Returning to the original subject of this thread...I was all set to go to Woodrups for the repaint, but then on learning that Mercian are now back up and running, I had a look at the options again. In addition to those two, I also came across Blue Whippet Paintworks which is run by Jason Rourke, son of Brian Rourke. I've emailed him today with a few quick questions, so I'll see if he gets back to me. Based on previous experience of these things, I'd actually almost be surprised to hear back at all, but we'll see. My aim is to get this to a painters sometime in the next few weeks, anyway.
I now have all the drivetrain parts, which is a mix of the short-lived Daytona groupset and a Racing T chainset, plus some Athena levers. Daytona sat at the Athena level in terms of hierarchy, so it's sort of consistent. Racing T parts were at both the Chorus and Daytona level (Campagnolo were clearly intent on continuing the confusing tradition of mix-and-matching parts across groupsets). Most parts were already in pretty nice condition, aside from the Athena levers which needed a fair bit of sanding and polishing. I think they've come up quite nicely.
Obviously the reason for this choice of parts is to allow for a triple setup, because although undoubtedly a double setup looks nicer, I know for a fact I'll ride it less if 39T is my lowest gear up front with a 27T lowest sprocket. I do prefer the look of the older parts in terms of the graphics on them, but I'm sacrificing some looks for function here (rather than the opposite, which is my usual MO
).
This does also mean I have 8 speed levers with a 9 speed RD, but as I understand it, the cable pull remained the same until just after this RD came out in 2000, so this should work okay.