Having joined in Ted's 'Aye' thread and read about FB v. HUBB, I thought maybe HUBB needs a bit more traffic with bumped threads.

So I'll share an ancient anecdote about aluminium welding. (Or soldering I suppose.) Pass by if old stories aren't your thing...

At the 1970 TT (as a spectator) I had an 'incident' just before practice week started, the alternator cover of my bike slid along the road a bit, wearing a hole right through it.


I was staying with friends and a couple of competitors who said, "No probs, take the cover off and I'll give you a lift to the Reynolds garage. Ken Sprayson will weld that up in a jiffy."

There was a bit of a queue, with competitors and mechanics with all sorts of stuff for repair. It was an education to see Ken repairing everything that was presented to him. Pretty much all steel stuff.

Then I offered my aluminium cover, with quarter-inch hole in it, the surrounds of which were very feather-edged, out to over 2-inch diameter.

"You lads don't half bring me some stuff, don't you!" he exclaimed.

I suppose he must have changed from acetylene to something else, and first 'tested' the feather edge to see how readily it melted, noting how the hole grew, spending a short while in deep thought. Selecting a rod (aluminium I assume) he set to, gingerly depositing blobs of ali weld/solder on to the feather edging. Sort-of playing with it to just melt bits of rod and a smidgen of feather-edge, growing the thickness until the hole was completely filled. Don't remember if he used a flux and definitely don't remember how he stopped it oxidising.

It looked a magnificent repair and he seemed very satisfied with it.
"Where did it happen?" he asked.
"Approach to Braddan Bridge," I had to confess.
"Don't do it again!"

As I turned to leave I was amazed at the size of the huddled queue that had been studying his artistic work.

A while ago he published his second book of TT photographs - he's quite a serious photographer.

The front cover carries a photo of - the approach to Braddan Bridge, with Mick Grant sweeping through. I'm sure there's no connection, but it's strange what coincidences occur in life.

His repair was long-lasting, it was quite a while before I fitted a new cover. And very sadly, I probably scrapped the old one that he repaired.
"What a stupid thing to do!" I thought when I first saw the front cover of his new book...

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TTR250 - London to Cape Town