Phase 2 - and wheels...

Regular readers will know that I didn't plan to start any finishing work until I had completed mechanical assembly, such that I could give myself some time for research and so that I wouldn't end up drilling holes or cutting & welding components that were already painted. This is a great philosophy when you are making modifications or when the bike is so incomplete that you are forced to buy parts from more or less reliable sources.

 

A case in point is my indicator brackets:

These have moved all over the place on the 'L' stays in an attempt to get them in the right place.

However, a mechanical build followed by a final build after painting doesn't work with the wheel rims and their gold lined Damask Red centres. I didn't want to have to break these down again for painting, since I will be trimming the spokes to fit. Wheel building is also time consuming and the wheels probably won't be modified at all.

 

I collected the rims from JD Wyatt in Thetford a few days ago, so I am all ready for wheel building now. When discussing the wheel plating with Tony at JD Wyatt, he advised that with a painted centre it would be wise to avoid polishing the painted area and leave it in the as-blasted finish, so that is what we did:

 

 

So, now we need a painter. Of course, I want to have the wheel rim centres matching the tank, so I'll have to get that done at the same time. This is starting to look expensive...

 

Aerographics of Horsford, near Norwich are a long established company set up by John Spurgeon back in the '80's specialising in custom paintwork for trucks, cars, bikes, scooters - you name it, they have done it. They are set up in old farm buildings in an area once renowned for apple farming, and have some great work shown in their website.

 

I spent an hour or so with John learning about his company. John has a wealth of experience and has painted several Ariel tanks before. We looked at many images of Ariel tanks while discussing the location of the lines. This is quite involved, since Ariel hand lined their tanks (so no two are necessarily identical) and many restorers have 'done their own thing' over the years. Additionally, some of the source material shows dimensions for the lines that would leave them visually too close to the badges or the knee grips.

 

So, I took the whole tank to John with badges and the knee grips intact and we laid out the lines in masking tape:

 

So there it is. John says he will turn this and the rims around in 10 days, so watch this space...

 

 

 



Wheels

Sample spokes

Amid engine machining and gearbox rebuilds, I decided it would be good to actually ride Amelia at some stage. Standing in the way of this was a set of very rusty spokes on both wheels. I'd hoped to get away with commissioning the bike on it's own wheels, without any form of rebuild (continuing my 'Phase 1' rebuild with no chroming or painting) but it was not to be. Both wheels had at least one broken spoke, and the remaining spokes were very thin in places.

So, a rebuild it had to be.

Amelia has half-width cast iron hubs, front and rear. The front is the 'Qualcast' half width hub fitted to all telescopic-fork Ariels prior to the appearance of the full-width alloy hub in 1956, and the rear is the 5-stud QD hub. Tyres are 3.25-19 front on a WM2 rim & 4.00-18 rear on a WM3 rim.

Max has found some tyres

So, gathering parts. I used Central Wheel Services for spokes & tyres, since they give outstanding service and their prices for tyres were very good. I bought traditional Avon Speedmaster & SM MkII tyres, still made today in a modern soft compound.

Close inspection of the spokes revealed plain spokes on both sides of the wheel at the front, with butted spokes on the drive side at the rear, plain on the other side. This matches the description in the parts book perfectly. However, it didn't match the records at Central Wheel, so I had to provide sample spokes for them to manufacture against. I chose stainless spokes and plated brass nipples this time, since I was not at all happy with the nickel plated steel nipples I bought for the Bantam which, 2 years on, are rusty.

The first thing you must do when rebuilding a wheel is to remove the old tyre. Don't think about using an old tyre for a second - even if it has tread and sound sidewalls, the rubber will be hard as nails and will have you sliding down the road. 

Interesting paint under the original rim tape

Removing tough old tyres can be a challenge, and I often dispense with the traditional levers in favour of a set of bolt cutters, which I use to cut the wires in the bead. On an older tyre, I'll cut the rubber with a Stanley knife to ease the passage of the bolt cutter. Don't bother trying this technique with a modern tyre though, there's wire everywhere!

Rear rim offset

Next, find yourself a nice stiff flat board. A piece of 3/4" ply would be good. We need to measure and record the offset of the rim to some datum on the original wheel - the brake drum is very convenient. Place the brake drum face down on the board, and measure the distance from the edge of the rim to the board

Amelia's front wheel offset is 1 1/4" to the rim on the brake side;

On the rear, it is 9/16" to the rim on the brake side. On the rear, the offset is measured with the brake drum removed.

The next step is to photograph the spoke patterns. Make sure you have pictures of which spokes overlay others, which holes the go into on the rim and please also look at the dimpling on the rim holes and makes sure you know which way round the rim goes. 

Those of you who have read my Bantam pages will know I have rebuilt at least one wheel with the rim the wrong way round - the result is not pretty as all the spokes will be bent.

My reference photos are shown further down the page.

The next step is a real turning point in the rebuild: take your best bolt cutter, and cut the all the spokes. Do it within an inch or two of the hub. If you cut near the rim, it will be much more laborious to feed all the rusty spokes through the dirt encrusted holes on the hub.

Bolt cutters - did I really do that?

The next step is to get the rims off to the platers. This takes a while, so don't hang about! While they are gone you can clean up the hubs, get them painted, recondition the brake plates and replace the bearings.

Incidentally, I spoke to Tony at JD Wyatt Contract Polishing, who told me that it would reduce the cost of the polishing if I were to leave the painted rim centres in the blasted condition. Since this would provide a key for the paint, this is what I decided to do.

Spoke Patterns

Spoke patterns for the rear wheel:

Spoke patterns for the front wheel: