Repairing a Fat Chance Team Yo Eddy

I think you're right- the dent is unsightly but well away from the welding at the head tube and I've been running the frame for 2 years without any worries - I'm pretty obsessed with having strong reliable kit- hence my (probably thesedays unjustified) dislike of carbon products.

As for the seat-tube: There was a little rust in there but regular flushings with WD40 and a wire brush have halted that for the time being.

Next question is: what should I fill the dent with? And given that the bike will need a sandblasting and re-spray, its probably best done last, no?

Thanks for all your advice guys.

Rob

If you are in the south west then www.argoscycles.com could be your friends with this one...

Honest and friendly!

Rob,

The repair can be achieved by a number of methods...

If you truly want the dent reversed, a vent hole can be drilled from the inside of the headtube into the top tube and a pressure fitting brazed into place. Compressed air can be introduced into the top tube until the material is pushed back out. The pressure fitting is then heated and removed. Surprisingly effective for steel.

The easiest method will be to strip the area and use 50N silver to fill the depression. If the dent does not have any creases and is fairly smooth in shape, this is an excellent option with fairly quick turn around time with little effect to the structural integrity of the steel.

If you have any other questions, drop me a line.

cheers,

rody

Pictures would be good to give people a good idea how minor or bad it is

Rob1":1cfeulzj said:

Next question is: what should I fill the dent with? And given that the bike will need a sandblasting and re-spray, its probably best done last, no?

Thanks for all your advice guys.

Rob

Click to expand...

Car body filler. If it's non-structural that is (and it sounds that way). Though this did not put off the 'restorers' of my first car - a VW Beetle. The inner wings were made of the stuff! :roll:
Sand-blast (or paint-stripper!), fill, smooth, paint. Piece of p***!

As the man said car filler can be very effective. I once sold a Triumph Acclaim that utilised this material so much that I had to convince the buyer who had come armed with a magnet that the car was fitted with Triumph prototype ceramic wings. What did he expect for 100 quid and 8 months MOT? There is another process possibly mentioned above under a different name called 'lead loading' which would perhaps be better?