Interesting ended auction here, what appears to be an early 70s GC, in a later re-paint by Alberto Masi probably? Looks original on cursory inspection, but the graphics are much later than the frame, yes?
Charles Andrews Los Angeles
Charles;
No, the cross-hair decals look correct for the frame, as do the crests... later crests had white halos, these do not, that would put them around 1972 (yes, there was one later crest with no white halos, but it had a thicker black borders and other differences that don't match the earlier design). Only thing that's out of place is the Alberto sig... Gran Crits with Alberto decals always seem to have either a twin plate crown or an Alberto-style slotted crown (usually sans crest). Paint thickness and lug fill look good, I think you're right that Alberto did the repaint. Also, the BB shell is a lot rougher than is usually seen... while some bottom brackets did get out with minimal smoothing, I have never seen one this rough... perhaps these are rust pits that were painted over?
One thing that looks out of place is the small letter above the oval window on the DT socket of the BB. This would be the initial of the Vig employee who built the bike... a practice that did not begin until after Alberto took over, which would be a few years after this one was built (the two holes on the seat tube tang suggest a pre-Alberto GC... his usually had a tiny elongated heart cutout). I suppose it's possible that the initial was the guy who refinished the frame? Other possibilities... it could perhaps be a later frame that was built with an earlier Fischer crown, or an older replacement fork? But that wouldn't account for the rough BB or two-hole seat lug.
Hmmm.... looking at it again, I see the BB shell is pretty rough on top too... I guess it just must be a rough shell that did not get filed much, if at all... seems like if rust pits that deep are all around the shell, there'd be some pitting on the adjacent tubes as well. Perhaps this was just the work of a new employee... that lower head lug also looks a pretty thick and ill-defined, not typical Masi work.
Bob Hovey
Columbus, GA USA
http://bhovey.com/