35 - Getting Started Again

 Things have been slow over the winter. It is just too cold to feel like going out to do any work in the shed, but now I have the frame back and want to make some progress again.

 Clifford made a good job on the frame, it's done in base coat and lacquer which is the way he wants to paint the tank when the time comes. We choose Ford Silver Fox as we couldn't get the crystal silver PPG colour.

 I've left in some parts for chrome and zinc plating, and the rear shoes for re-lining so I hope to get them back next week then get the wheels into the frame.

34 - Fork repair

 Back when I stripped and rebuilt the forks one of them was sticking a bit at the bottom of its travel. If you pushed the stanchion up and down the fork leg it felt like it was binding a bit. A tug would release it but it didn't feel like the other side, which was sliding nicely.

 I mentioned this to Mr Romero when I was in his shop and he said this was a common thing. Allowing the forks to bottom out hard must swage or deform the bottom of them. "Not possible to repair" was his diagnosis. Although I didn't say anything, I didn't agree with him. I gave it some thought and decided it would be possible to hone it out.

 Today I pulled the fork leg apart and made a long "emery stick" from a couple of feet of brush shaft. I simply cut a slot in one end to receive a strip of emery cloth and put a screw nail in the other end so I could spin it in the drill.

 I gave it a few whizz's up and down near the bottom of the leg, cleaned it out, and within a few minutes I had the stanchion sliding in and out right to the bottom without any tight spots.

 So I reassembled it again, put the rubber boot over the fork and left it aside. 

 Clifford still has the frame, its only primed at the minute but should be ready soon in the new year.

33 - Frames away getting painted

 I finally finished preparing the frame and got it rubbed down ready for painting. I left it over with a friend and hopefully he'll get it done in the next week or two. I'm looking forward to starting to put her together again. It's been spread out all over the floor for too long.


 I have a bit of a problem with the petrol tank. I put tank sealer in it 20 odd years ago and now its all starting to crack and come away from the fibreglass. Of course there's very little access down inside the filler cap so there's no way to remove it all before sealing it again with fresh stuff. The people who make the tank sealers say not to put any dissolving solution into it as it will only react with the resin in the glass and make it a whole lot worse, and I don't think swishing nuts and bolts around inside will get it out either.

  So I contacted a guy who works in a boat yard where they make fibreglass hulls. The plan was that if I cut a couple of holes in the bottom of the tank it would let me in enough to poke about and get the old sealer out. Then they could patch the holes up again for me before resealing it, but he's not overly keen on the idea. 

 So I thought a bit more about it, and the idea going round in my head at the minute is why not just cut the entire bottom out of the tank. Then I could fabricate a tiny aluminium tank to fit inside the fibreglass unit and finally reattach the bottom piece of original fibreglass. It would look the same from the outside but all aluminium inside. It doesn't need to hold much, just enough to start it and take it for a wee sail. I might be biting off too much here but i'm thinking about it.

32 - Work in Progress

 I haven't been posting for a week or two but I still managed to get some work done. 
 I ordered a silencer box from Spain but as I suspected it did not fit all that well. The problem is the bracket, it's holding the box in a bad position so that it's hitting against the frame at the tail pipe. I think the best thing I could do is cut it off and make a new one that holds everything in the right position.  Note how far off it is in the bottom picture, plus the silencer also needs to move in towards the engine to make a bit of clearance against the frame.

  Stevie, a workmate, came over one day to ask how I was getting on with the exhaust pipe and offered to let me try his set of 'blow out' plates. I did try them but with not a lot of success. The problem was getting enough pressure inside the pipe to blow the dent out. At around 30 psi the air would escape because I just could not get the plates to clamp onto the pipe tight enough. So unfortunately I had to go back to my idea of building them up with brazing rod.

 In our conversation Stevie mentioned he was getting some bits zinc plated for a 250 Maico he's restoring, and did I need anything done? Well I hadn't thought about it, but I looked out some parts that evening and was really pleased at the result, especially the spring. Thanks Stevie.

 Included in that little batch was six original bolts from the wheel, they look good and I'm in the notion of sourcing a few more for the more prominent locations around the bike. Also I got a couple of new Akront decals for the rim too.

 So I'm almost finished with the frame, I had to make a little cable ring for the speedo and petty much all that's left to do now is it rub it down and get it ready for Clifford to paint. Hopefully I'll get it to him within the next fortnight.

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.