I recently purchased a mid (approx. 1975) Cinelli frameset from a guy in Belgium. The frame looked pretty good from photos and appeared to be wearing original (rose) paint. It showed up dirty with marks and scrapes here and there. I carefully cleaned/polished the frame and the original finish came up beautifully. Imagine my surprise when I realized that the frameset was actually N.O.S. and had never been built up! Initially I noticed no clamp marks on the top tube or seat tube, then no marks on the derailleur cable guides from cable wear, no impressions on the dropouts from wheels having been clamped, and no impressions on the brake bridges from brake calipers having been installed! Finally, a small amount of paint inside the rear derailleur mounting boss! As the owner of other original paint Cinellis, I am convinced this absolutely an original paint frame with original decals.
With the recent discussion on Cinelli restoration, I thought I would post some detailed pictures on Wooljersey as a point of reference:
http://www.wooljersey.com/
As much as I would like to preserve the frame as-is, I am not the curator of a museum! I can't help myself from wanting to build it up. My plans are to build it with 1st generation Super Record, including a Pat. '75 SR rear derailleur, N.O.S. SR titanium bottom bracket, Fiamme Ergal rims mounted to high-flange SR hubs, and a cool, milled Superleggera 26.2 post sourced from the list. I also have an N.O.S. set of Giro D' Italia bars and matching 1A stem, flat lever calipers, N.O.S. Unicanitor saddle that nearly matches the color of the frame, and Benotto tape that also matches the frame color.
I plan to document the build and post pictures on Wooljersey when complete.
Jeff Pyzyk
Milwaukee, WI