Emanuel,
I understand your perspective quite clearly, but with some regularity, perfectly nice vintage frames are found in un-original paint. Consider the Raleigh Professional that I found (with a little help from some friends):
I felt absolutely no qualms about sending this out for paint. I also feel no qualms about taking some liberties in how it is getting repainted.
This bike, on the other hand, despite 50+ years removal from it's original glory, is not on my repainting schedule:
Hopefully, I'll be able to bring both of these with me to le Cirque.
No doubt there are some people who just prefer their bike to look brand new, and while I wouldn't consider that a cause to get it painted, who's to say they are "wrong" or "misguided"? It would be a dull world indeed if we all held the same opinions. :)
Cheers,
John Barry
Mechanicsburg, PA, USA
> The bicycle restoration business must be an awfully
> fussy
> world. I bet that a good portion of the US painters
> are
> dealing with concours-level restoration work and
> must
> factor in to their prices the cost of dealing with
> ultra-finicky emotion-laden frame jobs and their
> similar
> owners.
>
> In the UK, I may assume that more is the utilitarian
> re-spray -- fine work indeed, perhaps not catered to
> a
> trophy-wielding judge, though.
>
> I come from the world of rare cameras, where
> restoration is
> a no-no, except in the most extreme of extreme
> cases. A
> rare camera would not be repainted, lest it lose
> most of
> its appeal as a collectile. Functional repair is
> usually
> acceptable, if with period-correct parts.
>
> I'm a little surprised by the willingness to repaint
> bikes,
> given that -- other than the builder's brazing craft
> and
> geometric details -- the painted/chromed finish is
> what
> typically distinguished one marque from the other.
> The
> original paint job seems to me to be intrinsic to
> what the
> bike is aesthetically and originally, even if
> compounded by
> Time's patina.
>
> Just my 2 cents.
>
> Emanuel Lowi
> Montreal, Quebec
>
>
> Ask a question on any topic and get answers
> from real people. Go to Yahoo! Answers and share
> what you know at http://ca.answers.yahoo.com
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