31 - Mudguard

 I started by marking out a centre line down the bike and transferred this unto the mudguard.

 When I was happy I drilled holes in the guard and welded the bracket to the frame.

 My own welding might not be just as neat as John's but I think it will do.

 And this is how it looks from the back and side.

30 - Mudguard

 Today I had a look at mounting the back mudguard. I had to hammer and bang the lugs on the frame until the guard would sit against them nicely. 

 Next I took a marker and marked where I needed to cut the mudguard to make clearance for the chain guard.
 I'm always a bit apprehensive cutting something expensive like this as it's easy to make a mistake, but I think it will be ok. I don't have a chain guard yet but I reckon I can make one easily enough when the time comes.

 I held it in place while my wife eyed it up to ensure it was central. Here we noticed a bit of a problem. The lug on the frame is not sitting centrally so it tries to pull the mudguard to one side. You can counter act this by pulling the bottom of the guard to the other side and putting a twist in it, but I didn't want to do that. So off came the lug to be repositioned in the proper place.

Actually when I looked at the other frame it was worse. I really believe a lot of the frame building wasn't done in a jig at all. Somebody was just holding the bits together in roughly the right place while they were tacked. 

29 - Stand

 I spent a hour or two doing a bit more fitting work to the side stand. I started by making a little pin for the spring to hook on to. Then I had to take the head races from my old frame and put them into this one as I needed to put the front wheel in.

 Now that the bike could stand up by itself I cut the stand to a height that allowed the bike to lie at an angle. I didn't want it lying over too far, but not so upright that it would be easily knocked over either. I think I'm happy but maybe I'll get a few other opinions before I weld the foot on.

 Finally I drilled a hole to locate the pin at an angle that was not sticking out too far but kept the spring away from the tyre.

28 - Frame welded !!

 I got the frame back today. John had done a very neat job of welding in the new parts.

 So that's the cracked bottom tube replaced, a new side stand and bracket made from scratch, a new pin for the brake pedal welded on,  and the sump guard replaced.  Now to carry on !!

27 - Making Some Nuts

 A quick one today. I got a piece of 21mm AF stainless steel hex bar and made a couple of new nuts. One for the centre of the clutch and one for the front wheel spindle. One of the old ones had been tightened up with a hammer and chisel by the looks of it.

 I've got plenty of bar left so might make a few more if anyone needs one.

26 - Fixing dents

The exhaust pipe was one of those things I didn't know what to do with. I can get a brand new one from Spain but sometimes I like to keep as many original parts on the bike as I can. I've never been one for concours restorations as I always feel that a bike has a history and a bit of sentimental attachment to its owner, and this history should be displayed rather than stripped away with new parts.

 Our pipe always had a couple of huge dents in it. I don't know who done it, but it was there from the beginning and was like an old battle scar. I felt like the pipe was worth rechroming but I would have to do something to improve the look of it. 

 I took it into work and had one of the welders tack some screws into the dents, then with a bit of heat I pulled on the dent with a slide hammer. They pulled out not to bad, but need a bit more work. I'll try to fill what doesn't come out with brazing rod then smooth this down. 

 It might all be to no avail as the chrome plater could turn round and tell me he wont do it. But it if comes to that I might just have to buy that reproduction one.

  

25 - Building Up Crankcases

 All the bits of the engine have been sitting around in a box since being cleaned so I spent a couple of hours today putting the crankcases together. Here's a step by step photo gallery of the gearbox rebuild. Sorry for the quality , they're only taken with my phone. Everything was in good enough condition.  The main shaft was repaired by Travan Engineering over 20 years ago. I think the guy might be dead now. It was hard chromed plated and ground then oil-lite bushes fitted in the sleeve gear. A good repair that has lasted well.

kickstart mechanism

output sleeve gear

hard chrome repair on mainshaft

selector drum installed

mainshaft gear train

layshaft gear train

first selector fork

second selector fork

third selector fork

note top side of layshaft gear

note top side of gear has raised edge

gear added to mainshaft

detent plunger installed

kickstart gear installed

note thrust washer on kickstart gear

new gasket

crankshaft installed