My bike was shown on the Vintage Motorcycle Enthusiast’s stand at the International Bike Show here in Seattle. Made me a proud papa, for sure.

Some shots just after the bike was finished. The tally at the tail of the previous entry was pretty close to the final amount, minus one rebuild of a magneto.

Just some new photos of the tank mounted. I do not recommend looking too closely at the pinstripes…what a chore.

Running expense list:

    $9,920 (previous entry total)
    ------
         0 No new parts
    ======
    $9,920

Running time clock:

hours  180 (previous entry total)
      ----
         8 (misc.)
      ====
       188 (total to date)

Things are going fairly quickly now, but I’m now up against several walls:

• My seat isn’t back from the upholsterer’s
• I need to get my sidestand painted (it’s the wrong one, but close enough)
• I need to figure out what to do about a battery and
• Something’s wonky in the gearbox.

The last item is a bit worrisome, as the kick starter makes a horrible racket when going up and down…Once I have most of the rest of it together, I’ll tear the box down in situ and hope it’s something simple. Yeah, right.

Above Image: As she sits…nearly everything is on this side, excepting the pipe, side stand and pegs/brake pedal.

This side is a bit more complete, though I have to take the levers and peg off to attend to the gearbox. The very expensive mufflers have the notches for the center stand in the wrong place. I mean, how hard can it be. I will NEVER send any business to the firm in England who supplied them. I can’t believe the sheer quantity of JUNK they sent. Just looking in the catalogs of the competition, the photographed reproduction mufflers they sell have the notches in the right place…a good six inches further forward than these. So, do I consign the $300 pair to the scrap heap or ride around with the center stand hard up against the mufflers?

I have not yet sorted the wiring on the rear half of the bike, hence the taped ends and general mess. I can’t fit the pipe until the side stand is ready…

Running expense list:

    $9,800 (previous entry total)
    ------
       120 Misc. parts
    ======
    $9,920

Running time clock:

hours  175 (previous entry total)
      ----
         5 (misc.)
      ====
       180 (total to date)

What have I been doing for the past nine months? Not much on the BSA. But I finally have the engine back.

But first some thoughts on spares. I put a big order in originally with a BSA specialist for a batch of stuff–some of it was decent, but much of it is pretty crummy in quality and fit. Mind, a lot of stuff I’ve bought out of suppliers in this country hasn’t been very good, either. But it’s a bit distressing to buy something, spend quite a bit for the piece, and then find it’s, at best, a mediocre copy of the real thing. Ah, well.

As you can see, the engine is looking great and it’s finally in the frame. Progress has been made beyond the current pix, but once again I find myself waiting for parts to arrive. If I restore another bike this old or older, I am going to spend some serious time looking over all of the fasteners–they’re by far the hardest thing to replicate and replace.

Firmly bolted in. Since this photo, I have the chain on, the chain guard in place, and a few other things done. I’ll post some more pictures very soon.

Running expense list:

    $6,980 (previous entry total)
    ------
       100  Cad plating (mediocre to awful quality)
        70  Chrome plating of original hand controls
            (excellent quality--Show Quality Metal Finishing, Seattle)
       150  Painting of parts I forgot in the original batch
       500  Misc. parts
     2,000  Engine and magneto rebuild (approximate)
    ======
    $9,800

Running time clock:

hours  135 (previous entry total)
      ----
        40 (misc.)
      ====
       175 (total to date)

The rear wheel is on, and with that the darn thing is starting to look a bit like a motorcycle. There seems to be a big hole in the middle, though.

This bike will look great from a few feet, but I’m either not careful enough or way too clumsy to be able to maintain every single piece in “perfect” condition. You’ve all seen those cars and bikes where no matter where you look, you can’t find a flaw. This is my first real restoration, so this won’t be one of those. But nothing makes you appreciate fine craftsmanship like trying to mimic it, and my hat is off to those who routinely produce show-winning machines.

Running expense list:

    $6,980 (previous entry total)
    ------
            No new costs
    ======
    $6,980

Running time clock:

hours  130 (previous entry total)
      ----
        5 (misc.)
      ====
       135 (total to date)

The tires arrived, the drums were turned, the brake shoes were relined, and the front wheel is now on. I put the tires on myself, and I pinched the tube in the rear wheel, so had to do it over, and at some point in that process, I scratched the chrome in several places on the rim, including one “chunk” which is gone. Simple carelessness. I doubt there is anything I can do about it at this point, except to try to disguise it somehow.

My cap is tipped to anyone who does a ground up restoration that doesn’t do damage as they’re putting it all back together. I have numerous places where I’ve nicked the paint on the bike. I guess that is what touch up is for. Pretty disappointing, none-the-less.

This is the damage done to the rear wheel. Ugh!

Running expense list:

    $6,830 (previous entry total)
    ------
       100  Reline shoes, fit to drums
        50  Ammeter (reproduction)
    ======
    $6,980

Running time clock*:

hours  120 (previous entry total)
      ----
        10 (misc.)
      ====
       130 (total to date)

*I work at a leisurely pace. It’s pretty damn approximate, too.

It took some doing, but the forks are now mounted on the frame. The reproduction expensive English bearing cups for the frame have their races cut too “high” up in the cap–almost a millimeter each. I didn’t note this, as they are the same external height as the originals, until I had mounted them in the frame. Alas, once there, they were not coming back out. So with the help of my friendly machine shop, we turned the lower triple clamp so that the bottom race sat correspondingly lower. This was fiddly and required much trial and error. Ugh.

I have spent about $100 so far on reproduction pieces that haven’t fit. Some have been tossed aside, some have required lots of fiddling to fit. Ah, well, all part of the “fun.”

Here’s some photos of the bike as she now sits. I also got my wheels back from Buchanan’s in California, my tires should be here on Tuesday, and I’m hoping to get my drums turned and the shoes relined and matched to the drums sometime next week.

Running expense list:

    $6,400 (previous entry total)
    ------
       200  Wheel lacing
       150  Tires
        80  Misc parts
    ======
    $6,830

Running time clock*:

hours  108 (previous entry total)
      ----
        12 (misc.)
      ====
       120 (total to date)

*I work at a leisurely pace. It’s pretty damn approximate, too.

Sorry for the very long delay in getting anything further up here. Recently I finally got my cycle parts out of storage, and that allowed me to take them to my painter. He did a bang-up job, though I’m sure the cost is quite appalling to some of you. But so was the condition of some of the pieces!

The biggest challenge is the fasteners. I want to use originals, and have been cleaning up and plating those as I find them. However, a lot of them are just plain shot, and the replacements you can get these days are expensive and sometimes only a gross approximation of what was there. But I’m trying. I’m also caving a bit, and using new ones in many places…all of the front fender fasteners will have to be replaced, for example.

I’ve been plating the parts myself with a kit from Caswell Plating. It works well, but only if you’re absolutely scrupulous about prepping the parts, something which I try to do, but often fall short of. Short of bead blasting, there is little you can do to make sure the part is “perfect,” and on old corroded and pitted parts, all of that will show, though it will at least be silver in color.

Here’s some shots of how it’s coming together:

Right side, from rear. This number plate was absolutely munched, as was the toolbox. The metal workers who restored these pieces did a fabulous job. That’s my elderly ’63 MGB to the left.

Right side again. I’ve run into a problem which will require a bit of creative machining to fix before the forks can be mounted. The new bearing cups have the race cut about a millimeter shallower than the originals, and this meanings the triple clamps are 2mm too far apart, which means that nothing fits properly. I’m going to have the bottom clamp machined to take up this extra distance.

Left side, rear. I’m waiting on a new lens for the tail lamp. The repro plunger chrome cups fit fairly poorly in one case and required a bit of judicious attention, which will probably mean prematurely failure of the chrome…sigh. It will all look good for about five minutes, shortly before it’s started for the first time.

This is the small space I work out of. The bike in front of the MG is a ’95 Triumph Daytona, which, sadly, hasn’t been ridden much in the past year as I’ve been too busy! You can see it acts as a bit of a shelf from time to time.

Running expense list:

    $4,600 (previous entry total)
    ------
     1,500  Paint
       300  Miscellaneous cycle fasteners, brake switch, reflector...
    ======
    $6,400

Running time clock*:

hours   78 (previous entry total)
      ----
        30 (misc.)
      ====
       108 (total to date)

*I work at a leisurely pace. It’s pretty damn approximate, too.

I’m sure anyone who has undertaken something like this is familiar with how and why this happens. In the year since I last updated the site I’ve:

• Sold and then bought a new old house which needs the basement/garage redone
• Been heavily involved in my Jaguar restoration
• Bought a Mini which is (of course) going to need some work
• Moved in with my girlfriend, which also requires some time
• Ad naseum

Now, all that said, I haven’t been totally idle. I’ve been searching for and finding a few parts, and all of the machine work is done on the motor. Oh, and the gearbox is finally rebuilt. I hope to have the bike’s sheetmetal and frame painted this summer.

Thanks for checking back from time to time!

Running expense list:

    $4,600 (previous entry total)
    ------
         0  No change
    ======
    $4,600

Running time clock*:

hours   68 (previous entry total)
      ----
        10 (misc.)
      ====
        78 (total to date)

*I work at a leisurely pace.