centering rear wheel between chain and seat stays on ss/fg
 

hi,
when i am mounting my rear wheel on my ss/fg the wheel will not center perfectly between the chain and seat stays. what i mean is that if it is centered between the seat stays it is out by 4 mm between the chain stays. and vice versa. this is a nice new steel frame, but i have had a pretty bad accident on it, so there might be a flaw from that as i had not noticed it before (and my nit-picking might be a result of not being able to ride for the mo). however, i had this issue on an old steel mass produced ss/fg frame and my shop returned it for me and got a replacement without this issue. my question is whether this is merely a cosmetic issue or if it is a serious defect that will compromise safety or frame integrity. any help appreciated.
thanks.

If your frame is bent, you have at least three solutions:

1) have the frame repaired.
2) use your eye to measure rather than a ruler (4mm off? really?)
3) Get a new frame.

I wouldn't worry about 4 mm, but that's just me. I suppose the professionals might actually measure, but I can assure you that many wrenches just eyeball the wheel in and quickie center-measure with their fingers.

Is this a road frame conversion or track frame? (You can tell if it has forward-opening horizontal dropouts or rear-opening track ends.) If it is a road frame, often the drive side (right) seat stay is bent out a bit to clear the chain when it's on the outer chainring.

it's a purpose built road ss/fg with track ends. i guess it may not be a problem, but it just worries me a bit...being overly paranoid no doubt...