Is this frame salvageable?

[denverdean1]

Trying to clean up this frame I bought, had some garbage mods done to it and covered in pounds of bondo. Some people shouldn't be touching bikes. Anyways once I grind all this clean, will it still be safe to use?

just worried about the material removed on the down tube and the heat from the previous welds. My plan is to hard tail it but I don't want to spend money and time on something structurally unsound

 

[Jan_P]

Most welded things can be repaired ..
But as it sits its dangerous No Knowledge of weld quality. .
Perhaps not the best job done there.

 

[jpdevol]

It's hard to tell from the pics and also, as Jan said, until you get all that bad weld and fiberglass off there (flapper disk). It also depends on what your plans are for it. Adding one of the hardtail kits on there may be doable. Finding an original seat loop/rear cradle section and getting it squarely attached a bit more involved.

I've attached a couple of pics of what a bare original backbone looks like. There is a "saddle" at the bend where the original seat loop or a hardtail section would attach. So, once you get the current welds ground off, I would want to duplicate that structure and build from there.

 

[gggGary]

A heat gun and putty knife work very well to remove bondo without changing the metal around it.
It will peel right off.

 

[GLJ]

Trying to clean up this frame I bought, had some garbage mods done to it and covered in pounds of bondo. Some people shouldn't be touching bikes. Anyways once I grind all this clean, will it still be safe to use?

That will depend on your abilities as a fabricator and welder.

 

[denverdean1]

Thanks for the replies guys, I'm more thinking of the thickness of the tube once I remove the rest of the welds. Is the wall thickness of the downtube enough to not worry? And does heat from welding soften the metal at all? I'm not worried about my fabrication skills, I'll be able to weld the hard tail on no problem, but if the tube is going to twist and crack cause of being to thin and stresses from being welded 3 times now, it might not be worth it

 

[gggGary]

Like JPD with the doubler plate to spread stress and good welds done I don't see an issue. Everything frame is mild steel so I don't see heating issues. Thinning from excessive grinding, flap disk could bear watching but frames 74 up are pretty beefy. Only seen rust issues at the bottom a few times.