Feeling Accomplished- Fixing a dent.

[sean]

I've had a really nice old Ken Ryall, holdsworth built steel frame kicking around my garage for a while. It had a dent in the downtube that was purely cosmetic, but really bothered me. I try to roll it, but no dice.

I figured I had nothing to loose, so I borrow a small torch and bought some silver at the local hardware store.

Dent is now filled and it was waaaaaay easier than expected. So those of you with dented steel frames, have at it :beer:

(just don't burn down your house :no: )

[eddief]

not what you meant? right?

[bigflax925]

Based on the title of the thread, I bet he means "now filled."

Good work! I have a Rivendell with a dent in the downtube I'm going to post FS. I don't have the courage to attempt something like that.

[sean]

fixed. Funny how one letter can ruin a whole thought.

The only down side is it ruins the paint, but the paint was already rough. I was kinda freaked out until I realized I could melt the silver again if it got to be too much or messy.

[san]

you should post some photos of before and after! congrats on the fix !

[ultraman6970]

+1 in the pictures

[eddief]

i had a dent in my koupled kogswell a while back. took to our local interesting builder Mikkelsen and he tried to tease out the dent. did not work very well. i wonder if filling would have done better.

[LouDeeter]

Classic way to repair dents in car metal during restorations is with hammered lead. Melted and sanded silver for a tube also makes sense to me. Bondo is cheaper and easier to work with and when painted also works. I never have understood how either fix remains permanent over time when high vibration and bumps are encountered.

[ultraman6970]

NO NO to bondo, acrylic putty yes but no to bondo. The issue with bondo is that the bond with metal and due to diferences in temperature in the metal makes the bondo to crack or to simply fall off. Acrylic doesnt do that.