Bicycle Mechanics - Crank arm fused?

I'm working on painting a bike frame I found in the trash (keep this in mind) and I'm having a bit of trouble getting one crank arm off. One side came off easily but the other is being slightly more difficult. The threads are stripped so a crank extractor is useless. I've tried a tonne of different pieces of advice I've found in various locations on the internetz. I saw somewhere that I could take out the Bottom Bracket from one side and the crank would fall right out but my LBS is saying otherwise. They said to use a ball joint puller to pry it off but all that is doing is damaging the frame. I'm beginning to think that since this is a garbage bike, the crank arm could have fused to the BB through corrosion or something.


I've also tried prying with other tools as well as heating the crank arm up first. Before I cut it off I was just wondering if there's anything else I could try that anyone knows about?

OH and the bike is (was) a Fiori Modena which I believe is an '80s or '90s Norco italian wannabe bike.

I can't make out the make or model of the bottom bracket but the crank is shimano, not sure of the model.



Any help would be so greatly appreciated because I do not want to find a new frame and I've already ordered wheels..

have you tried a gear puller?

Barnett's Manual gives instructions for removing cranks with stripped threads. Here is a link to an online copy of the chapter for removing and replacing press-fit cranks (http://www.bbinstitute.com/BM5%20chap%2020.pdf). Look on pages 20-17 through 20-19 for the methods of removing cranks with stripped threads.