Originally Posted by
Thasiet
if you'll look at my photo, you can see that the stays are bent up a few degrees right where the dropout tabs end inside the stays. In my photo this is most visible on the left seatstay, but they are all bent this way. Possibly from when I accidentally went over a curb. What have you?
So the pic you put in the op isn't a pic of the bike in question? Not following you on that point.
Still, if you were able to bend your seatstays by riding off of a curb, there is a real weakness there- and the steel on an old Pug wouldn't work harden by being overheated with a torch.
Do what you want, whatever the result, it will be a good learning experience and you have nothing to lose.
cheers