Nose fork Corrosion- welding?

[Archer181]

I have a PA28-181 and my nose fork has some pitting due to corrosion at the bottom where the wheel tube slides through on the outside of the fork. There are no second hand ones available (I have found a few for PA28-161's but I have a larger wheel). It is still in service and considered Airworthy for now but needs replacing soon

I was wondering about getting the fork blasted, pits filling with weld and filed back.......this is an email I have had from an aviation welder.

Ideally we could shot blast the area to highlight the severity of the pitting, and merely fill the area (as you suggest) with weld using a TIG welding machine and then linish back. However, any kind of heat, let alone welding will soften the area. With you mentioning heat treating, you may need to find out if the part is ok to actually be repaired. And if it would need re heat treating afterwards. From our point of view (if the suggested repair were to take place ) we would require the correct material specification that the part is made from, so that we can match the correct welding wire.

Has anybody done this before? I would need the specification of the alloy and details of how to heat treat it again. They said they can get somebody to heat treat it but would also need a specification for the heat treating

Thanks in advance for any replies or even a source of a decent nose fork for a PA28-181

 

[flyguydon]

 

[Archer181]

 

[jerrygrogan]

 

[magman]

 

[TEG916]

 

[philiplane]

 

[Ogie_ogelthorpe]

 

[msires]

 

[Archer181]