Fixing me some frame.

Ok, anyone on dial-up has my deepest apologies. There are going to be a lot of pics this round.

Today I planned on doing more than I did, but I guess all in all I got a lot accomplished. Gone are a couple of extra loops and fittings that were on the bike. I also removed the gussets at the neck and cleaned up the welds. All of my photos are hosted with Flickr.

I wanted to get the tunnel opened up on the Mustang tank and get that started, but such is life.

I started by scoring the sides of the gussets. And then began to dig in deeper.


A closer and slightly clearer shot of the crack in the frame. I am waiting to take this section out.


I removed the botom frame rail to get the bad repair out. It is also going to be my piece to fit some bar for a plug and also get the right tube thickness. But gotta love that piece of all-thread in there.


Everything I don't want is gone. Now I need to get the tank ready and piece this fella back together.


Here is a close-up of my neck area with the gussets removed. I may change the way I reinforce the neck.

I got plans for the weekend.

Yep that's right. I am hopefully going to get a few big things started up this weekend.

I will be back to show what has been done to the bike.

Bondo makes the frame.

I picked up a couple of wire wheels for my grinder the other day. So on Saturday I stripped the frame down to metal.

She doesn't look as good naked as I hoped.

I found assorted bad repairs and cover-ups.


And there is a crack on the downtubes right at the gussets. I will be taking cleaner photos of them later today.

And there are a few other repairs that have me concerned.



It isn't beyond my ability as a welder, but damned if I like the idea of cutting out sections of the frame to replace and repair. Though, would much rather do that, then end up dead on the side of the freeway. It is one thing to do things that are risky, but it is something completely different to just go out on a suicide mission.



When I took the frame down to metal, I didn't find any old VIN numbers. But I am positive this bike has been on the road some time in its life. Makes me wonder about the history of it.

Soon I am going to start fitting pieces together and at least make a roller from it. Get things where I want them and then begin getting it ready for inspection. I believe I will try and get the frame and motor inspected by the CHP before I start the repairs. The last thing I want to deal with is a cop giving me grief over fixing the frame and trying to accuse me of scraping numbers or some shit.

I have been working on the bike, I promise.

Though it has been pretty dull stuff. Primering and sanding, getting it ready for paint. I am trying to get the worst of the high and low spots out and making it look at least presentable. It is a cheap build, but I am not in the mood to build something that is total shite. I am OK cutting a couple of corners, but not cheaping out on the whole thing.

Yesterday I went and tore down the last of the bike. Pulled the rear wheel chain, motor, etc. I have it now in (mostly) manageable chunks. I can see a few spots on the frame that I will need to address, but nothing that scares me. Things like an off center hole for the front tank mount. I would rather weld in a threaded bung than punch a hole in the backbone. And there are old weld from what I can only guess was the kickstand mount. Three of them in a triangle shape at the bottom of the frame. So that needs to get cleaned up and checked for cracks.

It looks like I will probably have to either cut down my rear fender or find another for the build. There is a lot of bad bondo work on that thing too. It looks like I can move the mount position and then cut the end off the fender, but I am not sure if that is going to be worth it. It may be more time and effort than good sense.

The earlier post on the machine work for the girder looks like it is gonna be a bust. My main boss has been in and out of the country for some major stuff that is happening in the company. So I doubt he is going to have the time to do the stuff that needs to be done. So I will have to find someone else that can do this for a reasonable price.