repairing dented aluminum

"Prometheus" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Would repairing a dented aluminum toptube and downtube be a trivial/non-trivial process?

I saw a frame for cheap that had a dent or two, but otherwise looked in pretty good shape. I'm not
concerned for straightness, just cosmetics, but I suppose its not a big deal.

Mike Mechanical Engineering 2006, Carnegie Mellon University Remove nospam to reply.

I don't think you can repair it structurally. You can fill it and re-paint, but I don't think it's
worth the process. I'd use the dents to get the price knocked wayyy down and just use it as it. I'm
fairly certain it won't affect the long-term durability much, or the ride.

Cheers,

Scott..

S. Anderson said:

I don't think you can repair it structurally. You can fill it and re-paint, but I don't think it's
worth the process. I'd use the dents to get the price knocked wayyy down and just use it as it.
I'm fairly certain it won't affect the long-term durability much, or the ride.

and your expertise is?

dents in aluminum frames can cause severe structural failures if they are deep enough and in certain
locations. more than cosmetics needs to be considered here. safety, for instance.

"Dennis P. Harris" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

and your expertise is?

dents in aluminum frames can cause severe structural failures if they are deep enough and in
certain locations. more than cosmetics needs to be considered here. safety, for instance.

I think you're over-reacting Dennis. The OP mentioned he is not worried about straightness, just
cosmetics. Since he's seen the frame (which neither of us has) and he's not worried, I suspect the
dents are relatively minor. I've got more dings in my MTB frame that I can recall. Structural
failure is not likely. My expertise is repairing bikes and frames for 12 years. If a frame is going
to fail, it's going to fail at a weld, most likely the head tube/downtube, BB or rear dropout. I've
never seen a frame tube fail that wasn't the result of a crash.

Scott..

Prometheus said:

Would repairing a dented aluminum toptube and downtube be a trivial/non-trivial process?

I saw a frame for cheap that had a dent or two, but otherwise looked in pretty good shape. I'm not
concerned for straightness, just cosmetics, but I suppose its not a big deal.

If it's just caused by the bars coming round and hitting the top tube, fill it with auto body filler
and repaint.