PG export/import encoding issue

Hi guys

I have a 8.4 install that I am moving to a new DB server running 9.0. This
is all well and god for the most part, except when it comes to restoring the
data in several of the tables. See the problem is the old schema was an
ASCII neutral zone, and the new server has the schema set for UTF-8 for i18n
compliance. Over the years, people have inserted data in a wide range of
languages in many encodings, none of it tracked. This of course leads to the
dreaded encoding errors on import that, ,with normal COPY mechanics, result
in empty tables where there should be thousands of rows.

Switching to INSERTS means I get to keep most of the table, and just lose
the rows with encoding errors. Not great, but manageable - the real killer
with this method is that an import takes hours, which we cannot allow.

Is there a way to make pg_restore escape out chars it has problems with
instead of failing? Alternatively, what is the best method to quickly and
accurately import this database onto the new server? I have tried sql and
custom pg_dump formats, with (not surprisingly) the custom format being the
heads-and-shoulders winner in terms of performance

Thanks a bunch guys

Scott Toland