Originally Posted by 3alarmer

...if you have to strip both of these down to accomplish the restoration mechanically, it's honestly not that hard to learn enough about painting to do a pretty good job of either "cosmetically improving" (the paint on the Le Champ doesn't look that bad), or repainting and rebadging (in the case of your GR, where the paint is worse.) Doing this on a bare frame and fork increases the chances that you'll end up with something you like as a result. I know that people are all over the map on "original paint", and the "devaluation" that automatically occurs with repainting. I honestly don't get it, but that's just me.

I have a Richard Sachs that is a repaint, and it is worth no less to me because of that.