northerndave
New member
Hi everyone, preverbal rust question coming up. Not with a Fat though but an IF. I've recently picked up a 98 deluxe via eBay. Right at the bottom of the seat tube and I mean right at the bottom down on the reward facing tip of the tube between the chain stays the paint it's bubbling, not veins but i guess a 5mm diameter patch. The paint isn't broken. It's unlike others i've seen where rust develops in a ring around the tube about 5-10mm from the bottom. When i first inspected the inside of the tube looked pretty rusty and has now been wire brushed close to clean metal and Waxoyled. Without and endescope I can't really tell how bad it is down there. A fair amount of crud came out when I cleaned it out, all dry though.
So my question is how terminal is this do you think this is given the location? If it was further away from the weld and covered more of the circumference of the tube i'd think it was all over. I know in an ideal world I should get a new seat tube in there but I'm not sure it's economically viable to pump another $200-300 into the frame. Thoughts, experiences, good news, bad news - hit me with it
So my question is how terminal is this do you think this is given the location? If it was further away from the weld and covered more of the circumference of the tube i'd think it was all over. I know in an ideal world I should get a new seat tube in there but I'm not sure it's economically viable to pump another $200-300 into the frame. Thoughts, experiences, good news, bad news - hit me with it