1989 Tommasini Rebuild
 

So, I started my first (pandemic inspired) attempt at a rebuild late last year. I tend to go full tilt on things like this so I stumbled upon a Diamante frame, probably paid too much for it, and am now building it up with a modern 100% pure blood Italian theme:​​​​​​ Campy, Cinelli, Selle, etc.

Tommasini support email (Barbara is the best!) has been helpful in learning some of the history of the frame, but I still have a few unanswered questions. Hoping someone here can help, because info on the Diamante is especially hard to come by.

(Photos coming soon, she's half built, but a beauty. I'm a new member and can't post photos yet)...

Open Questions:

1. The fork, seat stays, and chain stays are all fully painted, which is a little disappointing because I love that classic Tommasini polished chrome look. Curious if any of you know if this Columbus MS steel can be exposed/polished by hand, or if that's just a recipe for rust.
2. I'm looking for Campy downtube adjusters to secure the shifter cables. This frame just has the exposed threaded mounts for lever shifters. OR, even better, is there any way to get those shifter cables to run internally down the bottom tube, similar to how the brake cable is run in the top tube? I always thought it was a shame to have the cables run right over the beautiful Tommasini logo on the down tube. I'm tempted to just drill holes, but trying not to make an irreversible, bad decision here.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Depending on your location, when this beauty is all finished, I will ride/meet you at your cafe, and espresso is on me!

Some people here will tell you "it's your bike, do what you wish with it" while others will say "it's only original once!" (quite stridently, at that). My suggestion is to wait on making any modifications to paint and/or drilling holes in the frame until you've gotten to ten posts and can put up some photos. It's much easier to give informed advice on how to proceed once we know exactly what you're working with.

Now, having said that, my own advice would be to leave the shifting the way it is, if only because you can't just drill a couple holes in the downtube and call it good if you want a workable system after your modification. You'd need guides inside the BB shell, a hole for the front derailleur cable to exit from (in the shell or seat tube) and a hole for the rear derailleur cable to exit from (in the chainstay). Both scenarios would entail brazing work - are you able to do that kind of thing? If so, cool; you'll likely cook the paint in these areas, however, which will necessitate new paint...see how quickly you can go down the rabbit hole here?

I've always found it best to define a workable vision, figure out what you really need to see that vision through to the finish, acquire what you need, then execute the plan. It's how I end up with something like this (photo provided so you don't think I'm full of doo-doo):

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5a3861252c.png

Let's see this bike-to-be in 8 more posts :)

Oh, and welcome aboard!

DD

Do you see signs of rust? As you suspect the paint can be a big problem depending on what is underneath and how it was prepped for the primer, worse case frame re-chroming (minimum $300) and the fork re-chromed (minimum $60) if you have a local chrome shop, if not add shipping. The cables on mine and every Diamante I have ever seen run just under the decals and in no way interfere with the DT logo. Please run your posts count up and post photos and lock your drill up for a few days.

Thanks for the replies! Amazing Colnago buiild, Drillium Dude . I actually found those Campy downtube adjuster on eBay, so don't worry easyupbug , I'll keep the drill locked up. I agree, running those cables internally sounds much more involved after talking it through.

I did remove some paint on the front fork, at the hub, as well as the rear dropouts. It's fully painted everywhere else, so it's kinda the opposite of what I've seen elsewhere haha, but I think it looks pretty cool.

Can't wait to post some photos!

In the meantime, if anyone else has more Diamante lore, information, guidance, I'm all ears. There's so little info out there. The one thing I found recently was this crazy one-of-a-kind Cinelli Laser rebuild (ahh, I can't post URLs, just Google "cinelli laser radavist") apparently also used Columbus MS. Such a cool idea to have the varying tube shapes, but I guess it just wasn't practical in the long run.

easyupbug you mentioned RE-chroming. Maybe a dumb question, but are all Tommasini forks, stays, dropouts chromed first, then painted based on the paint scheme? In other words, should I expect chrome to be underneath the paint on my Diamante, at least at the fork and rear triangles?

Yes but only polished in the areas to be left unpainted, the balance should be chromed but not polished to a bright finish. I should have a couple of Tommasini frame I can photo and post tomorrow.

No it can't and even if you used various polishing tools it would just rust.

That would be awesome. Thanks!

So, for example, my Diamante's rear dropout was unpainted/exposed just in the hub mounting area where it says "Campagnolo Brev," very similar to the Colnago photo above, but anything beyond that small oval shaped area I should expect to find polished, but not chromed steel, which will rust instantly?

If so, can some kind of clear coat protector be applied to inhibit rust?

If the dropout/s are intentionally exposed it has most likely been chromed. Whether or not the entire frame has been chromed is up for debate - you can chrome part of a frame.

If it's just raw steel under the paint it won't be polished as such, just garden variety steel finish.

Exposed steel won't necessary rust instantly, but the process of oxidisation will start the second you expose it.

Plenty of people have clear coated raw steel frames with varying degrees of success. The clear coat is porous so oxidisation can still occur, but there are some examples that show no signs of rust years after applying a clear coat.

the only photo in a Tommasini thread is a Colnago

just sayin'

Haha, I hear ya. I'm replying to things just for the sake of getting my post count up. I've got tons of photos. The forum settings won't allow me to post anything yet.

Pic assist from user's gallery. I assume this is the frameset in question:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0e38d9f2e2.jpg

I checked out the user's profile and the OP has not yet created any albums yet; where did this photo actually come from?

DD

leon6782's gallery (link)

Hmmm...I must be missing something. When I pull up the profile I don't see any way to view a gallery, just the Albums tab off to the right of the screen - which says there aren't any albums. I suppose I'm not all that well-versed with all the possible ins/outs of other member profile pages, to be honest.

Anyway, that pic looks a lot like a stock pic. If it isn't, I don't think the OP should change a thing as it appears NOS and perfect - lack of chrome doesn't hurt the looks in the slightest IMHO. I suppose it may be a respray, but I don't know all that much about later Tommasinis.

DD

This is what I have generally found, first two photos are a Diamante with shaped tubes that has only polished chrome in the stays, etc. The paint wear/damage areas show plenty of chrome unpolished doing the job protecting the steel. Next is an older SL respray that I stripped to check conditions, bondo, repairs, etc, in which the results of rusting under and through the chrome can clearly been seen. These spots have been treated with a rust neutralizer for storage until I get around to doing something with the frame. Last is the SL polished seat lug with the unpolished tubing and stays, note the specs of neutralized rust under the TT.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9d30e47ee0.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7a64b55e0f.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7a1d57bd11.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f9843d3f7.jpeg

Wow, yeah. CO_Hoya How did you find that? haha. I don't even see that in my own profile! Anyway, that's it! That was the state it was in when I purchased it, but have built it up quite a bit. Just need to finish cabling, indexing, wrap the bars really. Can't wait to post the final photos.

In the mean time, would love to know your thoughts on what you see so far. I still need to get my post count up a few more, so feel free to ask any questions about what I see on the frame in person. Any other expertise you all can offer about the Diamante is greatly appreciated. You've all been really helpful already, feel free to keep it going!

Imgur.com is a good site for hosting pictures

The safety feature blocking new users from posting pictures doesn't prevent them from uploading them to their gallery. If leon6782 can upload more pictures there, I or another interested party can them post them to this thread.

I believe that the OP can add pics directly after 10 total posts to BF.

And that gallery link above is an example of where pics go when new members try to add pics before having permission. Kinda of BF purgatory.

easyupbug thanks for those photos. So interesting to see the different conditions/finishes of steel. I removed the paint from just the front hub mount and rear dropouts of the frame I'm working on and I'm pretty sure it's chrome under there. Definitely more of a mirror like finish than typical bare metal. One post closer to posting photos...

Also, what are some other forums that you guys like? I find this BF system to be a little hard to use compared to more modern ones like ******, for example, but it's also about finding the right people.

Wow, I can't believe I just got censored for mentioning another forum. This place is crazy.

10th post complete! More photos incoming in a second, but first I had a question about the photos above that easyupbug shared.

I noticed the cable wear on the underside of the bottom bracket in photo #2. I imagine that's pretty common because there isn't any protection there. Since my mamma always told me to use protection, I was wondering what to do to avoid this wear, given that my frame is fairly freshly painted, and I'm throwing fresh Campy cables on there. I bought THIS GUIDE, but it doesn't come close to fitting because the underside of the bottom bracket is not round like others. I was thinking of putting a small piece of the cable inner inside that little steel triangular cable guide, and maybe some kind of clear plastic tape to allow the cable to slide on the frame without damaging the paint? Any other ideas?

PHOTO ATTACHED!!!!! to help show what I'm talking about
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...422c19d6fb.jpg

derailleur cable liner
If you don't want a giant roll of it, you can take a small piece of housing and cut out the inner liner

Yeah, I think that's where I'm headed. I guess just glue the inner along the entire path where it would normally wear against the frame? Any recommendations on glue type? Might be tough to find something secure that wont damage the paint.