The great Colnago issue: to respray or not to respray

I recently bought this '94 (?) Colnago bike. Former owner sold it to me as a C94 but I had my doubts about that. LFGSS-"connoisseur" Saarf thought it's a Crystal but yesterday, after a profound cleanup of the frame, I had my doubts about that too.

Now, after an intensive internet-search, I think I found out the truth about this bike. If the serial number (4Xyyy) refers to the year 1994 (as the former owner mentioned), this could be a Colnago Elegant. Elegant is said to be derived from EL, the tubing the first Elegant was built from. If (again), this is a 1994-specimen, it should be made froma Tange Prestige Competition.

C94, Crystal or Elegant, after yesterdays' cleanup, I'm thinking of having it resprayed.Yellow isn't exactly my colour and the frame has some paintchips, that's why.

But I'm in doubt. If I have it resprayed, than I will put a modern groupset on it because an old group shouldn't be put on a "new" frame, no? If I keep it this way, I put the Chorus 8 speed back on.

What do you think? Respray or not?

This is the frame:

and more photos here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gqere87uabo0dqb/AAD32zaFSiUtDbvQwRFEcd9ga?dl=0

Keep it!

And put a new group on :)

Why didn't I think about that option? ;-)

Congratulations, looks lovely.

Thanks you all!

2nd vote for keeping the yellow and putting a modern group on! needs a straight Colnago carbon fork though.

Just do get a silver groupset, if you can find such a thing in your wallet-range. Black parts would be a tragedy.

I'd put 8 or 9 sp on it myself.

Agreed. Paint isn't bad for a 20 year old ride. Silver bits would look good. Black crabon fork could be awesome or horrible, don't know...

I abstain on the fork question.

I'd put colnago flash fork, some campy modern groupset
and of course keep the paint

Thanks for the suggestions!

I have a chromed Precisa fork (original one) and somewhere in the bikeshed a carbon Flash so I can try both and see what looks best.

Silver Campy is in that same shed somewhere (have some older Record and Chorus groupsets waiting their for quite some time now) so that's no problem either; a new (11 speed) silver Campy would bring me too close to bankcruptcy because up to now I always had Shimano and Sram 10 speed so changing would mean buying new wheels on top.

I like taking things apart and putting them back together so I will start by building the bike with both Precisa and Flash fork, combined with the Record groupset and show the result.

Hi WimVDD, a little late to the party after you seem to have met a resolve but I'm all for a yellow colnago. It certainly looks lovely to me. The only downside I have experienced with repainting is the then urge to keep it perfect and from experience that has drawn a sudden halt to riding for fear of just a tiny chip to the new gleaming finish. I would keep it just as it is, it looks fab then yes get that record groupset you have and nice chrome forks. At least it'll be finished nice and quickly/cheaply then you can ride it whilst deliberating your next frame purchase to build something else!

Hi JusCos, I didn't make any decision so the party is not over yet. ;-) Thanks for sharing your thoughts about it! You're right about the respray, I recently sold my “modern” bike (CAAD 10), only keeping my steel ones. After I noticed I practically didn’t went out cycling anymore when raining, I got myself a beater-like aluminium bike again. ;-) Respraying makes the fear for water and dirt only worse.

This weekend I will try to get the BB out of the frame so I can remove the rust-chips that are inside the tubes (you can hear them when shaking the frameset) and spray tons of WD40 in it.

I'd definitely keep that paint, add a silver Campagnolo set and chrome forks. Beautiful.

JusCos has hit the nail on the head for me. I would be so afraid of putting a tiny chip in a freshly painted frame, that I'd end up looking at it and not riding it. Plus, the condition looks pretty good!

Black group = carbon fork = HHSRB
Silver group = chrome fork = Classy

I will just leave @Breso s C40 as a reference build!

Personally I'd just give it a touch up and possibly re-lacquer. I dislike 90% of Colnago paintwork but that's kinda why I like them. A bright yellow racing bike is so Italian it made my nose bleed.

Keep it.

OK, I'll go for what @FredyCro calls a classy look. Silver and chrome it will be. Spent some hours cleaning this one, this evening. My wife 's out, the kids are asleep, so "quality time" for this guy here: degreaser and polish on the left, Trappist Rochefort and chips on the right, Campy Record in the middle.

So this thread is clearly detailing an evolution of what is slowly becoming a gorgeous ride. Next the dilemma of wheels.

I think I'll put the wheels on it that came with the groupset: Campa Record hubs with Campa Sigma (tubular) rims (and I have some nineties Conti Competion tubulars to put on). And I'm in a bit of a luxurious position: if these wheels don't go with the bike, I can try my Campa Chorus + Mavic Sup or the Campa Scirocco (high alu rims, shown on my other mid-nineties machine) I recently bought here on the forum:

I personally would never repaint, unless it's to save the frame from death by rust. You lose the history of the frame, it was made that way and you can't ever revert it back. Paint looks pretty good and so does chrome :)

Vaseline or car wax on chipped spots, bit of rust converter if there's any will keep the metal protected. Also works on chrome which is very sensitive to rust spots, it lets water through into the steel...

(I somehow ended up with 2 yellow bikes and I don't like yellow...they've a way of picking owners...)

It'll look grand with the silver group :)

The record will look perfect, but personally I would go for carbon levers, black bits on yellow will look fantastic. And maybe a carbon record seatpost!
Actually, are the decals and flares blue or black?

It's true what you say about losing the history of the bike, once it's resprayed.

I hope the BB comes out easily so I can start building it up this weekend.

Damn, sold a Record Carbon seatpost to someone here on the forum. :-/

The levers are Chorus 8 speed (other bits come from a Record 9 speed) and the plan is to change them to 9 speed (if found for a reasonable price).

Decals and flares are black.

Perfect, so you definitely need these:

this:

and possibly black stem (quill or ahead according to which fork you'll get)

or

You have these for sale?

If so: can you send me your price for shifters, post and ITM quill stem (and lenght)?

Thanks