Time for an update on ‘Ratty’.
Well, progress has been painfully slow and has been a case recently of one step forward quickly followed by two steps back! This is the problem of buying a project bike that appears to be all there but in reality the parts in the cardboard boxes are nothing to do with the motorcycle in question! Over 50% of the parts in the boxes I found are for pushbikes! I did however find a brand new front disc so that has gone on the rebuilt front wheel after a bit of touching up of the centre section paintwork.
The real problem has been with the various nuts, bolts and washers that hold the ancillary parts such as rear taillight, indicators etc with the majority of them found to be missing or of the wrong size. The rear chain adjuster locking nuts were found to be normal thread 8mm nuts where they should be a fine pitch thread! I have now decided to go the stainless route and have been busy machining the heads of the new stainless bolts of various sizes (set screws, flanged and full length) to remove the script and to smooth them off with emery paper followed by hours on the polishing mop. I have bought Form Type C stainless washers as these are a perfect match for the OEM Honda items. These have had the polishing mop treatment as well.
Despite six months of searching trying to find a Marshall Deeptone rear silencer to bring the bike back to how I first saw it has proved elusive, I even wrote to the Jama/Laser Group in Holland who made them originally asking if they had any NOS or if they had the drawing they could give me to get one made (well you have to ask don’t you
). In the end I didn’t even receive a reply
. I have given up on that idea and bought a new silencer from The Classic Bike Shop in Redditch. When it arrived in a double wrapped and reinforced cardboard box I put it in the loft for safe keeping. Unfortunately when I took it out of the box on Friday to connect it up to the original header pipes that I spent a few hours bringing back to life with a wire wool, oil and a Solvol combination to remove the pitted rust I found it had a dent on the reverse cone at the end. There were no marks around the dent and it looks as though the dent was in there before the plating process. The black end plate was also really poorly painted as though whoever painted it used a rattle can and didn’t shake it beforehand! I contacted Classic Bike Shop and they were brilliant, no quibbles or questions. They sent a brand new replacement on the same day by UPS and arranged for the damaged item to be collected by Royal Mail the next day. Excellent service and a big shout out to The Classic Bike Shop
.
Has anyone used the Green Spark Plug Company to buy ND plugs? I ordered a set over a month ago and I’m still waiting! I contacted them a couple of weeks ago and was told they are waiting for the plugs to be sent from ND! It is very annoying when companies advertise items as being in stock when they plainly are not and then make the customer wait for stock to arrive. This is the first and probably last time I will use this company, I only used them because they sell ND plugs and I am wary now of buying NGK’s due to all the fakery.
The incontinent carbs have now been sorted after replacing two of the fuel valves with 'previoulsy enjoyed' items with a bit of twiddling of the seating using a bad of solvol and these are now on the bike along wiht the plenum chamber and softend rubbers supplied by Ash
.
The newly chrome plated parts really make a huge difference, Ashford Chrome Plating have done an amazing job, there is no sign of the previous bucthery inflicted on them by the PO with spotlight mountings etc. The chrome is so thick I could swim in it (where's my Speedos
). The chrome was actually so thick I had to chase out the threads on the rear mudguard in order to mount the rear light. I painted the underside of both guards with a zinc based paint to give them some protection and did the same with the insides of the mudguard stays, headlight rim and points cover.
So it's now onwards and upwards and at least it is getting there now. More progress as it comes in to give you a break from the election news!
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