Fixing small dents in frame
 

Hi,

When I removed the paint from my frame I noticed some small dents been covered up with some kind of pasta, anyone know what that could have been?

Need to even them out again :)

Sounds like they used body filler. If this was a new frame and we're talking dents, as opposed to nicks and minor flaws you were ill served. IMO any bike frame dented in production should be scrapped rather than have the damage hidden under the paint.

More like nicks :)

So its alright to use a filler and then you can powder coat over it?

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/2027/pastabike.jpg

Its an italian frame :thumb:

Nice one ;) If the dents or more aptly named "dings" are minor it is quite acceptable to fill and smooth. In the 17 yrs my race bike has been in service it has had quite a few. Not that anyone can tell since they are fixed right and non-structural. Be sure to sand to bare metal and finish sanding the filler with a mid-grit like 320 or 400 grit before priming.

Depends upon what was used as the filler. Better practice used in auto-body is to fill those dents with solder rather than Bondo. This is a stronger and more heat-resistant solution and it will sand flatter. Sanding a Bondo-filled dent can cause depressions because the filler is softer than the surrounding metal. Not an issue if you use a hard aluminium block larger than the dent as a sanding-block.

Bigger problem is the heat used in power-coating. It may cause the filler to outgas and cause bubbles under the powder-coating. Personally, if it was small nicks, I would remove the filler and use silver-solder to fill the gaps. Then file and sand to blend into the surrounding tubing; you won't even be able to tell there was an imperfection there. Then powder-coat.