Marcus,
Refurbishing a standard Cinelli seems like an easy job; but Cinellis are deceivingly difficult to make look close to the original. The main issue is the color. One must look for a real fine grain silver and apply it correctly in order for it to look proper. I have to use different paint for making Euro type metallics that look correct for Italian bikes of the period. These colors show sanding scratches and such real well, so extra work is required to use these more correct colors. The finishing details also make a huge difference as to how correct it looks, as does correct decal placements.
There are a lot of issues related to the plating also, especially on Cinellis. The seat stays are VERY vulnerable to rusting through from the inside on account of how the original chrome was done (lacking proper drainage of the seat stays). If you want stuff that looks really close to the original and done properly all the way around, you have to pay the big bucks. Fact of life.
Let me say a few words about chrome plating. This is true here in So Cal, which means sooner or later it will be true for everyone. We seem to be the first with the most strict controls for the environment and the first to have to respond to government regulations, and therefore the first to have to raise prices to cover this. Our platers are working at the strictest and cleanest (as in overkill as usual) standards in the country. Thanks to everyone who bitches about global warming and every other potential hazard to mankind they can think of. That's fine, we need to cherish Mother Earth for sure, so QUIT bitching about what it costs to do a real authentic paint job with the best materials, authentic high quality decals, and environmentally compliant plating companies. Our plating costs have more than tripled since the year 2000, and I don't think we've seen the end of it. Eventually, plating will be only for the very rich; or those who recognize the time, experience, and effort it takes to make this stuff happen.
There's a LOT more to it. But I'm sure most don't want to hear all of what we have to deal with to do top class painting and restoration. You might end up thinking our work is a bargain, God forbid; and even start to wonder how someone would want to do this much work for $20,000 per year. Hummmmm.
The complaints would REALLY start to come in if I charged each person the dollars per hour they make while I did their restoration.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
I recently had Franklin Frames repaint my Cinelli. There was no questio n
about preserving patina--the Cinelli had already been repainted by someo ne
with a rattlecan. Franklin did a pretty good job. Chrome is good. Pai nt
edges are crisp. Paint is not too thick.
But the color is wrong. It is silver, but not Cinelli silver. There is
way too much metal flake in the paint. There is a place on the downtube
where it feels like a corner of a decal wants to poke through the
clearcoat. I supplied a replica headbadge. Jack attached it with rivet s
rather than screws. The whole job took over three months. It cost $550 ,
and it is not quite perfect. I know that most people won't notice these
little things, and that handwork requires time, and one should expect
variation, but I am just a bit bummed at how it turned out.
What is a person to do under these circumstances? I cannot bear the ide a
of sending it back to Franklin and asking Jack to repaint it the right
color. I guess the answer is to live with it. Have any of you ever sen t
a frame back to the painter? How bad does it have to be before one can
reasonably ask for a redo?
When you see my Cinelli at Cirque, please tell me how nice it looks, so
that I will feel better
Best regards,
Marcus Helman
Huntington Woods, MI