Originally Posted by Road Fan

I've been disassembling a pair of bikes belonging to a friend. He and his wife bought them 50 years ago when they were married, and asked me if I could try to do some refurbishing. They asked me if the frames need painting, and I said "yes, there's a lot of rust!" So the job has grown to full teardowns. On the His the only major issue was a stuck stem, which yielded to a soaking in Super Duper Strength Liquid Wrench. Same issue appeared on the Hers. After a day of SDSLW I gave the bars a twist with the wheel between my legs and it moved! I started turning back and forth with a little lift, and the stem was not moving, rather the steer tube was coming out of the fork crown! I stopped before I had a shower of bearing balls, but ... Other than to tell my bud, what next?

I know frame builders braze or weld steerers into fork crowns but can a joint like this be re-brazed? I guess I'm worried about effects of repeated heating. The target site for painting is also a frame builder so at least the right skills are accessible.

Any ideas?