In the last segment the crew of U.S. Choppers straightened
the Bonne Belle, 1940 45 frame, but I asked Rick Krost, da boss,
if he felt any gusseting was necessary. He pointed out all the
strong factory gusseting in the front and even on the single
down tube, but suggested that we gusset the rear legs to
strengthen the point as which the power hits the salt. My
concern was in many respect for Valerie Thompson, our
Bonneville Salt Flat rider.
There's our rider, Valerie.
I could tell, while working with Rick, and witnessing his
watery blood shot eyes that he was either coming down with
something or hungover. His first rocking chair gusset notion met
with mixed reviews.
First, I coped the pipe after fitting it all to make sure it
would all line up right and fit snuggly to the rear frame rails,”
said Rick Krost. “I compounded the top "fish lips" by running the
mill head at an angle... 25 degrees to be exact.”
It's real important to have the weld area clean before
welding... nothing like emery cloth and elbow grease.
To make matters fun, these old frames are all furnace
brazed. There’s brass everywhere on these frames. A lot of the
times the pits in the metal keep you from cleaning all the brass
out of the clean metal, which is bad for welding mild steels with
70S2 rod. It will contaminate your welds and they will fail.
“I chose to weld the pipe to the stanchions with steel,” Rick
said. “and then weld it to the frame with Silicon bronze to avoid
any contamination issues or weld failure.”
Another benefit of SIB is that we can work around the tubing
quicker as it has a lower melting point so as not to put too much
heat into this old brazed frame..
”I used a clay heat sink in front of the castings or a sloppy
wet rag,” Rick said, “depending, so the heat doesn't crawl over to
that nice furnace brazing and loosen it!!! This could be bad!!!”
Done deal-- the supports lined up well and were
symmetrical. The 3/4 tube was used to help with any possible
chain rubbing issues and they tuck up nicely between the frame
rails.
Just like the old school racers.
We caught the Frame Fairy as she was
leaving the shop...
Look at those rear frame rails. Notice how they line up
and are parallel to each other? That was the frame fairy's work
the other night.... boy is she good. “This frame was about 3/8-
inch out of alignment, when we started this project,” Rick said.
“U.S. Choppers putting old steel back into use again!”
“Hey Bandit, come down with this flu...,” Rick sniveled, “I'm
outta here... go cuddle up to my wife and her girlfriends. It's
8:00pm and I'm hoping your liking the finished result.”
He only uses Proto-Fab tubing. It is seemless, cold rolled
and drawn over a mandrel bender. No seems or scale that must
be removed. “All size increments will slip-fit over the next size,”
Rick said, “so no machining was required.” He welded each piece
with silicon bronze rod using a Lincoln TIG 355 battleship
welder.
