| Author | Message | ||
     Iman501 |
alright guys, so my bike came with a dent in the frame when i got it, its from the handle bars hitting the tank when it was dropped, the frames straight along with everything else, its just dented were the frame pucks should have been! as my winter project i would like to fix this somehow and get pucks for it. is there any good way to go about doing this fix? im guessing having the dent pulled back out is a bad idea, b/c it'll make the metal brittle and more weak. I was thinking that i could fill the dented in area with some bondo or JB weld or something of that sort till its filled in to its original state, then i can attatch some pucks to it. is this what i should do?, or is there a better solution?.... | ||
| Pogue_mahone |
pave it over and paint it. http://www.trackwraps.com/ maybe see if they have something to cover the frame with. | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Perhaps a photo of the damaged area might help those who would venture a solution to your problem. | ||
| Pogue_mahone |
frame damage options 1 replace it 2 repair it a bondo and shape b cut and replace the bad part c cut and straighten the damaged part by far the best fastest way is to just bondo it up and paint it. aluminium doesnt repair well where you cant replace the damaged part. | ||
| Brother_in_buells |
I have pulled the most of a dent out a xb frame lately! Welded a strip aluminum with a mig welder on different places and pulled it with a homemade dent puller. On some deep spots i welded some aluminum and flattening it with a grinder and file It,s not easy but doable !! Oh and don,t think at the fuel on the inside!      | ||
| Brother_in_buells |
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| Slaughter |
Just RIDE   | ||
| Greg_e |
Wouldn't a frame puck cover most of that anyway? | ||
| Iman501 |
here is the damage, i would just put pucks on, but my thinking is that since the metal is pushed in that i wouldnt have anything to adhear it to. Would that much bondo work?, or is there a different product that i should use?  | ||
| Kustomklassix |
Ian, lemme find it but I have the infamous frame dent on the right side and was going to buy this stuff which is basically a putty. From what I've read, it's got a bunch of aluminum in it and you apply it like bondo, scuff up the area so it sticks and go to town. However, after it drys/hardens you can cut grind sand and shape it just like a hunk of aluminum. Someone had a write up on it on another Buell forum. I'll look through my 'Favorites' when I'm done with work and see if I can find it. | ||
| Kustomklassix |
Oh, and also, UPDATE YOUR PROFILE! It's got old info in it! LoL  | ||
| Greg_e |
There is an epoxy putty compound that might work well on that. You would want to sand down to bare metal and then rough it up really good before mixing the putty. Put it on and you should be able to shape it fairly well. Get it close, through on some paint, throw on some pucks and be done. | ||
| Jaimec |
I would've said just put the pucks on and forget about it. After I saw the photo, though, I know now that would be impractical. I just had a small scrape on mine... happened the day BEFORE my pucks arrived in the mail (naturally). | ||
| Buell_lee |
There is a company called Devcon that make all sorts of metal repair products. We used to use their Aluminum putty back in the 70's to modify barrels for reed valves and heaps of other modifications to race bikes. It's easy to work with and once set looks and acts like it is part of the metal http://www.devcon.com/products/products.cfm?brandi d=1&familyid=108 | ||
| Bishopjb1124 |
I secong the devcon, I used it on my wifes bike and it came out great. It takes a while to sand it and get it perfect but it is very do able. Just ensure you sand down to bare metal and apply in thin layers and sand it in between layers. Here is a pic after I finished it. The right side had a moon crater sized dent in it and now you cannot evern tell it. Remember patience is a virtue when working with stuff like this and make sure your garage is warm so it does not take forever for the putty to dry.  | ||
| Pogue_mahone |
you arent suposed to use bondo very thick....but you can sure pave it over.it will stick and not fall out.but you have to GRIND with a 36 grit/50 grit disc and get down to bare metal. and the aluminium filler is same and expensive,just uses aluminium powder instead of talc as the filler's body.no real advantage there. cave and pave is path of least resistance. get on with it LOL | ||
| Iman501 |
you arent suposed to use bondo very thick....but you can sure pave it over.it will stick and not fall out.but you have to GRIND with a 36 grit/50 grit disc and get down to bare metal. and the aluminium filler is same and expensive,just uses aluminium powder instead of talc as the filler's body.no real advantage there. cave and pave is path of least resistance. get on with it LOL so are you telline me that bondo would work?, or wouldnt?....i'm just a little confused | ||
| Pogue_mahone |
yes it will work !! just dont fill it all in one shot.2-3 applications and buy a cheesegrater to shape it, it will make the job go faster. | ||
| Strato9r |
A guy I used to work with showed this trick to me, and I was amazed at how well it actually worked. He dropped his Yamaha thumper and put a pretty good dent in it's aluminum tank, near the back of it where you couldn't really get at it from the inside. Not wanting to start welding on the thing, he took five or six quarters and welded 3/8 washers, edge wise onto them. Then, he just glued the things into the dented area with a big drop of silicone on each one. After the stuff dried, he just hooked a slide hammer into the hole on each washer and gently popped the dent up. The material was fairly thin, so the bond of the silicone was enough to allow the force of the slide hammer to pop the dent up. To remove the washers, he borrowed a .009" guitar string off of me, and just pulled the string through the silicone, between the face of the quarter and the tank. The remaining silicone could be simply peeled off of the surface of the tank. Now, I'm not sure how thick the aluminum is on that part of an XB frame, (I better get the sonic checker out and find out!) but I do know that those glued on washers could have taken a hell of a lot more pull than they were subjected to. There are any number of more modern adhesives that could be used instead, but some of them are so tenacious removing it might be a bit of work. It might be worth a try before more drastic action is taken, even if it only means having to put less filler on the repair. Good Luck! | ||
| Iman501 |
strato9r, thats awsome!!!!!! Bondo's cheap so i'm not worried about that, it'll just take time to do it. but the washer and quarter idea is a sweet one!, anybody think it would weaken the frame more since the metals been pushed in for two years now if i try to pull it back out with this washer idea? or would some filler be the safest way to go? | ||
| Pogue_mahone |
the main issue with the frame is it is annealed after it is welded.that relieves stress and hardens it.once bent it makes micro fractures in the aluminium when you bend it back.you can minimise that with heat from a torch (BOOM!) --you just warm it and push the dents out.and inside the fuel tank has a liner and it will peel and flake when you weld and maybe even when just bending it back. i am an autobody repair guy with extensive audi a8 and land rover repair experience.with the right knowledge and tools it can be fixed,but for the application and the fact it carries fuel you have other risks and issues.paving it over is the simplest way to go.most folks dont have the tools to do fix it and i think if it is not really a bad dent just filling it in is best. | ||
| Slaughter |
One thing to watch out for - silicone is an evil contaminating goo. It will prevent paint from sticking unless THOROUGHLY cleaned. | ||
| Greg_e |
I'd still go with the epoxy putty stuff. Get the one for aluminum and buy two sticks, maybe three. Mix them up and spread it on wait a day or so and start to shape it away. One thing is that you might not be able to powdercoat the frame, not sure that the epoxy will take the heat. Once it is painted throw some fresh pucks on there. | ||
| Greg_e |
http://www.caswellplating.com/aids/epoxies.htm Never seen this in any stores but: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_ id=13085363&sourceid=1500000000000003260370&ci_src =14110944&ci_sku=13085363 | ||
| Iman501 |
well i decided to be cheap, and got some bondo from menards the other day, and i also ordered new frame pucks from american sportbike.com (along with a new windscreen to  i wanted a black one!) but since its so cold outside i'm going to have to wait to do the bondo job, the can says it should be about 45 degrees out for it to work right. so looks like i'll be waiting a bit to fix it. | ||
| Slaughter |
Bondo will work just FINE as long as you're not in a hurry. As has been said above, just put it on in like 1/8 to 3/16 layers at a time. Be careful in block sanding when you're done - you can REALLY do damage to the aluminum around the Bondo that you're shaping. Bondo builds up heat when it sets and it does shrink... more heat = more shrink. Good idea to let it totally cool down before next layer. Thicker gives you MORE heat. Getting a good bond to the aluminum isn't too bad BUT you HAVE TO realize that if you sand to bare aluminum, you have less than an hour to get the bondo down or the aluminum oxidizes (faster in humidity). Bondo sticks really good to aluminum, really BAD to aluminum oxide. I'd just solvent-wipe the paint to clean any goo - and then use red Scotch Brite. You'll do MUCH LESS DAMAGE to the aluminum and you'll stick the bondo to the original paint better than you'll stick it to the aluminum... unless you chemical-etch and primer it. Bondo-to-bondy is easy - just knock the surface shine off with 80 or 36 grit being careful NOT to hit the original aluminum. Don't rush it. If you can get some local heat in your garage, you CAN warm up the surface to keep it above that 45 degrees. Bathroom foot-warmer is good enough. | ||
| Slaughter |
We did the wing gloves for NASA's laminar flow and boundary layer control experiments in the mid to late 1980s. Bondo stuck to Titanium wing skin with 80 grit just fine and trust me, if you have EVER messed with Ti - it just doesn't scratch. You really don't need to get 36 grit onto the base metal, red scotchbrite is more than good enough (and it works well on rough surfaces) Actually, that dent isn't worth worrying about - except for looks (but the pucks ARE worth the effort)  |
