Is my steel frame trashed?

Is no one going to mention the paint reaction above the rear drop out or am I seeing something that isn't there.

I did mention it:
How come they are putting on a second coat without having dealt with that old paint that's still on the stay near the fork end?

Thinking about this two more points come to mind:

Perhaps the original finish was powder coating. My experience is that it's difficult (near impossible) to blast this off because it softens with the heat of the blasting - chemical stripping is the best answer. Is it possible some dimwit has persevered for hours with blasting, not realising this was not a good way to show they were a diligent worker?
Although the firm may be expert, you should be aware that blasting is not a nice job to do, and is often done by employees at the bottom end of the food chain. Also, even good workers can have bad days and make mistakes - I lost one good customer because some one who was usually reliable had a one day nervous breakdown, messed a job up,then wrapped it up herself and sent it hoping to cover her mistake.

If you decide the frame is a write off and you can retrieve it, you could cut it up and inspect the inside of the tubing - if it isn't rusty you would have a pretty good case against the finishers.

I find this so confusing I'd be tempted to go with what the sprayer says for fear of the truth even if that is, "boss was away someone mucked this up (unsupervised) tried to recover it, but as it happens there was an existing fault."
Why to me , adding to conspiracy, the top image looks like the frame has been shot right through and badly filled idn.
It's sad it's just a bunch of images of a bad job experience would have you see that a mile off

There are several things in those photos that are big red flags for a “professional painter”.

The biggest one for me is the fact that they have willingly sent photos that contain so many obvious fuck ups to a customer.

Good luck.

Cheers @clubman @bluehuw and @user149724 when I originally posted on the forum I hadn't even thought there would be in a issue with the spray shop based on their reputation and previous bikes i've had sprayed there.

I wasn't aware of any issues with the frame before I sent it and seat post, bb etc came out fine with no signs of rust on the seat tube.

FWIW i'm going to raise it with the spray shop and gauge their reaction. As the frame has already been blasted it is not covered by the Frame builders warranty so in a way i've got nothing to lose apart from time.

Depending on their response i'll have the frame shipped back and inspect further.

Not sure what the next steps in the process if the tubes turn out to be fine and it is more clearly a spray shop error but will cross that bridge if / when I come to it.

It’s that 3rd pic with the fairly obvious hole that is getting me.

If it was nothing to do with the paint shop and that hole has been there since they received the frame then unless unless the frame was originally covered in thick powder coat which could have hidden the hole I think first of all you’d have noticed and second, it should have been picked up on as soon as they looked at frame and the job put on hold at that point.

Also, the state of the paint further up the stay, chemical reaction between paint and primer? They’ve painted over old flaky paint? Frame has been handled/wrapped up while paint is still wet?

That one picture raises so many questions of the paint place that I’d find it hard to trust them.

Hey @M_V had a dig through old e-mails and found this picture of the rear dropouts when the frame was completed.

I can't see a hole etc in the area so would assume it has formed since then either due to an internal rust problem / over blasting.

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There's a hole in the chainstay through the dropout hood, is there also one into the seatstay?

And was it powder coated green or painted?

@PhilDAS the hole is the internal cable routing for the rear derailleur. I can't remember if it was painted or powder coated at the time, however the frame makers website shows painting over powder coated.

Sure, so no hole in the dropout into the seat stay?

Hey @PhilDAS not that I can remember the only hole from memory is the internal cable routing for the rear derailluer.

Fillet brazed?

Yeap as far as I know

This thread makes me wanna spray something on the Mason.. instead I'm going to drip sweat on it for an hour and laugh at it.

I’ve no idea no idea how the frame ended up in that state, but if I was in the refinishing business and I was at fault and was trying to cover something up I’d have slapped some filler on it and painted it and sent it back to you.
But from what I can see they have blasted most of the frame and found/made some holes in it. They’ve seen what’s happening stopped stripping it, thrown some primer and a bit of paint on to stop it rusting so that you/they can see what has happened. I wouldn’t be worried about the quality of their work based on the fact they have painted over x y or z as clearly the job has been aborted. They’ve stopped, arrested any further(?) rust and sent you photographs of the issues.
Of course they say it’s rust and not them at fault, but they have left it so you can investigate without more rust to muddy the waters. just my 2p on what I’m seeing.

they have blasted most of the frame and found/made some holes in it. They’ve seen what’s happening stopped stripping it, thrown some primer and a bit of paint on to stop it rusting so that you/they can see what has happened. I wouldn’t be worried about the quality of their work based on the fact they have painted over x y or z as clearly the job has been aborted. They’ve stopped, arrested any further(?) rust and sent you photographs of the issues.

You'd have thought they would have explained this clearly though.

Was in the process of having the frame resprayed and the paint shop noticed small pin holes throughout the frame and welds which they think is the frame rusting all over from the inside and not worthwhile to repair as would involve essentially replacing all the tubes and relwelding.

I’m going with ‘resprayed’ as the whole strip and paint process. I thought the above was enough, nobody is going to just leave a bare frame to rust and leave themselves open to ‘it’s only like that because you left it open to damp’ etc. well you may on a cheap frame, but not a nice custom one. Surely? or is that just what I’d do as popping a bit of primer and whatever paint is in the gun for the next job is free.

Still no word from the builder?

nobody is going to just leave a bare frame to rust and leave themselves open to ‘it’s only like that because you left it open to damp’ etc.

Really? In their opinion it’s fucked. Why waste further time and materials on it. It’s not like it’s going to insta corrode in the few days between the strip and the customer deciding what to do with it.

I mean they should have explained why the paint they’ve done looks so bad. It doesn’t seem like they’ve done so.

Didn't the OP say the painters didn't see the holes until the primer went on?

Looks like a pretty heavily loaded paint for a primer.

I’ve just reread and yep #10 they didn’t notice until the paint went on can get in the sea.
I was trying to see good in the refinishers, but that puts a lid on it.

@nick_h no word back from the builder as of yet which is disappointing. Tried e-mails, phone calls and social media messaging.. Annoyingly there still posting plenty on social media.

Not spoken to the sprayshop since as trying to decide best course on action. Current consensus is get it shipped back to me and cut up some of the tubes so I can see if it really is heavily rusted throughout or if it more than likely from over blasting.

Let me know if anyone else has any more sensible ideas?

Camera would less heavy handed.

Annoyingly there still posting plenty on social media.

Have you detected a crowd of other unhappy customers? Might be worth looking on reddit and other cycling forums