I wish....

....I had my own welder! A friend kindly did some welding to the frame, unfortunately due to insufficient weld penetration one of the frame end plates came off after cleaning up & the other one looks a bit flakey! Feel a bit awkward telling him, hopefully will get it sorted this weekend with another mate!!

Now where was I?!!

I know, I know! what have you been doing? I hear you ask!!

Well you know how it goes, all that sunny weather, holidays & hi-days & before you know it bloody months have passed & it look's like I've done bugger all! 

Well I have been tickling things along a little...

Got a replacement radiator cheap as one side had become un-soldered at the top..

..easily sorted with the blowtorch & a bit of pumbers solder...

Do you think I need to make a start on sorting out the wiring loom!!

Painted the engine...

..am going to paint rocker boxes, water pipes & a couple of other bits with wrinkle black VHT paint so the motor should look quite nice!

Thats not everything, in case you're thinking 'is that all!!' 

The frame is currently away haveing a few final touches before it is cleaned & prepped for paint / powder coat. A new battery box is under construction for the new gel battery to be fitted under the engine, among other little bits & bobs.

So there you go, I'm back at it & am aiming to crack on with it in the next few months.

TTFN

The Starting point...

I've been waiting to get a small diameter flap wheel so that I can open up the hole for the mechanical seal. In the meantime I stripped, cleaned & carried out the earth strap mod to the starter motor.

Got into the unit to find a little accumulated crud!!

You can see the corroded & burnt tabs at 12, 4 & 8 o'clock.

So I made up an earth strap to connect to the endcap..

drilled & tapped the endcap for a 4BA screw...

which was cut flush on the outside, this will be hidden from view when fitted anyway.

Another part to add to the sorted pile!!

Rebuild & distraction

It was Bank Holiday last weekend & I made a start on getting the engine buttoned up, as the new oilseals had arrived. Got most of it done but I need to  slightly relieve the hole that takes the mechanical seal, as the ones supplied nowadays are fractionally larger than the originals.


We also have a new addition to the family!!

The Good the Bad & the Ugly!

The Good - I went round to my chum Les's over the weekend to start on some of the little welding jobs, we fixed the seat strap to the frame, filled in the small slit in the seat pan & plated the cut frame rails, although we will need to come back to some of it as we ran out of time.

The Bad - When trimming & cleaning the frame plates I turned the frame upside down to get better access & discovered some rusted out holes in the frame & a shitty repair patch on the underside of the swinging arm! More fixing up required then!!

The Ugly - Thought I'd start cleaning up the surplus to requirements tabs & brackets whilst I was at it! The inside of the pillion footrest hangers look like they've come up from the fugging Titanic!!

 Oh well, onwards & sideways as they say!

Slow again!

Things have slowed down again! but I have received a few goodies recently! 

I decided to include a couple of sensible upgrades, one is to convert to an electric fan instead of the direct bolt on fan, to release loads of extra horses!! (yeah right!) so a fan from a VFR750 has duly been purchased, and is waiting to be bolted to the radiator. 

I also decided to replace the aged CDI unit with a modern replcement. Thanks goes to Cobram of the CX/GL Forum http://cx500forum.com/ who organised a group buy at a good discount from the standard price, although I did get stiffed by customs for an extra 20 quid tax!

There is a connection that allows you to plug the unit into your PC & screw up the progamming/mapping or whatever you call it!! They even provide the software on a CD that lets you screw it up!! LOL

This weekend I'm hopefully visiting a mate round the corner who is going to let me loose with his MIG welder, & try to do a couple of the little welding jobs that need doing to frame!

New Seat Mk2

I was never entirely happy with the seat base I made from the old Enfield seat, no matter how much it appealed to my sense of re-cycling!!

I was able to get a sheet of 16g steel from a friend, so I decided I'd have another bash at making a seat base.

Started off by making a cardboard template:

Then transferred the shape to the steel...

....& trim to shape with the angle grinder:

After putting a couple of bends in to follow the frame line, the fun started. Using my trusty claw hammer I started beating the shit out of the blank, to get the front end formed & create a turndown edge:

I ended up having to drill a hole & slit the edge to get the final shape to the rear end:

I bit more hammering & trimming & I am pretty satisfied with the result:

I will get the cut welded up to finish it off, & do a little more finessing & it'll be ready for painting & upholstery.