In the early days Tucker may have had some less than stellar stuff go out the door, but a frame with the rough dill berries from the torch cut would not have made it.
It would have taken only a very short time with a grinder to have smoothed up the edges and generally policed up that frame ......
I have had a bit of contact with an early tucker....(Back in the mid/late 70's) and they were built well and the craftsmanship was good.
The designs on some stuff may have been a little less than Swiss Watch class, but they worked well.
There is a big difference between RUGGED LOOKING and crude.
So much of the modifications and repairs on many cats is just plain crude hack jobs.
Some times it is because of a lack of proper tools to work with, and other times it is a lack of skill......hard to say.
Many repairs are done in a hurry to "Patch it up" get it running.
But from the pics....it looks like that area can be cleaned up nicely and a good clean restoration made.
Good luck with the Kitten....