Our Craft
Frame Building & Painting
From traditional frame building techniques to the final baked finish, every Mercian frame is a labour of love and expert skill.
Frame Building & Painting
From traditional frame building techniques to the final baked finish, every Mercian frame is a labour of love and expert skill.
Our frames are built entirely by hand in Derby, using traditional methods passed down from builder to builder
One craftsman builds each frame from start to finish, meaning your frame bears the stamp of his personal craftsmanship—visible even on the unique frame number etched under your bottom bracket. When your order is placed, we produce a CAD drawing to confirm geometry and braze-ons. Every frame is constructed from Reynolds tubing tailored to your build—whether 631, 725, 853, 853 Pro Team.
The hand‑cut lugwork—such as heart‑shaped or clover‑leaf cutouts on models like the King of Mercia or Strada Speciale, or meticulously crafted spearpoint lug embellishments on the Vincitore Special—is filed entirely by hand for a distinctively Mercian finish
Once the tubing is carefully mitred and aligned, the frame is pinned and brazed using the open‑hearth technique — a delicate process since the 1940s that avoids overheating and offers future repairability: individual tubes can be undone and replaced if needed.
After brazing, braze-ons (e.g. bottle bosses, cable guides, rack eyelets) are added per specification. The frame is then shot‑blasted clean and paired with your chosen components before entering the painting process.
Where Craftsmanship Meets Colour
With the frame built and checked, the artistry shifts from the builder to our paint and finishing team. Painting takes approximately four weeks from start to finish. Each frame is first coated with an etch primer, left to air dry in a clean, dust-free environment, and then sanded by hand to create a flawless base.
Flamboyant paints are translucent coloured paints sprayed in a number of coats over a silver or gold base coat. There is no pearl in the flamboyant paint itself, the sparkle and light reflections come from the base coat which shines through the flamboyant top coat in daylight. A Finish very popular on 60's and 70's custom cars and motorcycles that became known as a "Candy" finish due to its apparent depth creating a layer that appears like a crystal clear boiled sweet over metallic. It is a three-part finish, the first application is a highly metallic base, over which a translucent coloured coat is applied to give a deep " Toffee Apple" effect that, while quite subtle in the shade, bursts into a spectacular deep glitter in the sunlight. The third layer is a deep layer of Lacquer to emphasise, protect, and enhance the deep, "glass" like effect of the "candy" layer.
Enamel paints are deep gloss paints, no sparkle in the paint, but a vibrant rich colour with a wide choice of colour options. A very traditional finish, particularly associated with the 1920's automobile industry, and Fender guitars in the form of nitro-cellulose paints. A simple, flat, and very opaque colour which once lacquered can be polished to a high gloss finish.
Pearl paints have a small metallic flake in the paint, not at all garish but a subtle sparkle in the paint itself giving depth and reflection, a fabulous looking paint in the sunshine. A more modern finish often seen on modern cars and motorcycles that incorporates tiny metallic particles into the pigmented binder, thus producing a rich metallic finish once lacquered.
Polychromatic paints are ‘flatter’ metallic paints, they are metallic but no pearl/flake. A lovely bright metallic paint for those who don’t want too much sparkle. Similar to pearl, except the metallic particles are much, much smaller creating a "flatter" and "smoother" finish that retains the reflective qualities without the larger "Glitter" like particles.
Customise your paint finish
Over 60 colour options to choose from, most are hand-mixed in-house, from classic enamels to flamboyant, pearl, and polychromatic effects.
We use high-quality stove enamel paints - more environmentally friendly than two-pack systems - which are baked in an oven to ensure durability and a vibrant finish. With over 60 colour options to choose from, most are hand-mixed in-house, from classic enamels to flamboyant, pearl, and polychromatic effects. Customers can even supply their own samples - like a fabric swatch or car colour - for us to match.
Once the main colour scheme has been created using multiple layers of paint, stoving and precision masking, the final detailing such as lug-lining and decals is meticulously hand applied before multiple layers of clear stoving enamel are applied to seal everything beneath a tough, hard, protective layer.
Finally, we clean any remaining paint from the threads and seat tube, and each frame is inspected one last time before it leaves our workshop
