Rust hole in hi-breather!!

[Randy Kirkbride]

My 74 six days has a rust hole on the underside of the hi-breather tube close to  the front of the seat. It's about the size of a nickle. Anyone have any ideas about what type of repair? Can I weld a patch? If so what kind os metal? That material isn't real thick & I don't want to damage it more.

 

[Frank]

I have done some rust repair with welding and unless the area is pretty good around the hole the area to be repaired will be much bigger than expected. can the piece be removed or replaced?

 

[Randy Kirkbride]

Frank,
Thanks for your reply. The area around the hole seems to be OK. It's right at the bottom of the tube in one corner, and that is pretty thin material. Do you think a patch all the way across would be OK. Also, I'm not sure what material to patch with.

 

[Frank]

if you are trying to just fix the hole I would use epoxy. The reason being is that unless the operator is highly skilled repairing a hole in 1mm thick material is pretty tricky. best case it will be a blob, worse case the welder will end up damaging the material. Avoid brazing unless you can clean both sides of the part because the flux will continue to corrode the steel. (flux is acid) some might say to lap a small piece over the hole but again moisture will collect in the area and the new hole will be bigger than before. If you have a good (really good) TIG guy,(or gal) it can be done with good results.