Bent steel drop out advice

[beamin]

A frame arrived today with a drop out that’s more or less bent shut.

The advice I’ve gotten so far is to warm up the drop out with a heat gun and then slowly, gently pry it open.

Anyone have other advice to share while I’m waiting to hear back from the seller?

Normally I wouldn’t be shy about bending steel but the back of the drop out at the adjuster screw has a buckled look I don’t like. Thoughts from anyone with experience? Hoping someone can boost my confidence and tell me they’ve seen this before and fixed it without issue.

Thanks in advance. For context, not a super expensive frame but one I spent a long time hunting for so I’m attached to fixing and riding it if I can.

More photos:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...bpwv6LUIN9XHrs

[tctyres]

What you're doing is the way I have done it.
The weakest part is the line through the dropout screw. If it's going to crack, that is the spot.

I would also put a derailleur hanger bolt in the hanger to keep it square. If you have an old wheel that is straight and true, you can screw that into the dropout and use it as a lever.

[kiwisimon]

I've never heated up the metal, just gently pried the gap open with the handle of a long wrench. I get nervous and do small increments with a few deep breaths every few mms spread. So far I've never had issues at the drop out screw hole.
Oddly enough the last frame I had to do it on was a Gazelle Champion de Mondial frame.

[David Kirk]

No need to warm it....the heat gun will just mess up the paint but not make it warm enough for the metal to soften. Do it cold but slow.

If you don't have the proper tools the easy way to do it is to place the blade of a large flat blade screw driver in the dropout slot from the side and then use pliers or an adjustable wrench to twist the screwdriver. The blade will act as a cam and lever the slot back open.

Go slow and check and recheck that it's open far enough. Avoid bending it open too far so that you need to bend it closed some.

If the dropout fails it will of course do it at the adjuster screw hole. You can lessen the chance of it failing by leaving the screw in place when doing the bending.

dave

[beamin]

Originally Posted by kiwisimon

I've never heated up the metal, just gently pried the gap open with the handle of a long wrench. I get nervous and do small increments with a few deep breaths every few mms spread. So far I've never had issues at the drop out screw hole.
Oddly enough the last frame I had to do it on was a Gazelle Champion de Mondial frame.

Funny enough this is a Champion Mondial AA. Thanks for the advice. Deep breathing sounds about right… I’m going to be praying to the steel gods.

[beamin]

Originally Posted by David Kirk

No need to warm it....the heat gun will just mess up the paint but not make it warm enough for the metal to soften. Do it cold but slow.

If you don't have the proper tools the easy way to do it is to place the blade of a large flat blade screw driver in the dropout slot from the side and then use pliers or an adjustable wrench to twist the screwdriver. The blade will act as a cam and lever the slot back open.

Go slow and check and recheck that it's open far enough. Avoid bending it open too far so that you need to bend it closed some.

If the dropout fails it will of course do it at the adjuster screw hole. You can lessen the chance of it failing by leaving the screw in place when doing the bending.

dave

Thanks Dave. Appreciate it. Hadn’t considered twisting a screw driver but that’s where I’m headed. Keeping it cold and saving the paint sounds better to me.

[Louis]

That's a relatively common occurrence, and once it's fixed it the whole thing shouldn't have resulted in too much additional fatigue damage to the dropout at the important places that carry load when riding. (unless this has already happened a bunch of times already)

As Dave said, the plastic bending originally occurred near / just below the adjuster screw area, as it will for your repair (if done carefully). But when an axle is installed and the QR tightened down that area really doesn't see a huge amount of loading - if it did dropouts would either be a lot fatter or they wouldn't have adjuster screw holes through them, because they'd constantly be failing.

[DeBike]

I bent the drive side drop out on a 853 Lemond Tourmalet just about the same way the OP's is bent. I did not heat it up, but did it sort of like has been described above. I did it by clamping the lower section of the drop out into a bench vise with pieces of rubber between the jaws and the drop out. Then, I just slowly used the frame as leverage, stopped numerous times to check the gap and the alignment. When the gap was the correct width, I checked the alignment again. I was a bit nervous doing it, but it came just fine in the end. I have put quite a few miles on it since.

[Ken Robb]

I would try to get a promise from the seller to refund your $$ if the dropout fails and/or can't be straightened. OTOH if it was damaged in shipping was there insurance in effect?

[Peter P.]

That happened to me once, too.

I bought a pipe large enough in diameter to slip over the dropout and the hanger. I used the pipe for leverage to open the slot. Stick a short 10mm bolt in the hanger to protect it as well.

As Dave Kirk said, keep the dropout screw in there and go slow.

Also, you could ask the seller for some sort of discount/rebate so if you do screw it up, you can easily have the dropout replaced and just have that area repainted, rather than the entire frame. Just accept the paint may not match perfectly. Choose the right contrasting color and no one will know the difference.

[Louis]

Originally Posted by Peter P.

Also, you could ask the seller for some sort of discount/rebate so if you do screw it up, you can easily have the dropout replaced and just have that area repainted

If the damage occurred during shipping, then it's the shipper's fault - wouldn't they be the ones to provide compensation?

(caveat - unless it was a horrible packing job)

[beamin]

Thanks for the advice folks. The damage occurred during shipping. The seller said he’ll make a claim this week.

Insurance claims are new to me. I assume I’m going to have to pick between keeping it or returning it for a refund. Almost half the cost was getting it here from Canada so I’m not sure shipping it back makes sense for anyone…

Riding the bike sounds like more fun than a refund. I’ve got silver Campy parts next to it on the work bench and hot damn - looks good.

[Doug Fattic]

You want to be very careful how much you open the slot. The axle of a rear wheel rests on the bottom of the slot. The part that has been bent closed. If you bend it ever so slightly wider than it was, the rim up by the brake bridge will not be centered. For example if you bend the slot 1mm more than it was, the tire up by the seat stays will be almost 3 mms closer to one side than the other. When I do this job, I keep a true wheel handy to make sure I only bend the opening just far enough so the wheel is centered.

This should be a wake up call to anyone that ships a frame to put a 10mm axle or 3/8" threaded rod as a spacer to not only keep the dropouts from getting squeezed together but also keep the dropout slot on the derailleur hanger side from closing. This is a common occurrence because during shipping the frame box is likely to be dropped on the hanger end.

I'd put some of the blame on this mishap on the guy packaging the frame for not adequately protecting this common mishap. Plastic pieces that accomplish this task are somewhat hard to find because most bicycles are shipped with the rear wheel attached. I used to buy them for $2 each from Nova Cycle Supply (a supplier of frame materials). It isn't that expensive to buy 3/8" threaded rod at hardware stores with washers and nuts. I cut the rod to length. I never fail to do this whenever I ship a frame I've painted back to a customer because of the likelihood of OP's problem happening.

[klasse]

my Mondonico (Columbus steel) hanger was pretty badly tweaked inwards. My LBS bended it back no problem and it's been seamless for past 5 years.

[oldpotatoe]

Doug Fattic and David Kirk..two excellent frame builders..GREAT advice for anybody for anything 'stee'l and 'bike frame'...