I recently acquired a 1973 Bianchi. All Campagnolo Record parts, dropouts, and a number stamp in the seat cluster indicating it is a very early 1973 Specialissima or Team bike.
Last night I began the teardown, and was very happy to find all the bearing surfaces on the headset and bottom bracket to be in great shape. Crankset is very nice, no stress cracks and very little wear marks on the crankarms and chainrings.
I have been trying to find a decent paint match for the Celeste color of this bike. From what I've read, trying to match Celeste is like hitting a moving target. I tried going to various paint stores to get a chip match. No luck. I tried to get the frame and/or fork scanned. Again, no luck. Paint scanners require a flat surface in order to function. Years ago I tried this and the minimum size flat surface was about credit card sized. The other day I tried the local paint dealer and their scanner requires a quarter sized flat surface. The flattest part of the fork didn't work, so I was officially out of luck.
So, I turned to Jack Trumbull at Franklin Frames in Ohio. He did a repair for me several years ago on a Colnago Mexico, and I was very pleased with the results. I hear his paint jobs are excellent.
Jack recommended I get Testors white, yellow, and sky blue, and mix and match until I got something close. No hobby shops close by, so I did the next best thing, and went to the local hardware store and got several cans of Rustoleum spray paint.
This morning I started playing with colors and found something that worked. Take a look:
