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Well folks, that's all she wrote for this FZ

Lol I was going to go "by the book" but the more I looked at it it looked incredibly simple and I figured I'd wing it. Only 2 things gave me a little grief and that was the steering stop, and the rear passenger brace. For the rear I just unbolted everything so I could swing it up to give the frame clearance to come off. I had originally locked my front end turned all the way to the left which didn't allow the frame to move at all so I loosened my "make shift 2x6 front stabilizer" and just turned it back straight. Moved the frame straight out maybe a inch, then back to clear the forks and it was free, other than disconnecting the wire harness that runs through the frame on that side.

As of right now I have a regular car jack with a 2x8 laid flat on it under the headers, a 4x4 under the swing arm, rear paddock, and another 4x4 cut to fit under the water pump and it seems to be fairly secure. I imagine I'm going to have a little fight getting to go back together though.

As for the crack, looks like I got lucky and if didn't go through any ribs, and to be honest, if I would have known it was going to be this easy I probably would have started a while go.
 
Also, while looking at the back side of the frame it seems like a poor design in that one area. Obviously I'm not the 1st person that this has happened too and looking at it, the frame could really benefit from some extra ribs or bracing running through the area of the crack, because it is fairly open in that one spot vs being fairly beefed up everywhere else
 
Paint

I love how you removed the frame! :rockon:

My two cents is related to the frame paint. I swapped a 2008 swingarm onto my 2004 FZ6, and found some spray paint which matched really well (after buying a few cans of different brands / colors).

I used this Rust-olem spray paint that I bought at Home Depot:
RustOleum.com
( Color 7515838 - Aluminum )

It matches well and has held up nicely since 2009.
 
update, got the frame back from my buddy today and went ahead and threw it in a furnace. I was originaly planning on putting it in my vacuum furnace and try to actually harden it as well as stress releive it by taking up around 1200F and a nitrogen quench but in talking with my general manager who has 30+ yrs in metalurgy he reccomended just a simple stress relief in a "normal" furnace at 350F so thats what its getting. He reccomended that because of the chance of distortion, even with my "jig". so this is its current state
 
Looks real good!!!

BTW, I make helmet lock brackets for FJRs and BMW's. The frame color for the FJR is just about identical (see pic's below) as Rustoleum 7271 Silver Metallic. The FJR and FZ should be about the same color..

The pictures are the frame (Yamaha silver), the bracket Which I make and paint) with lock attached is the Rustoleum part # listed above. Its drys pretty quick, covers very well and is about dead on color wise...

Walmart, Home depo usually carry it...

I believe "Coloright" actually makes the Yamaha colored paint @ roughly $30.00 a rattle can...
 
Last edited:
I'll give it a shot, but unfortunately I have uncovered some dirty little secrets that my bike has...

This frame used to be black.... As in 06+ frame....

So who knows what paint was used before hand...

I don't want to put too much thought into it, all I care is that its fixed lol and the title says my name...
 
ChevyFazer said:
update, got the frame back from my buddy today and went ahead and threw it in a furnace. I was originaly planning on putting it in my vacuum furnace and try to actually harden it as well as stress releive it by taking up around 1200F and a nitrogen quench but in talking with my general manager who has 30+ yrs in metalurgy he reccomended just a simple stress relief in a "normal" furnace at 350F so thats what its getting. He reccomended that because of the chance of distortion, even with my "jig". so this is its current state
Click to expand...

Looks good.

just out of curiosity and for the benefit of the rest of us. How much would such a welding cost? I figure it would benefit us to know how much an experienced welder would take for such welding in case my bike or somebody else's suffers the same faith.

from my understanding the cost of a used from is in and around $1,000.
 
In my case, just that a case of bud lite lol but he didn't even ask for that, I offered it to him. I've taken on little side welding jobs here and there and as for price, it would depend on the welder a lot and what they use, mig or Tig. If I were to quote a price I'd say $300, but that number could change a lot depending on who you ask.
 
ChevyFazer said:
In my case, just that a case of bud lite lol but he didn't even ask for that, I offered it to him. I've taken on little side welding jobs here and there and as for price, it would depend on the welder a lot and what they use, mig or Tig. If I were to quote a price I'd say $300, but that number could change a lot depending on who you ask.
Click to expand...

Good to know.


In your opinion how strong is the weld? Would you feel totally safe riding the bike again?

Sorry for the questions. I am a philistine when it comes to metallurgy. I was under the impression that Aluminium isn't too great for welding repair. My understanding was that the welding even if done would not be as strong as the original.

Any truth to that?
 
Yeah I took a bunch of pics but for some reason they are all black and you can't see anything. But the 1st thing I did was magnaflux the crack, it's a 3 step process that reveals the entire crack with a red dye. Once I saw the end of the crack I drilled a 1/4" hole right on the very end of the crack, so the crack would not spread while welding. The frame was a little thinner than I thought so I ended up using a die grinder with a rotary deburing bit/cutting bit to groove it out. Normally I use a regular grinder to groove but that probably would have gone too deep too fast. But once it was all prepped my buddy went to town with a tig on the outside leaving a real nice clean weld, but before polishing it up we flipped it and then he went to town with a wire feed puddling up a massive amount of extra metal on the backside for a little extra strength. Once it cooled then we polished the front.
 
PosterFZ6 said:
Good to know.


In your opinion how strong is the weld? Would you feel totally safe riding the bike again?

Sorry for the questions. I am a philistine when it comes to metallurgy. I was under the impression that Aluminium isn't too great for welding repair. My understanding was that the welding even if done would not be as strong as the original.

Any truth to that?
Click to expand...

There is some truth to it. The problem when it comes to welding aluminum is the aluminum itself, it dissipates heat so well that it can be hard for the weld to actually fuse to the material vs just melting on top of it. In some cases you actually have to have 2 people, one person with a external heat source preheating the spot to be welded, then the welder right behind. A poor aluminum weld would be very similar to just putting a piece of tape over the crack trying to hold it together vs making the crack solid again.

Another problem with welding is that most welding media (wires and rods) after burned in, especially on any cast material will actually be much stronger than the material it is welded to creating a weak spot either on the weld or just to the outside of the weld. This happens from the weld being "harder" as well as the extreme heat that is located in a fairly small area around the weld, which in a round about way "tempers" that small area making it "softer" than the weld itself. That's where stress relieving comes in, heating the entire piece up to 350f in most cases allows the crystalline structure to "calm down" so to speak, and helps the original material and added weld to "play nice" if you will. More or less making the weld and original material closer to the same hardness, kind of helping them "mix" a little better.

Check this out for more info http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annealing_(metallurgy)

But yes after the weld and stress relief I will feel comfortable on the bike.
 
PosterFZ6 said:
Good to know.


In your opinion how strong is the weld? Would you feel totally safe riding the bike again?

Sorry for the questions. I am a philistine when it comes to metallurgy. I was under the impression that Aluminium isn't too great for welding repair. My understanding was that the welding even if done would not be as strong as the original.

Any truth to that?
Click to expand...

Just thought of a pretty good example if you have ever tried to do any soldering, electrical or plumbing. When you don't have the thing your trying to solder hot enough the solder just sits on top of it, but once it is hot enough you can actually see it get sucked into the places it needs to be, or getting sucked into the hottest area. Welding aluminum can be very similar if there is not enough heat, your welding media (same as the solder) will just sit on top of what your trying to weld vs becoming one piece.
 
Thank you guys!

Now I understand it better.

So the key is to find a really good and experienced welder who knows his stuff.

I am very curious to see how everything will work out. Hopefully you will get your bike on the road again.
 
Nope not yet, the fords been gettin all my attention lately. But it's funny though, I ain't been on in a while and I was just on the way to go but that rust oleum you mentioned and got on here to double check the paint code lol so the paints bought now home to start the prep
 
Top it off with me wiping out in Home Depots parking lot on my old mans strom. Lol oh well just a lil scratch on top of his scars.

If you ain't wreckin' you ain't ridin'....or just a dumbass trying to drift a 600+lb bike lol
 
ChevyFazer said:
Top it off with me wiping out in Home Depots parking lot on my old mans strom. Lol oh well just a lil scratch on top of his scars.

If you ain't wreckin' you ain't ridin'....or just a dumbass trying to drift a 600+lb bike lol
Click to expand...

Lol. Glad you're alright. I think most of us have been in that situation before, I know I get that itch when the weather is just right for such schenanigans
 
After going from the FZ6 to a 600+ pound bike I know what you mean.

Just saw this thread and read all the posts (I don't get on forums much anymore). Will keep track of the repaint and reassemble. At first I was interested in knowing what other bikes you would be interested in. Now I want to see this bike back on the road!
 
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