Having won the prestigious "
nicest takara from the least nicest takara award" in the previous edition of this challenge, I felt like I needed to do something special to up my game this time around. So, as you may have seen in my "
A Visit to the Atelier" thread, I did this while the frame was sitting with bare metal. (And when I say "I did this" I mean it like
Stacey King remembering the night that he and Michael Jordan combined to score 70 points. That is, @
gugie did most of the skilled work to show me how it's done, I sloppily melted some silver in the vicinity of the bosses on one tube while overheating everything, and then he fixed it.)
And after a bit of sanding, it doesn't look so bad.
No money changed hands to make that happen, but I will be putting the value of the bosses and brazing material into my budget at a total of $5, which brings me to $65.
My other update, while I wait for suitable weather to paint the frame, is that during the Saturday night pizza spectacular at Eroica California I picked up a front derailleur from the box of goodies that @
Kilroy1988 so generously shared.
With the replacement derailleur now in hand (but carefully in hand, because the lower front edge of the cage is razor sharp!), I think I've got $35 left for paint and cables. I may even be able to splurge on some decals.