Found some face book gold...

[Barkingmadspeedshop]

This is not how to fix this

 

[kowalski]

Why not? That's how it's done car frames. Plus those look like decent welds.

 

[DrJ]

Still wouldn't trust it. No way that frame repair would be perfectly aligned without a jig.

 

[Tune-A-Fish]

Might be okay, for cruising, but I think it should have been at least notch cut to lengthen the welds and maybe a knife cut with a nice chunk of plate welded in also.

Cool project though.. hope all goes well in the end.

RD

 

[kowalski]

This is super mild compared to chassis hacking mono shock builds everyone loves so much lol. I think it will just fine. I'm guessing it's a track bike that went down, judging from the other bikes in the shop.
I sure as hell would have written it off, but then again I do t has any way to weld aluminum. Even if I did, I still suck ass with aluminum. I think it's badass. I love seeing bikes brought back from the dead. Kinda like a zombie bike. Which is totally badass.

 

[CALfeRacer]

Looks like he cut it and re-welded it along the factory welds, so it can't be too much worse than factory, assuming he got good penetration and such. But the lack of a jig does make it seem a bit sketch on the alignment front.

 

[Powderfinger]

Looks pretty good, I would have jacked the motor up and put all the bolts in, then welded what I could, then take the motor out and finish.

 

[datadavid]

Whoever did that has no clue about heat treatment post-welding of structural aluminium welds and should get a good slapping around.

 

[datadavid]

At least he knew well enough not to use a damn angle grinder!

 

[datadavid]

And- if your welding skills suck so horribly that you have to grind - don't go repairing frames for God's sake!
I'm not even an aluminum welder and my welds at least look good enough to not be ground down.. Q: do you guys know why you shouldn't grind structural frame welds?

 

[XVRacer]

And- if your welding skills suck so horribly that you have to grind - don't go repairing frames for God's sake!
I'm not even an aluminum welder and my welds at least look good enough to not be ground down.. Q: do you guys know why you shouldn't grind structural frame welds?

 

[kowalski]

I'm pretty sure the welds were ground down so he can smooth out the repair area with some plastic filler. They also more than likely used a TIG welder. With that you don't have to do any kind of run off tabs or preheating. You just start out hot and tapper off heat or speed up as you go.

 

[datadavid]

I'm pretty sure the welds were ground down so he can smooth out the repair area with some plastic filler. They also more than likely used a TIG welder. With that you don't have to do any kind of run off tabs or preheating. You just start out hot and tapper off heat or speed up as you go.

No, you dont preheat it. You heat treat after, to normalize the atomic structure of the material, otherwise there is risk of it cracking under stress.
And if you are not able to make smooth welds with even transitions to the ground material you should not attempt these repairs.
It's just unneccesary risktaking, no point in risking your life with a poorly repaired frame.

 

[kowalski]

Ok? I think I'd be fine with atomic structure of a frame that wasn't normalized with heat, but hey that's just me. Grinding MIG and TIG welds down a bit doesn't hurt the strength of the welds either.

 

[datadavid]

Well, i wouldnt be fine with riding that bike.. someone whose welds look like catshit probably wouldnt mind leaving a few pores in the welds either..

 

[Tune-A-Fish]

Tells me that penetration is not so good, the wire was cold and with it being winter im guessing the shop was really cold... haul ass aluminum welds with spool squirt guns need some practice and at least "some" preheat if its freezing cold.

 

[datadavid]

Plus i would not even consider repairing an already very thin alu frame with a mig. Worst method thinkable for that job. MMA is superior with the new generation of alu rods available and Tig is even more suitable..

 

[kowalski]

I'm pretty sure that frame was TIG welded. It has all of the signs of a decent TIG weld. A lot of kids these day are used to seeing super pro all I do is weld type welds and anything less just doesn't cut it.

 

[doc_rot]

Regardless of how it was welded, getting it hot enough to actually have good penetration ensures that the surrounding areas are annealed and very soft. It also looks like that part of the frame also has a engine mount on it, it seems foolish to weld the frame in without the engine in to act as a jig.

 

[Brodie]

Who gives a crap about the welding, I want to know how the hell he got the dents out and fixed the snapped off mount.
Looks to me as if that is a part from another frame. If that is the case what the hell was wrong with the other frame?
If nothing why didn't he just move everything over to that frame.