Removing a frame dent using ice - does it work?

[ededwards]

I have a frame with a shallow dent that has not broken the paint and is not sharp sided - it looks like it was caused by a blunt object. I've been assured that it can be massaged out using ice but are there other techniques that work?

 

[theproudhighway]

Never heard of using ice to pull a dent. If it's really small, just leave it? Alternatively, sand the area to bare metal and put super glue in there, sand it to the profile of the tube, mask off the rest of the bike with paper and masking tape and give a dusting of primer and paint, then polish it to blend it once the paint has cured.

 

[FMJ]

Ice may split the tube. My KTM guru pops the dents out of expansion chambers with air + heat. He plugs one end, puts a bung with a Schrader valve in the other, puts in about 35 PSI (IIRC) and heats up the dent slowly till it pops out.

 

[ajm]

I have no experience with this on bike frames specifically, but I have to say I'd be doubtful of it working unless it's very thin and a very very shallow dent.

I'd have thought the metal would almost certainly be stretched by at least a small amount and is unlikely to just pop back to the former state - if repainting anyway I'd just fill it and paint over, if not just leave it and ignore.

I'd be very happy to find myself proved wrong though!

 

[IDB1]

After reading a few places on t'interweb about 'fixing' dents with ice I gave it a go.

Applied a bag of frozen peas for a few mins, allowed the tube to come back to room temp, applied the bag of peas.. repeated for a while..

I thought it had worked a little but had nothing to measure the before and after with so it could easily have just been wishful thinking.

 

[ratbane]

ICE

Pulled a blunt trauma out of the top tube of a Deddachai tubed Explosif with ice. VERY thin tubing.

It worked. But only with steel it seems.

 

[Tazio]

Suck the dent out. Just take a big deep breath first so you get enough air pressure in your lungs.

 

[Rusty Scrubber]

http://www.monkeysee.com/play/11978-den ... th-dry-ice

 

[FairfaxPat]

I posted this fix last year to a similar question-- A long time ago I had a chrome plated Eddie Soens track bike frame with a large dent in the top tube. Joe Breeze fixed it for me. He had a fitting he had made which was a solid plug to insert in the head tube. This plug had an L shaped hole through it that went from the top (when inserted in the head tube) to a right angle turn to come out at the middle of the top tube. The hole in the plug had a relief cut and an O-ring inserted for a seal on the inside hole and was drilled and tapped for an automotive grease fitting on the outside of the top hole. With a drill he made a hole inside the head tube into the top tube and lined up the fitting with it. Then he filled the top tube of the frame with oil, re-inserted the fitting and used a grease gun full of oil on the other end of the fitting (the outside top) and pumped up the pressure until the dent popped out! All that was left was to drain the oil out of the top tube and reassemble the now perfect bike-even the chrome was perfect!

 

[gerryattrick]

The ice or dry ice approach may (possibly) work on a large , thin panel of a car but will never work on a dent in a bike tube. I've tried it several times. Fairfax Pat's approach is more likely to work if you're technically minded and the frame is worth the effort.