Front Mudguard & Stands

Here she is in all her slightly less moth-eaten-than-last-month glory...

Front mudguard, first trial fit - looks fine. That stay is slightly bent though, and the front stand bolts (to the fork leg) are also wrong. They shouldn't be plain machine screws as fitted at the moment. Or should they?

Rear view. Looking good. Front stay bolt hole looks stretched/bodged.

Side stand, first trial fit. Needs the primary case to locate the short end of the spring, but coming on. Not sure I would want to use it though, looks rather wobbly.

Here's my triumphant shot of the rear stand spring - all working now. I have scraped up the huge pile of pennies from the shed floor, released from the spring when I used it the first time.

Battery Carrier

Amelia is completely devoid of any battery carrying facilities. She should have the big Lucas GU11E battery that appeared in 1951.

Thanks to Brenton Roy & Guy Rayner of the AOMCC for these images of what I need to make, find, swap or a combination of the three:

What I need is the dimensions of this part. Anyone measure one for me?

Underside, showing the screws that clamp it to the primary cases.

Here is the strap, best English chrome plate, available from Acme Stainless in a rather more appropriate material.

And here is the large battery carrier, in position on Guy's 4G. As he says, his bike should have the small battery. Alas I don't have one to swap...

As a postscript to this request, the ever helpful Brenton sent me this:

We'll be making one of those later.

Welding under way

And so onto the repair of the front mudguard:

Here's a section on the offside, welding up the rusted folded seam

Here's the fatigue fracture in the mounting bracket, cleaned of paint but not ready for welding.

 Here's the offside at the bottom of the flare, burning away as fast as I can weld it.

And here is the long rusted seam on the near side, all repaired.

Well almost. Run out of gas.

Hopefully more tomorrow if I can get to MachineMart Norwich.

Back to the weld shop...

With the rear mudguard mounted and the forks in place, it's time to look at the front.

You haven't seen the mudguard I bought from eBay, but it is an original Ariel guard from I think 1953. Luckily it came with the correct aluminium number plate but, like the rear guard it is full of holes.

Here are some 'before' pictures:

There is a nice brass dealer plate. This bike was originally supplied  to Marcel Hallet, of Canterbury.

As usual, we have a fatigue fracture around the mounting thoughtfully chalked in by the eBay seller.

Then a series of pictures showing how the folded seam has rusted out from the inside

This is the worst of it. About 8" of the seam on the nearside has parted company. We will either weld this up & fill with weld or patch from the inside. The side panels are quite sound and will form a strong base to weld to.

And, matching fatigue fracture on the other side.

Time to break out the MIG set again!

No blogging...

Apologies to my avid readers for not providing any updates yet this month...

I have been in the USA for work, and my poor Bantam has decided it no longer likes it's crankshaft. I guess the SQ 4 engine won't be on the bench next...

I have however, courtesy of some helpful hints from the AOMCC web site, managed to fit the rear stand spring!