gitaneusa.com Forum Index » Owner Gallery » Gitane Super Corsa (completed for my Wife) Goto page Previous  1, 2    View previous topic :: View next topic  Re: Restoration notes - Technical stuff added   Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2010 4:38 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Kinst VonSterga wrote: LeicaLad wrote: Did you have the chrome bits redone? It's hard to believe that's the original chrome. Restoration notes: The yellow/gold is semi-translucent, with very subtle flecking that is only visible in direct sunlight/bright light. In lower light levels, the paint almost looks to be a harvest gold/brown color. First off, I checked out this frame after all of the paint was stripped off. I was impressed at how well it was brazed - no gaps or voids under the lugs, no excess brazing material outside of the lugs, good braze penetration inside the bottom bracket and so on. What you would expect from Gitane's flagship model. Later on in the Bike Boom era a lot of the workmanship got sloppy, not just on Gitanes but most other European makes. Gaps and voids around the lugs, glops of braze outside of the lugs all demonstrating the attitude of box it and ship it. Color - the fellow who painted Kinst's frame told me that Gitane used a thin layer of gold paint under the top coat of lacquer on their gold colored frames. Except for white, orange, match blue and the very rare black color, all of the other Gitane colors from that era consisted of a layer of transparent "candy apple" or "flamboyant" lacquer on top of white primer. Transparent lacquers are very difficult to apply to get a uniform thickness and color. The color of this bike is very close to the original gold that Gitane applied. I had a 1972 or 73 gold Super Corsa myself back in the day. I'm still kicking myself for ever selling it back then! Several years ago I bought an early 70s gold SC frame from a Forum member. That frame was used to match "Kinst VonSterga's" frame color. The painter who did Kinst's frame still has my gold SC frame for some touch up work. The color on Kinst's frame was matched to the lightest area of my frame The painter pointed out something interesting to me. My frame was originally painted candy apple turquoise blue and for whatever reason was repainted gold at the factory! A new paint job with bad chrome sticks out like a sore thumb. Same thing with well worn components and new paint. That's why I frequently recommend that owners live with the patina unless they are prepared to do a complete restoration like Kinst did. Kinst VonSterga wrote: The fork and rear stays were rechromed to better compliment the new paint and foil decals. Chrome - There are several methods of chrome plating. The best is usually called "triple chrome" or something like that. It consists of a base layer of copper plating to fill minor blemishes. The copper can be easily polished before the next layer. A nickel layer is plated on top of the copper to provide a hard abrasion resistant surface. The nickel is sometimes polished too. Finally a microscopic layer of chrome is played on top of the nickel. It's sometimes polished too. A less expensive process skips the copped layer and just uses nickel and chrome. The parts to be plated are submersed into an electrolytic liquid and an electric current is applied transferring the plating material from the solution or an anode to the area to be plated. The chemicals used are highly toxic and require special handling to dispose of the used solutions. Prior to plating the base metal is usually polished to provide a smooth surface to start off with. This wasn't always done on production bikes. Replating - requires stripping, removing the old plating usually via reversing the plating process. Removing the chrome nickel and copper layers frequently results in removing some of the base metal too. Any pits or scratches in the base metal will be magnified. Also rust and corrosion can form under the original plating leaving a pitted surface. Most platers don't want to do any extra polishing after stripping. It's "...like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." I have to say, this is the best looking Gitane I've ever seen! _________________ Chas. SF Bay Area, CA USA ============== 1984 Criterium 1969 TdF 1971 TdF 1974 TdF 1984 TdF x 2 Bikes 1970 SC 1971 SC 1972 SC 1984 SC 1984 Team Pro 1985 Professional 1990s Team Replica   Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2010 8:07 pm scozim Joined: 26 Sep 2008 Posts: 629 Location: Ellensburg, WA I just have to say this is about the 5th time I've pulled up this thread to just stare at the photos of this bike. I can't get over how fantastic it looks. _________________ 1984 Gitane Sprint 1984 Gitane Tour de France mid-1970's Gitane Olympic Plus many more http://eburgcycling.blogspot.com   Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 11:32 am vanhelmont Joined: 11 Dec 2007 Posts: 242 Location: Florida scozim wrote: I just have to say this is about the 5th time I've pulled up this thread to just stare at the photos of this bike. I can't get over how fantastic it looks. I've looked several times, too. The first picture is now my wallpaper.   Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 2:44 am bowser Joined: 17 Jul 2007 Posts: 94 Location: lancashire uk congratulations absolutely stunning renovation job im sure anyone would be proud to own it bowser _________________ team pro replica 83 celo europa slx 84 specialized allez sport 2008. peugeot ph12   Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 1:42 am mikkla Joined: 23 Aug 2010 Posts: 87 Location: The Netherlands vanhelmont wrote: scozim wrote: I just have to say this is about the 5th time I've pulled up this thread to just stare at the photos of this bike. I can't get over how fantastic it looks. I've looked several times, too. The first picture is now my wallpaper. Same here, lol. This bike is absolutely amazing to look at. Super great awsome far out excellent job!!! _________________ Greetings from the Netherlands!!   Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 3:37 am LeicaLad Joined: 12 Jun 2010 Posts: 142 Location: Northern Virginia You know, it only dawns on me that the '72 Super Corsa, full Campy including brakeset, would have had Record High Flange Hubs. I'm quite fond of the Tipo hubs. They were almost legendary among we blue collar bike heroes in our collective minds. But, merely observing one of those nuances. Thou are now obliged to upgrade. P.S. - non-Gitane related, but still old. I'm thinking to take a British frame built in 1963 for 27" wheels to 650B with the big 42m Grand Bois Hetre tires. I think I'll build those wheels on a set of High Flange Records with 126-old rear for this frame. It's what made me "see" the Tipo front there. My '71 SC has its original HF NR hubs, too. I still love scanning back and forth through these pictures. It is such a fabulous well-done piece of rolling art. I merely continue the Thanks. Owen W   Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 8:49 am Kinst VonSterga Joined: 26 May 2008 Posts: 153 Location: Hillsboro, Oregon USA I posted some pics way-back-when of the original bicycle before it was restored, and there were a couple of items that I did not reuse when assembling the completed bicycle for my wife (ie. rear campy NR derailleur, Record HF hubs, Mafac competition brakes, mafac brake levers). I'll keep these parts for another project, but the unorthodox parts that were chosen were to (i) provide for a bigger gear range, using the campy Rally, (ii) provide "prettier" wheelset using the Tipo's, (iii) prevent spoke-pull using the Mavic E2s versus the original Mavic Es, (iv) use campy NR brakes instead of the Mafac competition brakes that didn't clear the fenders as well, and (v) campy brake levers, so I could use my glitter-blue brake lever covers that my kids always wanted me to use on a bicycle Now if you were my wife, I would have given you a stock Gitane Poitou 3 w/no deviation from the factory original "Before shot" of the bicycle before its makeover. LeicaLad wrote: You know, it only dawns on me that the '72 Super Corsa, full Campy including brakeset, would have had Record High Flange Hubs. I'm quite fond of the Tipo hubs. They were almost legendary among we blue collar bike heroes in our collective minds. But, merely observing one of those nuances. Thou are now obliged to upgrade. P.S. - non-Gitane related, but still old. I'm thinking to take a British frame built in 1963 for 27" wheels to 650B with the big 42m Grand Bois Hetre tires. I think I'll build those wheels on a set of High Flange Records with 126-old rear for this frame. It's what made me "see" the Tipo front there. My '71 SC has its original HF NR hubs, too. I still love scanning back and forth through these pictures. It is such a fabulous well-done piece of rolling art. I merely continue the Thanks. Owen W Last edited by Kinst VonSterga on Sun Oct 24, 2010 9:30 pm; edited 2 times in total   Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 1:08 am LeicaLad Joined: 12 Jun 2010 Posts: 142 Location: Northern Virginia You know, of course, that I was only teasing. In fact I've long loved the look of the Tipo hub. Your set here are so cleanly polished. Perfect. I've still got a nice 120m rear Tipo. I think the front got wiped in a car bash-up many years ago. I love C&V hubs.   Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 10:57 am Kinst VonSterga Joined: 26 May 2008 Posts: 153 Location: Hillsboro, Oregon USA LeicaLad wrote: You know, of course, that I was only teasing. In fact I've long loved the look of the Tipo hub. Your set here are so cleanly polished. Perfect. I've still got a nice 120m rear Tipo. I think the front got wiped in a car bash-up many years ago. I love C&V hubs. Ditto for me too! For my older Gitane (66') it has campy HF record hubs too, but I have a set of campy gran sports (3 piece shell with steel/chrome center) with the large and small round holes that I'm thinking of using as they're just as beautiful, if not more than the Tipos. The wheels are all built up, just a decision on which ones to mount on a bicycle in the end. I think the only shortcoming with Tipos and HF Gran Campies is that the cones were of lesser quality (which I remember reading some article about in the past) than that used by the record hubs, including a slight difference in the cone/race pitch and bearing size for the front hub. Its probably good for folks to know what the orig. bike parts are, in case they want to replicate their bicycle to the exact original specs, so I don't mind at all that any of the deviations are being pointed out w/this bicycle. Cheers, ps. I've ridden my wife's bicycle and how it rolls/handles on the road is simple gorgeous.   Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 5:33 pm DP Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 28 Location: Montagna lunga Colorado USA VERY nice! For years I sought a gold TdF, and have one on a hook "waiting"...but its a lil big for not-as-big-feeling-anymore me! Yours makes me think hard about building that one anyways...nice job! 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