Michael and others. Per the Cinelli resoration, "I've (Michael Shiffer) planned the restoration of my basket-case Cinelli as if I was restoring a show car- great paint".
I am very happy to see the excellent steps Michael has already taken to restore the Cinelli he purchased on eBay (replaced the missing chainstay brace and filled in the gaping rectangular BB hole (great job by the folks at Bilenky plus a superfast job!!!).
In my opinion, too many collectors over restore both bikes and cars by putting on better paint than the piece ever would have originally had. Most Cinelli's I ever looked at had far from perfect show paint jobs, as they were intended to be ridden, raced, or in other words, put to good riding use as they were intended. I recall seeing another Cinelli at Cirque that had a beautiful, and I mean beautiful perfect paint job, but it would have never left the Cinelli shop looking that pretty!
To each his or her own, but spending a ton of money to repaint a bike with a paint job that it would have never originally had is something I clearly can't comprehend.
After all, they are just bicycles, meant to be ridden, not hung on a wall.
Don't get crazy on me now!
Regards,
Kevin Kruger - Grantville, PA