Saw a De Rosa frame for sale. Thought I had no chance.

About a week later:









Italian. Ferrari Red. Chrome. My size.
I know almost nothing about the bike though. Looks like a repaint but the quality is nice and shiny.
What style of decals would this one have?

Should I be worried about this?

For decals, try

velocals.com

Inquire, if the two sheets shown don't meet your needs.

As for the separation, I'd return it.
Something is not right about that. It could cause a serious accident.
Something is FISHY.

From the paceline for $150? I wanted it but wasn't quick enough on the trigger...

I don't know about that separation, hopefully just a gap in the paint but it worries me a little. Wasn't there an issue with the seat collar and crown race too?

On the imaged bottom bracket shell gap- I would consider filling it with something inert, I have to think about what just so water does not collect from rain, spray or washing and cause corrosion.
Gaps are not good, but the strength of lugged construction is that even poorly built units hold up just fine.
My bet the original owner never knew about it until he got it resprayed, and the guy doing the repaint did not fill the gap. I have seen enough naked bikes to know that the painter is the brazers best friend, or can be.

Looks nice. It probably doesn't get any better than a red De Rosa. I'm sure there are plenty of fine examples of De Rosa's in this forum to get a good idea of the decals you might need. As for the paint crack - my gut feeling is that it's just a case of the new paint job shrinking when it was settling down after being painted. I'm confident a touch-up will solve the issue.

I think you are optimistic here. but I really doubt it will break.

I used a small needle to poke around then a small blade to remove some more paint. It's almost impossible to take a good picture of, but I don't see a crack. Maybe a little bit more brass could've prevented such a sharp transition causing the paint the crack. What do you guys think? Seller seems like a great guy so it probably just passed by him.

The only thing I have to go on in terms of decals is that chainstay decals. It uses the "De Rosa" with three geometric shapes, one white and one yellow. The third one is gone. Seems like this might it. What years was this decal style used?:


The seat collar is a bit tight, so that would probably need a little cold setting. I don't have a proper crown race but I'm thinking shim, a little brass, or the knurdling.

I worked at a shop many years ago that stocked Raleigh bicycles.

We would go through new shipments carefully making sure the shipped Raleigh framesets were safe and fit to ride.

Brazing issues and in some cases, loose dropouts.

This De Rosa surely would have passed in that situation.

The gap needs to be filled and cleared.

Seat collar/pinched ears and crown race should be attended to by a decent shop, unless of course the new owner has some capabilities.

This ebay link should get you started for decals.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw...ecals&_sacat=0

.....and finally, not mine, but this De Rosa will get you started in the right direction.

You might get a decent rider out of this deal.

I was about to buy this off the paceline too, but I absolutely did not need it.

Fill it up with touch-up paint or something more substantial like brass?

'Gomango' is onto something. I think he is suggesting to fill the paint crack with a filler and repaint it or strip the area back and fill it with bronze or silver solder. Lots of frames have gaps between the tube and the lug and as 'repechage' says, "The painter is the brazers best friend, or can be." Painters can hide poor brazing jobs by applying a thick coat of paint. As he also says, you cannot allow water, etc, to get into the gap and cause real problems. Fortunately, your frame looks to be just painted as well as being very clean and most probably free of corrosion.

As you indicate. the area is not cracked and you can see the bronze. It's probably just a poor brazing job on that area of the joint. 'Repechage' is not worried that the joint braking and neither would I be.

My suggestion, as I said before is to touch up the paint to fill the gap and match the colour (perhaps that's a little more than I said before).

Better prep by the repainter and you would never know.

+1

Might as well do it correctly at this point.

Do you have access to a builder and painter?

Brass or silver solder would take very little effort as Gary mentioned, but it will require some touch up painting.

....or live on the "wild side" with the paint fill idea, but just mask that very small area and clear it with a few coats.

The way I see it is you received a very inexpensive De Rosa frameset that has a few issues.

Sink a few bucks/time into these issues, find the proper decal set and build it.

You'll still have a great riding De Rosa on the cheap if you don't go too wild with the build.

JB Weld?

While I doubt the gap is going to affect the structural integrity, it's definitely not what I would expect to see on a DeRosa. Regardless, given that it is on the BB shell, it's very easy to verify the actual penetration by looking inside the BB shell.

Agreed on both points.

Maybe alterations during its life in regards to the bb?

Those would look pretty cool

What should I be looking for? Also, if this is SLX should I expect to see rifling in all tubes leading to the BB. The downtube doesn't seem to have any. Is it possible that the downtube and/or toptube might have been replaced?

Upside down pic of the BB:


The BB and fork also have an "X" on them. BB serial is 38.

Sure it's possible.

It could easily be SL.

For the money paid, I would fill the gap and touch it up.

Then build it up and ride it for a while. Recheck the repair,
and decide them if I want to put decals on it.

It was priced very low for a reason. Not that it can't be a very good rider.

I don't think that spot will give you any trouble at all. But be best to keep an eye on it, just in case.

But before I spent any money on decals or any High dollar stuff, I would ride it and be sure.

Took it to the LBS. The two oldest mechanics there looked over the frame. Downtube seems original due to the workmanship in the BB. Probably SL to give the frame a softer ride. The cracks are cosmetic issues and suggested I only touchup. After reminiscing about the Italian frames that he used to get from 10 Speed Drive Imports he then referred me to a good machine shop knurl the crown race.

I feel better today.

Thought so.

You could really turn this into a beauty.

Look at Jet's pic for inspiration.

Stick with it.

If you want good advice on this bicycle, shoot Teetime a pm.

He will set you straight on this matter.