General Category > Bike Builds, Rebuilds And Restorations Only
1948 Airone - restoration
Canuck750:
--- Quote from: leroy_can on April 21, 2021, 09:44:17 PM --- I don't know what type of welding you have but I did some googling and learned about a few choices. I mostly use TIG and there is a rod called Weld Mold 958 which impressed me. Looks like your usual copper coated all purpose steel rod but it produces a hard face weld without any further hardening. The video I saw showed a guy laying a bead at the end of a mild steel bar and sharpening it into a chisel and putting it through it's paces with excellent results. Looked like normal tig welding but would be perfect for what u have there. If you don't tig maybe call around to local shops and see if they have this rod. Shouldn't be much to build it up and u could shape it as required with a variety of die grinder/cut off wheels/mini belt sander type tools. Easier than regular weld and then trying to harden it or worrying it won't last. There were also stick welding rods and mig wire and hardening powders but I liked the tig method best. seemed like all the other ones were laying beads in big loader buckets to slow down wear.
--- End quote ---
Good advice! I have an ESAB mig/tig/stick but my Tig skills are not very good. I will look into that TIg rod. My smart mig settings do a good job but I don’t know how well the Mig weld will hold up. If the gear shift is properly set up the force depressing the pawls is probably not that great. I just don’t want to screw this part up.
leroy_can:
A couple of other considerations are: Is it chromed and is it a casting? Actually the presence of chrome usually doesn't hurt a tig weld but I'm not a metallurgist. Mostly I harden things accidentally like the cave man who dropped his meat in the fire and liked the taste. If you took the piece to a welding supply place or to a welding shop they might have more educated advice. I would expect any weld would hold up for quite a while as I don't expect huge mileages to be put on it. Is it external and easily accessed or does it require splitting the cases. Maybe someone has a better one and will see your post.
Canuck750:
Thanks Leroy
The piece is external to the case so I can reassemble the engine. The piece has been rechromed so I will grind off the chrome prior to any welding. After I get the engine together today I will give the repair another try. I think I will just try a weld with Mig first and see how it takes.
Thanks again
Jim
Canuck750:
I reassembled the engine today then clamped the shift mechanism body in the vice and ground some chrome off the worn surface of the part and sparked up the Mig. I welded about 4mm of length to the exposed vertical edge of the piece then chucked it in the lathe and machined back the outside, inside surface and the top edge.
A lot of hand filing to get the cut back angle to the leading edge, my weld was far from perfect but the edge surface is vertical again
After the shift mechanism was reassembled onto the engine case and the shift pedal fitted the gear selector rotates up and down. I also installed the kick starter and by swinging the starter pedal with my left hand to spin the gear set, and my right hand operating the shift pedal, the gears move up and down. Shifting is nothing like a smooth UJM but it feels similar in mechacial 'feel' to my 72 Guzzi Eldorado.
I hope the engine starts...
Canuck750:
The powder coating shop finished applying the powder primer. The process is to media blast the parts then bake out the oils followed by an etch wash then the primer powder is sprayed and baked on. I am pretty impressed with the primer.
Most of the pieces had been sanded to bare metal and the lighter pitting sanded out. These coated parts will all be sanded down and powder coated primed at least one more time.
The primer sand real nice, I am starting with 220 dry, the coater tells me there is no need to sand any finer than 200 as the powder coats will fill any 200 grit scratches. I would say this powder primer is probably equal to at least 2 or 3 high build coats of wet primer. It sands without clumping, very nice to work with. I am blocking all the flat surfaces and using semi rigid foam backing pads for the curved surfaces.
Front forks sanded out, ready for another coat of primer.
Even if I choose to use conventional wet applied paints and clear I am pleased with this powder primer and would definitley use this method again.
Depending on how well the rear fender that I patched together turns out I may even use powder as the finish coat.
First coat of the high temp metal filler on the weld seams on the rear fender.
literature says it takes 24 hours to air cure prior to any powder re-coating and it needs to be oven cured at 400 F. I have never used this product but it is what Eastwood Auto reccommends and sells for use with powder coating. There is no activator, just stir it up and spread it on, max 1/4" thick at a time.
Hopefully is sands out ok. Once I sand out the filler I will take all the parts back for another primer coating.
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