I could not believe my luck finding this..in my size. Or actually this is the trophy of one year of manically hunting classic lightweights. But still, Cinellis was not sold here (sweden) and...well I am lucky. I think I have arrived now.
The Cinelli was brought here by an american and kindly left here when he sold his house here and returned to the states. The frame is an early 60's with the oil port on the BB. It has an Nouvo Record group pat 73, the wheels are from the early 80's - Campy Record in Super Champion rims.

The bike was in great shape when it was put aside I believe, you can tell that someone cared for his bike...and liked to ride it.
The last owner, who bought the american gentlemans (got to be) house and got a Cinelli SC with it, did not care for it at all (he was thinking of throwing it away). So it has been hanging in a damp garage for the last 10 years.

The paint has many chips in it with some suraface rust in them, especially the seatstays, this dont bother me so much though.
It's the top tube. It had two bubbles in the paint, under the cable clip an on the side, that I had to get rid of (as you can see). Still, moist (rust) is crawling like very fine veins along one side of the top tube. So what do you think I should do? Just touch up the spots I opened on the top tube, wax the bike and pray for a very slow rust process? Repaint just the toptube and maybe the seatstays? Repaint the entire bike (I'm not leaning much towards this..)?

For maximum value and authenticity preserve it and leave it alone.

Hi,

Nice find. Sound's like you're not too bothered by the original condition but, as you say, the top tube rust is concerning. I vote for touching the Cinelli up where you think necessary (top tube) and giving it a clean and wax.

I've been successful touching up bikes in a similar condition with an airbrush. The colour should be relatively easy to match.

I'd be interested in other opinions.

Best of luck,

Gary.

to quote the Beatles

" Let it Be"

nuff said

When I sanded my peugeot for a respray, I found rust spots that were not visible before the sanding. So, just touch ups may not lead you everywhere you want to go. I am happy with the end result, as it looks brand new. It also features new old stock decals. I vote for the respray. Go for a respray or do one yourself.

Is it going to be a rider? If so, touch it up.

If you plan on selling for $$$$, leave it to the next owner.

Leave it as is and take some nice pictures in the sunlight for us

That is the holy grail of bike finds, in my opinion. Congratulations!

I vote for waxing and leaving alone. But, if you're certain that you could get the touch up to match well, that wouldn't be too bad either. I'd only really object to a total repaint. I'd much rather see it in its original beauty, than to see a repaint. To paraphrase iab, "It's only original once."

Beautiful! I hope to have a similar posting here some day!

If you're keeping it, and plan on never selling it, my vote is for repaint.

I have yet to 'touch up' a paint job on a frame, but have seen many that have been touched up and big buxs on ebay (recently a white px10)

Carefully scrape off the rust with a tiny modeller's knife removing the least paint possible. Touch in all of the scrapes, scratches and nicks with a matching paint. If you can't get an exactr match, go for a shade darker. Then wax the whole thing. I'd be tempted to completely strip and respray the whole thing if I could get original decals - but it would lose a lot of originality and that would be a real shame.

I vote for a good touch up job, given it's age and past neglect it's still in remarkable condition. Take your time stripping down to bare frame, give it a careful go over with some delicate tools to remove all rust and treat it with rust proofing. Then clean and polish the parts and reassemble the whole thing back to its original condition.
It would be a real shame to destroy all the original decals.

If you do any reno to it such as a repaint or even a touch-up,

it will be "just another", CINELLI SC.

If you kill the rust with (hate to say this) WD-40 or deck wash

and then wax it, it will be HISTORY rather than "history".


Regards,
J T

Looks good to me as is. Stop the rust though.

Looks almost new compared to my SC.

Personally, I LOVE cleaned, polished and tuned bikes that have seen a lot of use.

Cyclart does touch ups. It won't be cheap, but that bike is worth it.

It's only original once. If you like money, don't repaint.

Thank you all for all your opinions, very much appreciated! I still dont know what to do or not to do though! Many views here.
It's definitely a rider, not wall art (well yes during the winter). And I'm not selling.
I much like the well used but not abused look it has now. And definitely so, it's only original once.

But I dont want it to rust away of course.

A professional repaint of the top tube, seatstays and a pros touch up for the rest of the bike would be fair to it I think, but I dont have the money for it. We dont have any companies like Cyclart here so I would have to turn to a MC-painter.

So I'm not doing any repaint or touch up myself. Decided.

Im going to stop the rust with WD-40 and a wax job then. I've ordered a can of J.P. Weigles Framesaver also..

But how to stop the rust under the top tube paint? Not doable without removing the paint of course? Maybe this rust will move very very slow now, when the bike is living with me in a warm apartment : ) ? Then just leave it?

What do you think I should do with the spots I opened on the top tube? Nail polish.. or/and a Campagnolo sticker?

And lots of pictures is coming up, all the parts is being cleaned...

It is important to keep the bike in a dry environment. Rust needs water to grow (yeah, or nitric acid or anything that presents the hydronium ion...) and it doesn't happen fast. The bubbles and tracks under the paint can only be really fixed by removing the paint in the area, removing the rust, and refinishing the wound...but then you are taking off the original paint, and so we're back to the original discussion. Just keep it dry, and when you ride it in the wet, be sure and get it back to dry as quickly as possible.

It'll last longer than any of us, that way...

i agree,

let it be.. the chips tell the story of the bike, and do not detract from it at all.

Don't touch it up. No matter how smooth you get the touchup paint to be (with compounds), it'll always look "touched up."

Of the two evils, leaving a half-dozen scratches looks far more palatable then marking the frame with a half-dozen glaring touchups.

-Kurt

the mona lisa... touch-up, repaint or leave it alone. stop the rust if you can, but otherwise just leave it be. once you've put more paint on it, it will never be the same. about 7 years ago, i touched up the paint on an old 51' shwinn spitfire cruiser and have been barely able to look at myself in a mirror since.

Ok you have convinced me, no touch up! And thank you for sparing me the shame and self hatered of putting a mediocre touch up job on this bike.. I can look at myself and smile back in any mirror for the years to come..

The wound I opened on the top tube, the bare metal, should I seal it with something? Clear nail polish?

Clear nail polish, and lock yourself in a closet for a week for opening up that hole in the paint on the top tube. (After all, did you ever stop to think think that it'd be far less painless in the future to do so on the bottom of the tube?)

-Kurt

That's not so bad.
This is bad:



And I don't plan on doing anything to it.