interesting, that's pretty much what I thought it was, good to know about the polishing reducing cracks tho!
one of these days I'm going to meet the man (or woman) who owned this bike originally, at least I hope to. It has been in Colorado a long time as far as I can tell.
Richard, that is an aluminum gasket, got it from Domiracer. it seems quite nice, but we'll see if it resealed on the second use (that was the intention, but good intentions only go so far!)