Last Saturday I took my Colnago frame to Vecchio's in Boulder. There were three reasons to do so:

1. Vecchio's is one of the few shops I trust
2. I needed to know the proper seat post diameter on the Colnago, and to perhaps have them help me ID the model of the frame
3. They'd built my commuting wheels, so I needed to pick them up.

Anyway, the guys in the shop made a big deal over my frame, turning it around and commenting on this and that feature. It so happens that there was a guy in the shop (not an employee) who is an ex-Colnago rep. He studied the frame for a while, and pronounced it an "early Master, probably late 80's". Good enough for me, although I'm pretty sure Colnago Master frames were always built with specially-shaped (not round) tubes. (more on the whole frame ID topic)

One of the guys grabbed the frame and immediately set to work on the seat tube. He proclaimed it a very sloppy 27.2, with a compressed seat lug. He stretched out the lug and reamed out the tube and got it nice and round. He then proposed a complete frame prep (lots of "chasing" and "facing"), an offer which I accepted, and he did the work while I waited (and watched - Vecchio's is that kind of shop).

It turns out that the steerer was cut woefully short back when the bike was originally assembled, so the guys helped me find a very short stack height headset (Tange) at another store (Cycle Analyst, in Denver). Then Joe set to work on the head tube, milling it down a bit to give just the slightest bit of extra room for the headset.

On the way home, I dropped the bike at Cycle Analyst. They had the headset in stock and would install it during the week.

I pick up the frame tomorrow, and the building will begin in earnest. I only need a BB and cable kit to get started.