of Venice are finished with hand brushed and rubbed lacquer... no spraying just lots of coats, like high end classic coach work. Now that takes some practice! (and elbow grease).