To add a slighttly off-topic remark, it is a well-known fact that today's (well, yesterdays) modern beercan aluminium frames can carry a lot of bondo under the shiny paintjobs, partly because it is very difficult to create a really nice welding seam with those thin tubings, partly because it is close to impossible to keep the tubes dent-free in a factory environment. Thats why people who know this always went for the anodized versions, because these were the frames that had the nicest welding seams and didnt have dents. So i am not surprised also our on-topic bikes will have some small cosmetic under their paint, too, and i dont think its a shame.
Martin Appel who wonders in Munich, Germany, what dark secret modern CFK frames may hide :)
John Betmanis <johnb@oxford.net> schrieb:
>At 08:45 PM 07/05/2007 -0400, Harvey Sachs wrote:
>
>>For your reading pleasure, a Real Story. It was a long time ago, and
>I
>>was using a little propane torch for stripping the paint from our
>early
>>1950s Schwinn Town & Country tandem, a fine, 4130 chrome-moly,
>>fillet-brazed beast. Suddenly, there was a splatter. Then more. Yes,
>in
>>those long ago days of yore, before OSHA*, Schwinn used a bit of lead
>to
>>smooth the joints... I can't remember what I replaced it with, but it
>
>>was probably bondo. :-) FWIW, a lot of lead was used for custom auto
>
>>bodies in the pre-Bondo era.
>
>Exactly! Until around the 1960s or so, lead was the material used by
>auto
>manufacturers and body shops to fill body seams and imperfections. A
>certain amount of skill was required to use this method. Amateur
>handymen
>and shady car dealers used body filler, often on top of rusty metal,
>which
>gave that technique a bad name. I was quite disappointed when I found
>that
>the body shop had used bondo to fix the aluminum hood of my MGB, but
>it
>would have been too much to expect a Ferrari artisan to weld it and
>beat it
>back into shape. Eventually all manufacturers and body shops switched
>to
>body filler as the material improved and that happened before the lead
>paranoia began.
>
>John Betmanis
>Woodstock, Ontario
>Canada