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Experimental Bike Repairs...

OldTLSDoug

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So, Mitch and I got some plumbing plugs and stuffed them into the bent piece of exhaust from the Aprilia. I am waiting overnight and will see if she pops the dent out via freezing the water I filled it with.

On a lighter note, Mitch loaned me an air saw. I had to cut up some fiberglass race bodywork to install a kick stand on a buddies 2009 CBR1000RR Repsol.

So, I cut that puppy up and installed the kickstand works like a champ. One project completed several more to go.

Click for Video if you want to see it actually move.

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Not to mention I fabricated yet another amazing bodywork bracket. I must be talented. Best part? 30 minutes start to finish. It is a good day!

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And yes, it actually holds up the bike as well. Life goes on, always enjoy the little victories, they tend to be the most satisfying in the end.

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P.S. Don't let the word get out that I work on Hondas. They cause me great stress when I go to disassemble one. But they are fun.
 
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Frozen water is unpredictable. I would plug the pipe, heat it with a torch and use compressed air to remove the dent.
 
Frozen water is unpredictable. I would plug the pipe, heat it with a torch and use compressed air to remove the dent.

It's a stainless hunk of curved pipe about 8" long and shrinks from just under 3" to 2 1/2".

The dent is deep and has a hard wrinkle.

Heating stainless turns it very brittle, IIRC. Plus heating the dent will cause any kind of plug for compressed air to melt away because it's such a small piece.

The curve makes it neat impossible to get a body work spoon at the dent.

We tried a carriage bolt threaded through a coupling nut to expand from the inside ... the curved surface had the bolt/nut walk and never bite.

If either of us could run a TIG rig ...
 
Stainless is hard and therefore hard to work with. Not easy to repair.

I need to buy some argon and a TIG gun....but I'd still suck at welding.
 
Alot of old two stroke guys used the plug and freeze method. Interested to see the results.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 
We watched a video and it worked for a Honda CR pipe. I got the caps on tight and there is no air. I figure there are 3 possibilities:
1. It works pretty well
2. The plugs pop out of the end
3. We break the piece of pipe, not really a downside since it is almost destroyed anyway.

I used a rim strip from an old wheel wrapped around the plug for the 2.5 in end. Then I tightened the pee out of them with a 18 in cresent wrench. She sits in the freezer. Should have gotten a before picture. Maybe there is still time?
 
Dang, Doug is getting cheap now that he's retired. Used to be he'd just order up a new part. I mean, he ordered new parts for the Baby Bandit just because they were the wrong color. Penny pinching will get you through retirement sir. :D
 
Ok, this is as close to a before as I can get. Been in the freezer a couple of hours. Wondering if it is already moving. Maybe Mitch can tell.

If it works, I spend $9.00 or so to save $370.00. Probably worth a try.

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Dang, Doug is getting cheap now that he's retired. Used to be he'd just order up a new part. I mean, he ordered new parts for the Baby Bandit just because they were the wrong color. Penny pinching will get you through retirement sir. :D

Not my circus, not my monkeys. Or more correctly, not my scooter, not my money, so I am trying to save some here. I already got a bike and some money. I paid for the new bodywork as part of the Beta deal. So, not really cheap, just going to be a track bike. I ordered new Sato rearset parts. Those guys are great to deal with. It also broke the caliper mount in the rear. So I got one of those for $15.00. I think I will be at about $900.00 total to get it track ready. Not bad for a 2009 RSV1000R Factory covered up with Ohlins, Oz and carbon fiber. Need to get a battery as well.
 
Maybe Mitch can tell.

Maybe get a couple rubber bands and string over the gap.
Mark the edges of the dent on the rubber band with a sharpie.
Measure the distance from the bottom of the crater to the rubber band.

I might expect that small dent to move.
I'm not very hopeful on the big dent.
 
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Doh! When you said Aprilia I forgot that yours is sold. So difficult to keep up with the current inventory when it's in such a constant state of flux. :D
 
We watched a video and it worked for a Honda CR pipe. I got the caps on tight and there is no air. I figure there are 3 possibilities:
1. It works pretty well
2. The plugs pop out of the end
3. We break the piece of pipe, not really a downside since it is almost destroyed anyway.

I used a rim strip from an old wheel wrapped around the plug for the 2.5 in end. Then I tightened the pee out of them with a 18 in cresent wrench. She sits in the freezer. Should have gotten a before picture. Maybe there is still time?
my money is on it working. If not completely, there will be major improvement.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 
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When I was a teenager and racing cross country I got a dented pipe on whatever two stroke I was racing at the time. My dad and I went to his buddy’s house to use the compressed air and heat method to pop it out (which we had done successfully before...I was pretty hard on stuff). We got it good and full of air and applied the heat. My dad was holding it in position with a pair of channel locks, and happened to be on the business end.

It got good and warm and then...BOOM! The plug blew out of the end. It hit my dad square in the sternum. He made a sound I can’t describe but will never forget and slowly fell over from the crouched position he had been in. Fortunately he was okay...just a nasty radiator plug shaped bruise in the middle of his chest. For a few seconds there, though, we thought it might have killed him.

Of course, then we rigged it up again and made sure nobody was in the line of fire. Gotta get the job done, you know?
 
Hopefully it works...this is the heat method I was suggesting. Might be tough on a smaller pipe though.

[ame="https://youtu.be/U_LClTYi1gY"]2-Stroke Exhaust Dent Removal - YouTube[/ame]
 
Here is the one Mitch sent me that got us going on freezing.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOzGD3zv1Eg"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOzGD3zv1Eg[/ame]
 
We have used freezing many many times over the years. It works. Two strokes and 4 strokes. Sometimes we had to do it several times to a pipe. It only moves a little. But you have to be careful it WILL split a pipe. We just capped one end and never filled it up all the way. We never capped both ends. That would probably split it faster.

Heat works, but it can be exciting when too much air pressure plus molten metal POPS. I always hated doing it with heat.
 
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Well round one is over, might be a slight change, we are now in a thaw cycle. I see it pushed out the small end plug, so I need to use some wire to prevent that next go round.

I figured it would be a progressive process and would require repetition but isn't that the way of all things?

The smaller dent is flattened a bit

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But, you can see the smaller plug pushed out, so I lost a little force. So I will bulk it up and try again tonight. I am encouraged since it didn't break.

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Have you tried a buffing wheel...?












:duck:
 
Any update?

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 
Here is the new method on the way into the freezer last night. I was tired, I had just put new pads and rotors on my F150 (twice, long story). So I sluffed it of til this morning. In a bit I will go out and see if we made any progress.

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Round 2 a rousing success. Thawing for round 3, then I will have Jasen over for polish. He is, after all a Marine.

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Even the little dent is almost gone.

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