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

[VTFoco2001]

In my opinion the surface is too rough as a result of the paint removal by blasting with very sharp and hard media. When taking care and using the right blasting material the surface of the frame should be smooth as original.

You can see on the pictures that the welds also have a rough surface. Something that one would not expect after a careful job.

I can understand that the company uses certain blasting methods for cleaning large metal parts (e.g. constructions, I-beams, etc....) but a precious bike frame with low tubing thickness is another story.

 

[MikeD]

low tubing thickness

It's a Cro-Mega

Looks rougher than I'd expect, but the holes are almost certainly from corrosion from the inside. Blast off the paint and some flakes of rust and there's your hole.

 

[soggz]

Fill it with braize or weld it and grind it.It'll be ok.

 

[MikeD]

I'll just leave this here: http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=191921

 

[Johnboy]

Yep, point taken. I have had a Kinesis steel frame blasted and powder coated before, without any problems, but I think in future when it comes to renovation of older frames I'll go for soda blasting.

 

[MikeD]

I'm taking an interest as I've got a frame that I wouldn't mind having refinished one day

I reckon the Cro-Mega's saveable, it's not a highly-stressed bit of frame -- filling the hole as suggested above should work. My main concern would be getting a good paint finish if the tubes are as coarse as they look, but photos seem to exaggerate these things.

 

[Johnboy]

Not in this case, they really are quite rough, it feels like coarse sandpaper.

 

[cchris2lou]

powder coating should be ok on that .

 

[We_are_Stevo]

I suspect, looking at your first pic again, that the seatpost issue as already mentioned was the main cause of the damage; it looks like the resulting damage was then hammered back into shape with a flat bladed screwdriver.

The coarseness of the finish would seem to indicate an automated grit blaster rather than a guy standing there with a hose/nozzle??

As the above reply says, powdercoating would conceal that okay, most likely without a primer...

 

[trail_head]

Ouch! This thread is a heart breaker. I hope that frame can be saved.

My opinion is rust. The damage seems to far around the curve for the seatpost to have caused it.

To the op; I've seen worse damage repaired. Best of luck.