I recently had Franklin Frames repaint my Cinelli. There was no question about preserving patina--the Cinelli had already been repainted by someone with a rattlecan. Franklin did a pretty good job. Chrome is good. Paint 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 rivets 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 idea 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 sent 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