Strip Down

Collection was duly arranged from Glasgow down to Cheshire (I can highly recommend Shiply, by the way) and soon she arrived as a frame, engine, several boxes of parts and a spare back wheel.

Installed in my small workshop / big shed, the bike was already devoid of engine and was essentially a rolling chassis. So the first job was to strip all of that down. 

So, out with my imperial spanners and sockets ..... only to find that they don't fit. Down to Machine Mart to delve into the mysterious world of "Whitworth" spanners! This was great for most of them but actually there is a bit of a mix, with a few odd sized nuts that I'll need to sort as we go through the rebuild.

Usual recommendations at this point - you can't take too many photos and notes as you go along. I learned to my cost last time that the memory does fade over a couple of years!

Soon I was pretty much down to all the components, though I've left a few sub-assemblies, like wheels and forks, together at this stage for ease of storage mostly. I'm really pleased with the condition of it all - the seat and tail light assembly will need a little bit of welding work doing but most of the rest of it looks like straightforward refurbishment. It will be interesting to look back on that line in a few months!

The only bit that has fought me so far has been the swing arm axle, which doesn't want to leave it's resting home for the last 60 years! I have given it some gentle hammer persuasion; soaked it in oil before more gentle persuasion; heated it all with a blowtorch and hot air gun before more (not so) gentle persuasion and it's still stuck fast. 

One of the lessons from my last restoration was to recognise when I had reached the limits of what I could do with either my tools or my knowledge and then to call in the professionals. This is one such occasion, so the frame has gone off to my friendly mechanic Paul to see what he can do with an oxy-acetylene gun and a much bigger hammer! It turned out that the swinging arm "axle" was embedded in 2 rubber bushes - as I was hitting the axle with the hammer, it was just compressing against the rubber and rebounding. Paul pressed the axle out with his hydraulic press and the rubbers were also removed. Looking at the parts list - it appears that there is an updated set-up for this, so I need to buy a new axle tube and axle, which also has greasing arrangements built in - much better.

The aim now is to get everything assesed into three piles:

1. things to be sent off for powder coating
2. things to be sent off for re-chroming
3. everything else

As I do that, I'll be developing a plan of exactly what else I need to do.