As some of you may recall from various updates I've posted over the past few months, I have been restoring a Nishiki Competition. When I bought the bike, it was in fair condition with some pretty serious rust issues. Even after a couple oxalic acid baths, the rust spiders were so pervasive that a repaint was necessary:
After many months (I work slowly) of stripping, sanding, prepping, painting, sanding, painting, sanding, decals, lug lining, painting, sanding, etc., it finally looks like this:
Here's the problem: During the painting process, the frame fell from a hook and landed on the BB shell. I was relieved that there was almost minimal paint damage when the frame fell. But I didn't notice that the BB shell itself had been dented. I only realized the problem last night as I went to install the fixed BB cup and start the build. You can see the slight deformation in the photo below. The threads still appear fine, and the NDS adjustable cup goes in fine. The dent is perhaps 1/3" deep or less than halfway into the threads.
I am worried that if I try to bend the shell back into shape from the inside, I will bugger up the threads. If I try to reshape the shell from the outside, I will likely mess up the virgin new paint job. Another thought I had was to file away at the dent/threads on the inside of the shell so that the fixed cup can then fit into the shell (e.g. just as a the top of a steerer tube has a flat section without threads going around the entire circumference).
Thoughts, advice, suggestions.
P.s. Cross-posting in the framebuilders forums as well.