Previous Oil Cooler

G'day..

I have a 73' MKI 850, the previous owner attached an oil cooler to the front of my frame.

There are two indents on the right side tube, One on the front side and one on the back where this seriously mislead man had over-tightened the clamps for application of a completely obsolete device.

Let's Say the factory frame is 100% at full width, mine is depleted by about 15% of its width, by the indents caused by the clamps he put on the bike.

Should I have any concerns about structural Integrity? The right side indenting more? It does not seem like much to look at , at all.. but this is the area of the frame that the road puts most pressure on.

Hi Sean, welcome.
Sure it wasn't highway pegs or a crashbar?
The dents ate benign, if the visual is ok with you, no further action is required. 38 years in the metal trade.

It was an oil cooler we removed it straight away. It's (the indents) mostly hidden I was just unsure as to if I should be worried about it buckling..

Cheers!

When I bought my bike some 20 years ago the previous owner had highway pegs clamped to the front down tubes that left hideous indentations

mixed up some JB Weld and filled in the dents, repainted, been just fine every since

Sand it down and fill the small indents with JB Weld yes , then sand again , then fresh paint. Should be fine. Consider the other options .. locate and pay for a good used frame or heaven forbid a brand new frame :shock:

When I refit the sagging seat loop on my frame, (pegged it) there were some shrunk spots and irregularities from the welding process. I used Alvin High Temp filler to fill it and sanded it smooth. It is good to some outrageous high temperature. Kind of thin and runny, so a bit difficult to work with, but it came out fine. And dont slop it on once it sets it is not easy to sand, like Bondo or other paint body filler. Also there is no spot glaze to fill in any air bubbles you mill ion and sand down to, just more Alvin. Not horrible, not much worse than regular body filler. I used that because I had my frame powder coated. Not sure how well JB Weld holds up to the time/temp used to fuse the powder coating, in case you go that route.