How Rusty is Too Rusty

A

AndyT

New Member
#1
#1
I am checking out a couple of Cat 400's for nice prices and one seems like it has some nasty rust in spots where the paint has chipped away. It probably sat in a shed and in Nashville, and it gets real humid in the summer. Who knows?

Has anyone had a frame that was just to far gone or badly rusted inside the tubes and had it fail? This is new territory for me. My mini bikes were all fairly new when I had them.
 
ogygopsis

ogygopsis

#2
#2
Andy, Back in the 1940's most airplane frames were made of welded tubing and covered with fabric. They needed a way to test the tubular frame for rusted areas without removing, cutting, or destroying the fabric covering. They would take an ice pick and go along the bottom of the tube (because that's where the condensation settles and that's where it is most likely to rust out) and poke every few inches with the ice pick. I don't mean stab it like you're trying to kill a grizzly bear; but press relatively hard. If the pick did not penetrate the tubing it was considered airworthy. If the pick broke through the wall of the tubing; it needed to be repaired. This method is still used today in some places. Seems to me that if it was good enough for an airplane fuselage it should be good enough for a minibike frame.....Ogy
 
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