I finally got around to giving a closer look to a nice De Rosa I bought awhile back. The frame is in superior condition throughout, except for one, really tragic flaw: some idiot decided to widen the slot at the seat-lug clamp for the post, and, not content to saw down through to the edge of the lug, just hacked his way about 3mm below the point of the lug. He didn't even bother to round the bottom of the new slot, to prevent a crack.
I've seen this on a few really nice old frames, now, and in every case I curse the fool who would do such a thing. Not only did each of these hack jobs remove way too much material, but every one of them sawed down past the lug. Something I just cannot fathom. How could a person be that stupid and even be smart enough to know what to DO with a hacksaw?
'course, I know what I'd like to do with it, but I wouldn't say in polite company, ya know?
Naturally, I'd love to have five minutes alone with the clown who did this damage to my De Rosa, but since that particular satisfaction is denied me, my question is, what to do?
there is no crack in the seat-tube--yet--probably because the clamp has not been loosened or tightened much since the butchery was done to cause a crack to start. I'll probably take some very small, round files and remove the immediate stress-riser at the bottom of the slot...but a crack could still get started, since the tube is so thin, even if in a butted area (or would it? I've seen it on other frames).
The one time I talked with a frame-builder about a repair for such a problem, he said you could either braze a sleeve inside the top of the seat-tube, or remove/replace the seat-tube.
Neither of these methods is acceptable to me, since this De Rosa is so pretty otherwise, in original paint and graphics (it looks practically unused, except for this one problem).
Would it be possible to braze a piece of lug-material over the outside of the slot in the seat-tube, butt the new lug-material up against the existing seat-lug shoreline, then cut a new slot, or reshape the existing one to make it shorter?. Seems to me not as much paint would be ruined, and a touch-up would be easier.
Framebuilders! Anyone here know a good fix for this problem? I'll send the frame to you if you can do the job in a reasonable amount of time..<g>
Thanks for any and all suggestions on how to fix this.
Charles "put down that hacksaw RIGHT NOW!" Andrews Los Angeles