Stripped a crank arm on a customer's vintage bianchi last tuesday

Honestly I was working in my shop in Portland and this guy brings in a mid-80s Bianchi he got from his dad. Told me all it needed was a new bottom bracket. Ngl I thought oh easy money right? But when I went to pull the crank arm the threads just gave out. Like completely stripped. That old cotterless crank was probably never pulled in 30 years and the aluminum just turned to mush. I had to tell him the whole crankset needed replacing not just the BB. He got pretty upset said I broke his bike. I get it but honestly that metal was going to fail eventually. Took me an extra hour to extract the arm and clean up the spindle. Has anyone else dealt with stuck cranks on Italian steel frames from that era?

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adam_robinson20d ago

threads just gave out" - thats life man, everything has an expiration date even if it looks fine.