I was working on my dad's old '54 Raleigh sports. The bike was tweaked before I got it when it got into a fight with a snowmobile trailer that was being backed into his garage a little too far and met the bike on the far wall.

While the bike rode fine the wheel was not centered in the rear triangle. I measured it and needed to move both DO's over about 15mm to get it back to straight. I moved them over using the 2x4 method without any fuss but when I went to inspect the DO's to see if they needed straightening I found this crack in the drive-side DO.



The crack is between the arrows and goes all the way through and the metal is displaced slightly on both sides. I don't know if this happened when the bike was tweaked by the trailer or when I went to bring it back. I didn't hear any pop or noise and the frame moved over very easily. There is also a new scratch in the paint just below the crack which isn't a crack but was caused by my DO-straightening tool as I carefully eased the crack displacement back to as straight as I could get it and aligned the DO's.

This frame is sentimental but in horrible cosmetic shape. I haven't even ridden it after the straightening due to the crack so I don't know if my frame-straightening created any issues. I have a feeling that the geometry of these bikes is very forgiving since the bike visibly dog-tracked before and I could ride it before no-hands without any pulling or other handling issues even with the frame all wonked out to one side.

Now it looks straight to the eye (I bend pipe for a living so I've got a pretty good eye) and measures out straight -but the finish over the entire frame, fenders, and chaincase leaves a lot to be desired. There is much spray-paint and brushed-on paint built up over the years and the frame really needs to be refinished. I was thinking a powder-coat would be best. I just replaced the original rims with CR-18's so I had plans to ride it.

What are my options regarding this crack? Properly I'm thinking it should be V-cut and Tig-welded from both sides or the DO totally removed and replaced. Is it even possible to source these DO's? Maybe a donor bike? I'm worried that if it has fatigued enough to crack there it is fatigued elsewhere in that DO -or maybe not.

I'm wondering if I could open the crack .001" or just enough to do a halfway decent braze it if would hold or if I am just kidding myself.

I'd like to use this bike as a light rider and tweed runner rather than hanging it up in the garage or on the basement wall of my dad's place. I don't want it to be a safety issue where I end up crashing this bike due to a failure of the DO.

Since this is my dad's first bike that he bought new when he was a kid with his own paperboy money it has a decent amount of sentimental value so I'd like to do something with it and ride it -but I don't want to spend a ton of money on it either since the overall condition is marginal.

Does anyone think this can be successfully brazed or welded?