Congratulations Eddie on the new bike, sounds absolutely wonderful. I've never yet seen a bike with Caminargent decals... Photos please please ASAP...
Concerning the red paint, there is a misunderstanding, I never contested the fact that Caminargent bikes had paint in those places (I've seen several with remains of paint), it just seemed to me that the paint in the eBay bike was modern, the wrong match and quality, and showed signs of dribbles, so it should be removed and possibly redone correctly (if a "shiny" restoration is the aim). I could be wrong about this, that's just what the photos seemed to show. It really is difficult to judge a bike correctly from photos...
I know that everyone is touchy about criticism of their bikes (I am myself), but one of the reasons for the list is to try to help improve knowledge and understanding of classic bikes, and so long as the criticism remains objective and not personal, I think we should try not to get offended. Not easy, as past debate has shown... Should you not criticise a friend's bike? I am friendly with both Eddie and Jaouen, but I don't feel that should stop me giving a reasonable judgement of "their" bike. I trust I have offended neither of them...
Concerning the cranks, I agree with Jan that the round flutes are pre-war, but there is no proof that pointed flutes only appeared post-war... And I have seen a number of bikes with mismatched logos (different shapes, "marque" on one side not the other etc...) apparently fitted originally in this way (you of course never can tell for sure that a crank wasn't changed in the bikes history). I think makers just used whatever same length cranks they had to hand without bothering too much about matching logos, something maybe modern collectors get too neurotic about.
My hunch would be that the eBay bike has one original crank (round flute) one more modern, but without any certainty. And that is not a major problem of course.
The high value of the eBay bike was the apparently structurally sound frame with a super early serial number, not so much what came with the frame.
Alexander March
Bordeaux
France