Bianchi Mondiale

[James_CX]

A before pic of my Bianchi Mondiale Argentin found on Ebay. The paint looks ok from a distance but there are chunks missing in places and some other areas have been touched up by brush with matte paint. The whole thing is chrome underneath though, with no rust other than around the down tube bosses and on the chain stay bridge. The original fork has gone missing and replaced with this Deda Carbon one, which is in nice condition but would look better with the red decals sanded off.

 

[James_CX]

After a rattlecan respray. All decals redrawn and cut on my vinyl cutter. The gold-filled panto you find on the Specialisima has been replicated with gold vinyl. All sealed under a layer of clear, the vinyl edges feathered back and a second coat of 2k clear a couple of weeks later.

Carbon forks have been reused elsewhere and some modern chrome forks added.

 

[James_CX]

Cinelli 1A stem and Giro bars stripped of anodising and mirror polished

 

[James_CX]

Fork crown painted and gold crest added where the original has panto. Modern Centaur brake calipers in silver.

 

[James_CX]

Headtube crest reproduced in gold vinyl. The shifters are c2003 ten speed egos.

 

[James_CX]

Drivetrain is all modern Veloce ten speed, anodising removed and mirror polished. These are Ultratorque with the hirth joint in the middle of the axle.

 

[James_CX]

Decal redrawn by me in Illustrator and printed by H Lloyd.

 

[James_CX]

Another decal redrawn by me.
Excuse the scuffs on the BB cup, I’ve never failed to mark these when installing. The Campagnolo engineer damages the cup on their official instruction video, so it’s not just me!

 

[James_CX]

And another. This one is on clear backing but still very opaque, quality work from H Lloyd

 

[James_CX]

My version of Celeste is more vibrant than the original but it bares a better family resemblance to my modern Sprint which hangs next to it (although the modern bike is more luminous). The original paint was heavily affected by 35 year old yellow lacquer, which made it look greener than it would’ve in 1989 and I suspect 80s Celeste was more of a sky blue when new. Vintage Fender guitars suffer from the same thing.