• I'm at the next stage of restoring my 1970's Liberati road bike and I'm wondering what to do with the decals. My two options are:

    1/ Fire up my trusty CAD package, design some replicas, strip the old ones and apply the new ones. (Presumably of the fine vinyl type you see various websites touting)
    ...or...
    2/ Mix up some car paint that matches the colour of the transfer in the worst areas and touch them up with a fine paintbrush.

    Here's a picture of a particularly crappy bit by the shifters: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2633837/liberati/paint.jpg And yes, the original owner did indeed drill out those campy levers... Serious weight weenie!

    Thoughts/advice?

  • Neither: "it's only original once" is, increasingly, the answer to these questions.

    Patina is a lovely thing and is, to me, far more interesting than a featureless restoration.

    Think "smooth and shiny Botox-face" vs. "craggy, contoured and full of a life well lived"...

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1970s restoration: make new decals or touch them up with paint?

Posted by Avatar for part_robot @part_robot

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