mikejharrison

Assembling the engine

Engine cover and mounts sprayed ready for assembly.

The metallic black looks great on the engine cover.

Engine cover located, gently gently don’t want to scratch anything.

Engine assembled.

Metallic drive sprocket, yeah, why not.

Rear wheel complete, now lets get that engine on.

I cut up some rubber strip to protect the paint on the frame. Engine mounts on, and on goes the engine. Perfect.

Next step, brakes and gears.

Assembling the motorcycle - first fix

Pressed the headset cups into the newly painted frame.  Then in go the springer forks.

Both wheels go on.  There’s not a lot of clearance on the rear, had to let the air out of the tyre to locate the hub in the dropout’s.  I guess that’s what you get when you opt for balloon tyres.

Pressed in the bottom bracket cups, and in go the bearings and spindle. On go the cranks and pedals.

Petrol tank on, just need to make some spacers and retainers for the leather straps.

Brooks saddle on, and we’re starting to get somewhere.

Next step, I need to paint the engine and mounts, and fabricate a stainless steel exhaust.  Right, I’m going in, it’s bloomin freezing.

Prep and spray

Plenty of paint stripper was required to get the frame back to bare metal.  I then smartened it up by sand blasting.

A little bit body filler here and there to get rid of the water bottle and badge holes etc, and its ready for the paint.

Popped to the local paint supplier to check out some samples, and opted for Alfa Romeo Nero Black which is a nice rich metallic with silvery / gold metal fleck.

Paint applied to the tank, quite a few coats of clear lacquer to add depth.  Thanks to my Dad for the cracking spray job, great end result, well pleased.

Engine mounts next, and I’ve got to sit and design the art work / pin striping for the engine cover.

Pressed in the bottom bracket and head set cups, and I’m almost ready to start assembling.

Project vintage motorcycle

Design starts on my new vintage motorcycle project.  When I say ‘design’ I mean thought.  I’ve got a feeling this one is going to require a lot of thinking.