Are there any spots on a kart chassis that you shouldnt weld and just thros away? I recently found a chassis in our dumpster after a race weekend, all good except broken at the waist. Took it home to weld it for fun but now im wondering: since the waist is one of the areas that twists the most on a kart can/should it be welded? I can imagine it wouldnt flex right but some spots like seat posts are perfectly fine to weld. Thoughts or name calling welcome.
Right at the waist, I’d consider welding, because it’s the tubes between the waist and spindles that control the flex… I wouldn’t weld up the flatspotting, due to the HAZ (heat affected zone) changing the properties of the metal.
But, truth be told, I’ve never seen a welded chassis do worse after welding solely because of the welding…
Try it and see how it goes.
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I have seen a club level chassis with 6-8 weld repairs run up front. It may not always respond to tuning like a new kart, but it can work and be fast enough.
@Gabe_Eats_Grapes yeah that is definitely not an ideal location. But given the price paid…dumpster diving…its a bargain. If you are looking to pound some laps and learn on a budget, it’ll do just fine. If you start looking to push for front of field pace and tune on it, then you may encounter some issues.
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ive already got a shitter chassis so if that one dies on me i have this. if not i can keep it to practice welding kart frames
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