I have had several frames resprayed by Argos since 1978, two of them this year. One they did in 2006 they warned me that my choice of flamboyant finish would be a bit fragile. They were right, it chipped quite easily and this was one of the frames I had redone this year. Not because the flamboyant finish was too far gone but because I'd had a repair job done which I 'd covered in Hammerite so the whole thing really needed redoing. This is my hack so gets a fair bit of abuse and bad weather. This time I stayed away from flamboyant and went for a very basic single colour, Ferrari Red. I've been riding this on and off for 6 months now and I managed not to scratch it when assembling. I think perhaps these old solid colours are more durable, and perhaps they harden over a couple of months. The other frame they did for me was in a metallic Verde. I managed to chip this by dropping a spanner when assembling it, but other than that it seems ok. In 2005 I had a touring frame done in Ice Blue. This is seldom used but the only scratches are from my abuse.
The answer is - yes, the flamboyant finishes are a bit fragile. The metallic ones may be a little as well. Perhaps the paints from the RAL and BS charts are more robust. It depends a bit on your expectations. My flamboyant one lasted 10 years with a few chips, and I would still have it that way if it did not need a respray for other reasons, but since it was my hack the appearance was not that important.
