mixalive

OMG.. I would need stilts to ride an 18″..

Here is after a little painting. I was going to just touch it up but decided to paint the back half. I painted it with PPG Shopline Acrylic Enamel, single stage with hardener. I did not clear coat so it does not look as deep as the factory paint. It is a little dark but I think it will be fine.

Special thanks goes out to neo_pop_71 and his resources for all the advice and encouragement.

So, what we were looking at is a 7005 series double butted frame made in Taiwan for Barracuda. I made the decision to not only weld the crack, but to also press fit an insert into the seat tube to take the seat clamping stress off of the repair. I chose seamless 4130 Chrome Moly tubing as my insert material. Of course, using an insert into the seat tube necessitates going to a smaller diameter seat post, so I chose a Thomson Elite 25.4mm. The Thomson is extremely precise in its diameter from the bottom to the top. I sent the frame out for tig welding and the result came out great. He even ground down the welds for me. The bill was $85.00. I then reamed the frame seat tube so it would have a uniform diameter to about 8 inches deep. I ordered the proper 4130 Cromo from Aircraft Spruce and sent it out to a local machine shop to have the outside diameter machined to .05mm over the inside diameter of the frame seat tube. I froze the machined insert with dry ice and heated the inside of the frame seat tube with a heat gun and drove the insert with a shop press using Loctite Red 271 (initially as a lubricant and eventually to lock the insert in place).