Swiss Cheese

It was very apparent with a quick glance at the BlackBird frame that it had been a "Chopper" for the greater portion of it's life. Every time its look was freshened up with a new tank..... a new hole was drilled and the old one was simply filled with bondo. I just don't understand the thought process here. I mean a chopper should be built to be ridden..... ridden long miles. I first saw a crack in the paint/bondo and figure if there's a crack in the paint/bondo there must be a crack in the metal. It was right where you typically find a crack.... right at the motor mount. As I started to get rid of the paint and found a lot more holes.... in fact the inside of the backbone was completely filled with bondo. As I reached the seat post area I broke out the torch to burn out the bondo and found a lot of lead filler, then brass, then a bunch of weld.

The crack. I used a dremel to take material out of the crack area then filled the area with the tig. The crack didn't seem to wrap around the entire tube so I welded it up. I will keep an eye on it since I wasn't about to pull the motor.... I will make it right next winter.

Holes... holes... more holes.....

I found some round rod that was just bigger than the holes.... then found a drill bit just undersized of the round rod. I used the drill to normalize/clean the holes then hammered the cut off pieces of the round rod into the holes. I then welded the plugs in and made sure to burn them in really good. I'm not sure this is the proper way to do this but it seemed logical to me.

I used a grinder to smooth everything out making sure to not take away from the base material.

Finished.... Looks stronger to me. This winter I will blast the frame and really get into making things right..... I just want to ride it for now.