Originally Posted by
JRC2K
So here we are today. Some shop rash and the cheap rattlecan clear coat I hit it with back in the day has fogged up in places, but it should polish out:
And thanks for the post count help!
Nice work! Do you have any before stripping or as bought pics, and pics of the frame after its initial stripping for chroming. I've not seen the Superlight / Super Speciale frame stripped to see what parts were chromed since most of the frame was normally painted.
For those who need a spotters guide, the 2nd Gen Italvega high end frame is made from Columbus SP (maybe SL, still looking to document that) full frame and fork, built on contract by Torpado / Torresini in Padova, Italy, 73-76. Originally only chromed (and drilled) Campagnolo fork ends and dropouts. The frames were the same and used for both the Superlight and Super Speciale models 73-76, main differences being SS models had normal Campagnolo Record and Nuovo Record parts, and the Superlight had drilled and milled brakes, crankset, chainrings, seat post, and later occasionally stem. Some have said the rear derailleur and/or cage were also drilled but I have no hard documentation on this. The drillings and millings varied depending on production date. IMO, much of this was similar to what Eddy Mercks custom did with his race bikes.
The 2nd gen. Super Speciale was painted a light pearl mist green. I've seen the Superlight in pearl white, pearl silver, Pearl rose and pearl silver blue. Occasionally you will find a Superlight in pearl mist green but I'm not sure if those were factory or Super Speciale upgraded to Superlight specs. The Columbus tubing foil decal was gold with red double wing seagull, language variously Italian, French, and more rarely English.
JRC's frame has all these attributes. Its nice to see the chromed lugs again with contrasted painted diamonds in the lugs, fork crown, and bottom bracket, always a classy look. His current paint pattern is unique in that its a fully chromed bike with chrome rear triangle, and large Italvega Nuovo Record chrome seat panel, using the original look Gold downtube logo and partial top tube "Super", couldn't quite tell if the "Light" is there. Originally, there were no shift bosses (clamp on shifters) and one set of bottle bosses on the downtube. When the bike was sold on Ebay, top tube guides and shift bosses were added from the previous repaint. The look melds both the early and later generation of Italvega frames.
I will deduce from JRC's post that he's in the San Diego area since Joe Bell was local to him and he mentioned SoCal a number of times.