Conversion Catastrophe
Wrenching around a little late last night, I decided to try my hand at removing braze-on cable-guides on a sweet 1984 Raleigh Grand Prix. I used the wonderful search function and found that I had two choices:
1) I could use a dremel to shave them off, or,
2) I could use a torch and and pliers to neatly pop them off.
Going with the one that caused the least potential damage to the frame and the least potential disturbance to the neighbours, I chose option number 2.
Well, ladies and gentlement, I chose wrong. After successfully removing the braze-ons on the top tube, I proceeded to the down tube cable-guide. A neat pop-off resulted in my horror as I discovered that the braze-on took a portion of the frame with it and now there's a hole in the downtube the size of a braze-on footprint right where a cable guide would be just above the bottom bracket. !!!!
Now what? Is this structurally unsound? Or can I continue like it never happened? Pics to follow.