Here's my 1971 Mercian, which the previous owner found in a dumpster with a rattle-can paint job, dented frame and a cracked BB that had been rethreaded Italian. He did his research and discovered that the S/N was consistent with that of a vintage Mercian. After some back and forth with Mercian they confirmed its origin. He shipped it back to the Mercian shop for a full shop resto-- new BB shell, filled some dents, and a full respray. They blessed the new BB shell with the same S/N, so the provenance is maintained. I have all the papers from that resto work as well as the BB shell that they replaced. It's now a pencil holder on my workbench.
And my 1982 Jack Taylor Tour of Britain. The previous owner bought the NOS frameset from the Taylor shop around when they closed up shop around 2000 and held onto it for 12 years after it had spent 18 years in the Taylors' attic. I built it up with mostly French parts.
