Frame damage after shot blasting..........TA DA!

Finish look very coarse much like I remember steel grit leaving on steel motor bike frames. However it can't be as it would destroy the tubes. If they blast bike frames I would expect them to know what they are doing.

You can't see any signs of rust inside the tube? the smooth hole looks like a rusty hole you found in sheet metal with the blaster, the sharp one looks like it's had a screwdriver hammered into it.

I tend to chemically strip parts, then give a light aluminium oxide blast to give it an etch for the paint/powder, not that I blast stuff as big as bike frames any more.

I would braze or weld the holes up and if your powder coating you can fill with jb weld if necessary. I do some home coating and use JB weld as filler, it seems ok.

Good news.

A bit of an update for you, whether you're interested or not!

I have taken the frame to a group of antique restorers nearby. They have experience with bike frames and told me they could have stripped the paint off, I wish I had known that before.

Anyway, I can't remember his exact words but before I had even said anything his comment was along the lines of "who did that?". He had a good look over it and said pretty much what most of you have said in this thread, i.e the blasting was far too aggressive but the damage to the seat tube would not have been caused by it, merely highlighted an existing issue.

The good news is he said he can repair it

He also said that the metal was too badly pitted for powder coat alone and would need to be primed first.

So I'll update the thread with the results when I get it back next week sometime.

good news!

The photography & light conditions can make the whole frame look like its been very aggressively blasted, however I've blasted many a frame with unknown (to me) media. You have to be sympathetic when dealing with thinwall steel tubes etc. Who knows wether they were or not.

As has been said, it's just one of those things & is 99% the consequences of some early damage, get it to a frame builder & see what remedy/patching they can come up with. Its still worth saving IMO.

On the plus side, if anyone wants to replicate Marins Zolatone paint they could use these guys to add the texture and then just spray with a rattle can - jobs a good un!

pete_mcc":xezyfoaq said:

On the plus side, if anyone wants to replicate Marins Zolatone paint they could use these guys to add the texture and then just spray with a rattle can - jobs a good un!

Click to expand...

Mmmm, maybe that's what I'll go for then, any pictures?

Another plus is that the frame is probably a few milligrams lighter as well.

I don't know, I started off really depressed about this and now it's just one positive after another

Something is only a problem if you cannot fix it...

...Grasshopper

Looks fixable to me, it is only a metal tube after all. Get it welded and ground back, paint it, sticker it, build it and join the club.

The media used does look to be harsh, but these frames are great and can take all kinds of grief. Get on with it.

maverick":1xc6jsbg said:

Looks fixable to me, it is only a metal tube after all. Get it welded and ground back, paint it, sticker it, build it and join the club.

The media used does look to be harsh, but these frames are great and can take all kinds of grief. Get on with it.

Click to expand...

Ok, I've got on with it!

Some excess material did get into the the inside of the seat tube even though they inserted a mandrel to try and prevent it. I started to file it out, but it's right at the bottom and I figured that the seat post doesn't really need to go down that far anyway and I suppose it strengthens it a bit and will prevent the seat post being inserted too far again.

They also bent the rear dropout back into position.

Can I join the club now?

WOW :shock:

After a couple of pages of ifs, buts and maybe's that frame is looking gorgeous

Now get on with the build... 'From nightmare to BOTM winner'