To refinish or not to refinish - Geoffrey Butler

Here are a few pictures of my 60's Geoffrey Butler. I bought it off the original owner and I have had it for 10 years, often as my only working road bike, and the time has come to take it off the road and do some restoration.

The finish is very faded in places, and there are numerous little chips and rusty spots. To my mind it probably needs a repaint, but it is right on the edge of just keeping it as is with the patina, and I would like other peoples opinions.

The condition of the mechs reflects the rest of the bike really, all working fine, but a bike that has been in regular use for over 45 years.

I will of course give it a good clean and T cut, as well as shining up the parts as best I can, and replacing a couple of out of period bits.

Last year I had my Sun Wasp restored ( older but similar spec ), the nervex lugs came up superb ( gold lug lining ) and the paint job makes it look new again. Go for it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tk_photos/3743110085/

Personally I would be inclined to give it a bit of polish but no respray.

I'd definitely polish and see how that looks first. It looks pretty fantastic as it is

Looks great as is...............

a sensitive repainting wouldnt be the worst thing imo.

I think it looks great as it is. A clean and polish, get a serious amount of wax on that Brooks and nip it up and it'll look amazing. Wouldn't it be fantastic to restore it to concours finish, but think about how precious it would suddenly become. As it stands it's a really fab looking usable bike.

Take it to Argos - they will give it a new lease of life that will keep it going for the next 40 years!

I have been in the same position on a couple of my bikes. I have decided to do full resto's on both of them. Back to as new rather than better than new I think over resto is worse than no resto at all. The deciding factor for me has been if I can get original or as original transfers, If they are not available I would try and keep the original paint and transfers.