I have a 78(?) Bertin with well preserved decals. Is there a clear coating that will protect them, that is not a solvent ? Any other suggestions?
Thanks,
Charlie

Veloskin makes a great kit for this, you can find it at Excel Sports. Link below.

Veloskin

I'd think acrylic lacquer would be better than a clear enamel; the vehicle in acrylic lacquer evaporates a lot more quickly than that in enamels. The less time the vehicle spends around the decal surfaces, the better.

DominickG and mswantak, thanks for the help.
Charlie

I've been wondering about this myself. I need to double check what type of clear coat I got from DupliColor for my new paintjob. I don't want the decals mswantak is making up for me to be deformed in any way because of the clear coat I use.

I think you'll have good luck with the Dupli-Color clear coat. When I painted my old le tour frame, I used Dupli-Color primer, color, and clear-coat. I think I ended up putting three coats of clear-coat on, and I must say the paint came out looking very "factory." The Dupli-Color paints all seem to dry fairly quickly, and judging by the fumes, I'd say they're definitely lacqer-based paints. I had stripped the frame of all the old crumbling decals, so I can't say for sure what affect the clear-coat would have on decals, but I really think you'd be okay with it. It seems to be high quality stuff.........btw, Cuda2k, aren't you working on an old Centurion? A lady in my neighborhood has asked me to do some work on her old bike so she can get into riding again, and when I went to look at it, it was a Centurion. I had seen those bikes around before, but not paid much attention to them. Hers is a mid to late '80's "Accordo," which appears to be an entry-level or mid-line bike, but it's got double butted 4130 Tange tubing, nice lugs, and the kind of relaxed geometry I really appreciate. I was very impressed, and am looking forward to working on the bike. Unfortunately, it will be at least a couple of weeks before I'll have time, but I must say it's a nice old bike-

well biked - yeah, my new frame is a Centurian. Early 80's Sport DLX model. Tange Infinity tubing (main triagle only I'm guessing), nice lugs, originally came with Suntour AR II derailleurs.

I'm currently repainting it (was a dark blue, not it's a medium sapphire blue, (DupliColor Metal Specks 'Ocean Blue' paint) and getting the custom decals and putting a 7speed 105 group on it. Hope to have it all put together by mid October (and hope to get at least a few miles on it before things get really chilly). I have a picture of the bike as I recieved it before strip down here: https://thecuda.com/bikes.html (bottom of the page). So far I've primered and put the first coat of color on the bike, second coat color hopefully some time this week, and clear after getting the decals in.

Centurians in general, from what I have gathered, were well made like most Japanese imported bikes, the Dave Scott IronMan models being their top end models in the late 80's. Someone posted an extensive history of the brand in the 'introduction' forum (of all places) a few weeks ago.

The really old Centurions you see around -- the ones with the paint job and decal lettering that look like a Raleigh Grand Prix -- were actually intended to be imported and sold by Raleigh (this recounted to me by my LBS guy who was a Raleigh dealer then). Apparently at the last minute Raleigh (in an example of their stellar business acumen) decided they didn't need a foreign-built entry level bike, and they ended up being sold as Centurions. At some point several years later the production was taken over by Miyata, and it's during this period they produced the jewel-like CrMo models that established their reputation. All good things come to an end, and by the late '80s production moved to Taiwan where labor was cheaper. The Taiwanese bikes while still good, don't deserve to share the same badge with the Miyata-built examples.