I recently had 2 early 1970s raleighs repainted, and I still have about 6 original bikes in my garage. i worked out some rules to help the painter to get a perfect repaint. Here they are, including some new ones just measured in my garage.
(a) Start by inserting the 1974 large catalogue page JPEG (23.5" frame) from http://www.bulgier.net into a cad program like MS-Visio. Measure the 1.125 seat tube with a CAD line and then scale the whole picture so that one tick-mark is an inch.
http://www.bulgier.net/
(b) Now using hand-drawn measurement lines, you can deduce the width of all seat panels, and the distance between seat-panels. Also, with blow-ups you can find out which lug shorelines need which type of gold outlining. You can get just about all the info to restore a 23.5" bike from this picture. But, in case you don't have it, i offer the following rules :
(c) On my bikes, the 21.5", 22.5" bikes have 8.5 inches of rear seatstay chrome from center of dropout up the tube. The 23.5" bikes have 9.5" of chrome, although one 1970 international is an exception with 8.5 inches of chrome. The chainstays on all bike sizes are all 8 inches of chrome.
(d) Anyway, to get the placement of the seat-tube center decal - a line from the top of the fork crown to the start-of-chrome on the rear seat stay was a centerline for the seat-tube CARLTON decal on my 23.5" bikes.
(e) A common mistake by painters is to paint the forks too long ; raleighs had very high chrome. I just measured 2 original bikes in my garage, and they have 11 inches of chrome and 4-4.5 inches of paint below the seat lug shoreline. When in doubt, use 4-4.5 inches of paint below the shoreline.
(f) The model names are placed close to the head lugs. There is only 1" of space between the last iota of model name and the head-lug shoreline on my 1974 internationals.
(g) The model names are placed high so that the tops of the baselines (I_n_t_, by baseline I mean the top edge of "_" parts of the name) are at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock. That's so high that some parts of the names might overlap on the top tube! Have no fear! You'd think they belong at 4:30 and 7:30 but the decals are placed to be readable from above the bike.
(h) Downtube decals, 6.5" - 7" from the top surface join to the head TUBE (no matter where the shifter boss appears, some move 1" up and down the tube.) One exception is a 1970 supercourse with an 8.5" distance to Raleigh script. Block letter Centerline, roughly at 2:30 and 9:30. Alternately, block letters have 1/2"+ of empty space between both decals at the top of the downtube.
(i) The chainstay decals are placed at least 3/4" from the chrome, or at least 8.5 inches from the center of the dropouts, whichever is greater (one bike of mine has enormously long chrome, 9.5 inch placement). The center line of these decals (middle line of E in raleigh) belongs at 2 o'clock. These decals are a little bigger, and so the baseline is a little below 3 o'clock. When in doubt, look at the frame from the side, and have the tops of RALEIGH should just graze the top of the tubes.
(j) Use the right decals for the right year
Reynolds 531 seat tube. Note that Raleigh was usually 6-12 months behind the latest reynolds production in terms of decals : decal belongs about 1/2" from the lug shoreline.
70-73 no gold band, the late 60's decal 74-74 'reynolds tube co', wide gold at bottom 75 'reynolds tube co' or perhaps 531 (R)egistered trademark, the trademark was registered in 1975. 76 not sure, either 531 (R)egistered trademark, or '(TI) Reynolds'. 77 '***531***' and '(TI) Reynolds' in gold band area, like schwinn paramount, on usa bikes.
Forks 70-72 'Reynolds 531 Fork Blades *' or 'Carlton, Race-proved' belt buckle 73-76 same reynolds decal, or 'Carlton, Race-proved' triangle
Bottom Bracket belongs about 1/2" from lug shoreline, mount frame-fit zefal HPX to miss it. 70-71 'Carlton, Race-proved' belt buckle 72 'Carlton, Race-proved' belt buckle or triangle, i've seen both 73-76 'Carlton, Race-proved' triangle
Seat Tube 70 anniversary badge 71-72 'Carlton', man-on-bike. 73-76 'Carlton', block letters, 2 rectangles
Downtube 70 '_____Raleigh_____' script 71-72 'Raleigh' script 73-75 'RALEIGH' bolt italics
Seat Stays 70 '____________' gold pinstriping
Model Name 70-76 Varies, only P_r_o_f_e_s_s_i_o_n_a_l_ and C_o_m_p_e_t_i_t_i_o_n_ were the same in every year. 70-72 various decals for (INTERNATIONAL), -SuperCourse-, etc. 73-76 script used for all models
Mixte 70-76 mixte's had the model name on the chain stays.
Headbadge 69-70 anniversary badge 71-76 Raleigh stamped _brass_ with _indents_ Nottingham England hollow aluminum rivets 77 same badge solid aluminum rivets
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA, USA