PROGRESS REPORTS

Frame Repair

After I had the frame disassembled I could chip and grind away the paint and bondo that was covering the neck. Here is a pic showing the plate that was welded over the neck.

I used a small cutoff wheel to cut thru the plates on both sides in order to see how the neck had been modified. Here is what I found.

As you can see, the neck forging has been sliced and bent outward. Whoever modified the frame did not weld a wedge in the cutout but simply welded plates on the sides.

I brought the frame in to Custom MC Services to see what my options were. These guys have been around for quite a while. In fact they used to do modifications like this back when it was all the rage to take a perfectly good rigid frame and hack it up to make a chopper out of it. Now they are working on them again to put them right. What goes around comes around.

Anyway, the expensive option is to replace the entire frame with a faithful reproduction. We're not just talking about any ol' aftermarket frame but one that is exactly like the original with all the forgings and casting brazed on like the original, all the tabs for floorboards, sidecar, toolbox etc. Well, if I was going for a restoration job that would be the way to go, but it is also way too expensive (for me).

The second option would be to cut off the neck and graft a new neck forging (or casting) onto the frame. In fact, they had a frame in the shop that was in the process of being done this way and and it did look good - you couldn't even tell where the tubes had been cut and spliced. Again, if I were restoring the bike rather than rebuilding it, I probably would have gone this route but, again, it was more than I felt was necessary for my purposes.

So, the plan is that they will grind all the old weld off the neck, bend the neck back into proper position, weld the joint closed and then weld new plates on the sides for strength.

Feb. 2, 2004, update

I stopped in last Saturday to bring them some more work (cylinders, pistons, heads) and they have started working on the frame. So far they have only got it to the point where they have bent the neck back into the approximate position that it should be. The next step will be to align it in their frame fixture and tack it, then have a certified welder weld it up solid and put new plates on the sides.

Feb. 3, 2004 Update

I stopped in at the shop again today and they had removed all the bondo that was around the seat post. I didn't take a picture of this area before they worked on it, but here is what they found under the bondo. We're not going to cut and splice these frame rails, but they will add some pieces of tubing on so that it looks more stock.

Feb. 9, 2004 Update

They are making progress on the frame. Here is what I saw when I stopped in last Sat. (Feb. 7).

The repair around the seat post area is more cosmetic than structural. At some time in the past the rear frame tubes had been crimped where they attach to the main top tube - probably to accomnodate a chopper seat of some sort. To fix it we have taken some pieces of tubing approx. the same size as the rear tubes and grafted them onto the existing tubes strictly in the interest of trying to make it look more original.

And here is the neck repair. The neck was positioned in a fixture to get the correct angle, then it was tack welded. Now they are in the process of building up the repair with TIG weld and grinding it down to try to mimic the original casting shape. This will look better than just welding a plate over the repair. My plan is to powder coat the frame so it cannot have any bondo or body filler anywhere.

March 23, 2004, Update

Finally got the frame done. After the above sequence of pictures I still had some final prepping to do on the frame. I did some grinding and shaping on the neck and seat post area and also a little filling with braze to fill in some pits and voids. Since I was planning to have it powder coated I could not have any plastic filler or bondo anywhere.

Here is a picture of the frame after I got it back from the powder coater. The picture in the background gives you some idea of how much the neck angle has been changed to bring it back to stock. Notice also that the tank/seat mounting tabs on the top tube have been replaced and the lower tank mount has been added to the downtubes (it was non-existant before).

Here is a before and after shot of the neck.

And here is a before and after shot of the seat post area.

End of report.

This page last updated on December 18, 2006