Charles,
After looking at the photos, my inclination would be to have the frame restored. It's a bit like deciding to heavy cut back a tree, when you can see and then decide you must bring out the better character that is camouflaged by all the extraneous growth. The beauty of that bike seems very clouded to me, dormant under the poor touchups and whatever, and it tells me that it wants to breathe it's message again, as presumably it's better days once revealed. Personally, rarely do I lean towards restorations, unless cleanup and a lot of effort polishing won't make the bike reasonably cheerful. That is one very unhappy frame there that needs rescuing.
Dennis Young Hotaka, Japan
>
> I am now the lucky owner of the aforementioned
> Carpenter f/f recently on ebay: http://tinyurl.com/
>
> My apologies to anyone I outbid. In the usual post-auction
> remorse I must say I had a moment of "what the hell am
> I doing."
>
> Nonetheless, now that I'm the caretaker, I'm mulling over
> a problem that we'll be talking about at the cirque during
> the Saturday presentations, to wit, restoration.
>
> I've paid for many restorations; but the problem never
> gets any easier to resolve.
>
> I'm very tempted to leave the frame as it is, have it shipped
> here, and, by and by, I'll put it together.
>
> However, the frame really does look pretty toasted, right on
> the edge of my personal line for a restoration.
>
> And...Argos in Bristol is very reasonable for restorations
> of frames like this, and would do an excellent job (although
> their pin-striping on the seat-stay caps is on the crude side).
>
> Argos could restore the frame to better-than-new...but then,
> of course, it wouldn't be original anymore. And the cost,
> while reasonable compared to prices here, will still be
> significant.
>
> So...what would you do?
>
> Please cc me in any post to the list.
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> Charles Andrews
> SoCal