I took a look at a 3Rensho yesterday that was for sale on CL. He said it had "some corrosion" on the top tube, but....wow. I should have taken a picture or 3, but I'll try to describe it.

For at least 6" along the TT, right behind the headseat, it was missing half the paint on the side, and had corroded to the point where there was rough orange-peel rust. There was paint missing in many other spots, but this was by far the worst.

He let me take it to Yellow Jersey to get it appraised, and in the meantime I realized that the large Campy chainring was cracked. Yikes.

The owner of Yellow Jersey said that the rust wasn't bad enough to be unsafe to ride, but it needed immediate attention. He quoted me around $600 for a complete repaint with decals. He said that Waterford would run about $900.

The seller wanted $500 for the bike! Eventually he came down to $400, but I didn't buy it. Yeah, all the Campy parts might be worth that, but the bike was in really rough shape. It's sad to see a bike of that quality in such neglected condition.

sounds like it might be sweat-rust from use on a trainer..., $400 might be a tad high if if really HAS to have an immediate re-paint, but...they ARE nice bikes, and will probably appreciate. If you can live with a touched-up bike until you have $$ for the full-tilt restoration, might still be worth it.

Was this clown the original owner?

Nope, not the original owner, but he's the one responsible for letting it rust. He said he left it out in a damp storage room for years.

Yeah, I might have paid $400, if the large chainring didn't need replacing. It made me worry about other stuff that I might not have noticed. Someone else can deal with it.

Sounds like my bike. I really need to do something about it. I sweat a lot.

That's too bad. I'm sure you could get a cheaper repaint though, in my neck of the woods it's 3x less.

sounds like it sat on the trainer for a while. The towel that I have stretched over mine gets soaked in that location. And man, we sweat distructive stuff. The price is not really unreasonable for a repaint/redecal, but if the color is mainstream and the rest of the bike finish is okay, you could seek out someone who could do restoration work just on the toptube.

That would make the bike a little more reasonable.

Really? I found Yellow Jersey's prices abhorrent-

$450 for a paintjob, plus an extra $200 for GIOS blue, plus $100 for decals, and something else... was it shipping? At the end of the day, they wanted $900 to repaint a Gios, and my logic was:

At that price I can get a Cat. 1 frame/fork paintjob from Cyclart. (Actually Cyclart quoted $800, so...)

Anyway, I don't have enough examples of Yellow Jersey's work to justify their price, but they do have an affinity for 3Renshos there, it would be a fun investment if it fits you and you've got the time to save- it's a good bike.

I used to really try to support Yellow Jersey, just due to being a Wisconsin institution, and their support of vintage bikes, but I find them more and more to be over priced and really hard to deal with.

Sad, but true. They've got the ALE Inox toe clips I'd been looking for, but wanted $50 for them!

(After paying $30 for a pair from England ["AT LASST!"], a week later Rivendell found a big ol' box of 'em for $12 each.)