 |  | | | |  | |  |  | Re: Decals vs. clearspray |  | |  |  | |
 Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 6:41 pm |
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| Kinst VonSterga |
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| Joined: 26 May 2008 |
| Posts: 153 |
| Location: Hillsboro, Oregon USA |
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| verktyg wrote: |
Kinst,
One other caveat, it looks like you bought a set of decals from a seller on eBay who has been listing "original" Gitane decal "set" with mismatched foil down tube decals from the pre 1974 era. Some of these decals may not react well with some clearcoat over sprays.
The decals sold by Cyclomondo are supposed to be compatible with the commonly used clear coatings.
My suggestion is to have your painter test their clear spray on a small parts of several of the decals that have been cut off for testing.
Chas. |
Thanks Chas for the heads up. The only sticker I really needed (which Greg @ cyclomondo didn't have) is sticker "i", as it matches exactly what's on my frame. I didn't plan on using the foils or any of the other 'original' stickers, but placed them on the review sheet, in case you guys told me they were the correct ones to use or not in restoring which ever year/model I have (as I've resigned to the fact that I have a hybrid-something-or-another). Other than "i'", the rest will most likely come from cyclomondo's set.
Both sets came with warnings about clear-coat puckering, pimpling and how to test for it and techniques to avoid it which I'm assuming the restorer will follow as well (as he has some spare gitane stickers too).
I spoke to one of the above restorers that was referred to me (what a great attitude + knowledgeable de boot). I don't know if you guys are interested, but I took a whole load of closeup shots of basically every part of the frame for the restorer to review. Otherwise I feel like I've thoroughly beat this poor topic/post into the ground.
Cheers. |
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| | | | | | | | | Gitane decals | | | | | |
| Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 11:09 pm |
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| verktyg |
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| Joined: 14 Jan 2007 |
| Posts: 2814 |
| Location: SF Bay Area |
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Kinst,
The 1974-1976 Gitane decals were somewhat of a disappointment. Many makes of French bikes from the mid 60s to the mid 70s used silver foil Mylar decals. I guess that the French thought that they were cool and state of the art (like Jerry Lewis). 
Silver foil Mylar decals along with plastic Simplex derailleurs or steel Huret derailleurs and Mafac brakes were viewed upon as the epitome of cheapness and resulted in the eventual failure of French made bikes on the world market.
Most people upon seeing the "new" Gitane decals that came on the 1974 model bikes thought that they were ugly. The green versions of these decals were much more pleasing on the silver painted frames; also a few white frames came with the green decals but most of them had the yellow decals.
The "E" style head tube decals were used on 1974 and 75 bikes. The better looking "I" style was used on 1976 and later bikes.
Over time the yellow decals don't look so bad anymore but when they came out they were pretty "rude" looking compared to many of the other European and Japanese bikes from the same era.
Chas. |
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