@jkolantern I've seen damage like this before......Gummi gave me a real nice Redhead, except for damage just about like this....
Also seen it happen, live & in color more than once.....a guess would be that the blast(s) that caused it may not have happened all at once, but were repeated incidents of a drop from a few feet up.....
It actually doesn't take much to pop the coating like that if the shock is centered at the direct point of the leg, in other words, if it landed squarely on one leg, that would happen.....a 26'er is heavy also.....
Anyway, enough about damage, I was just concerned that you can get it good & stable & get running some great cooks on the beast !!!
Maybe use Idahawk's embarrassing hillbilly method & fix the shape?
Then see what the tab weld act like?