On Mon, 26 Apr 2021 09:15:28 +0100, Chris Green wrote:

snip

Thanks for the suggestions, but such a repair wouldnt withstand the forces
applied. There's very little metal left in some places and fibregalass
wouldn't take the twisting etc.

You could certainly make fibreglass strong enough but whether it would
be economical in either time or money I don't know.

Agreed. If it were mine I'd give it a go but then I'm very familiar
with the processes and like a challenge. ;-)

Properly built up
and layered fibreglass is a very strong material

And of course you could take it further with carbon fibers these days.

but it's very labour
intensive to make things out of fibreglass.

To 'make', yes (plugs / moulds etc) but at the same times it's
actually quite easy (as in effort).

Best case situation.

Take barrow to bits.

Clean up frame (best case, get it shot blasted).

Inject frame with expanding foam to 1) seal it whilst working on it
and 2) stop too much resin going inside (and wasting it).

Reinforce any high strain / weak areas with steel strips, section
(exhaust tubing cut in half ?), or fibreglass.

'Spiral wrap' the entire frame with a woven 'bandage' (as easy as
putting a bandage on an arm etc). Resin in.

Rinse / repeat the above stage to build up a reasonable section,
depending on how bad it is overall.

Re assemble, use for ever, leave to the kids in your will. ;-)

As an aside and assuming the frame is still in once piece, any company
that makes car exhaust systems with a hydraulic pipe bender might be
able to duplicate the old frame for a reasonable price (if they aren't
that busy)?

Cheers, T i m