Originally Posted by
bigbossman
In theory, yes.
But in practice, there are very, very few steel lugged frames that are worth the expenditure to do so. In most cases, the cost of replacing a tube and repainting far exceeds the cost to just replace the frame. Unless the frame in question is unusual, collectible, or irreplaceable, it doesn't make financial sense to go through the exercise.
It's still a option, and it really isn't with anything else. I still think though, if they were able to make a welded frame that wasn't butt ugly, it would help, the welds on my AL mountain bike frame are about as ugly as you can get.