All sorts of ‘goodies’!
The last two weeks have passed like lightning, as just one or two changes have occurred and there have been new plans afoot, a few parts have been returned from various ‘service providers’ and Christmas has come early this year, too! In Australia, we often see ‘Christmas in July’ parties, but May is a new month to celebrate!
To start with, this number-plate, pictured above, (Not correct for the rigid bikes, by the way) was very bitter and twisted (not to say torn!) and I had a go over it with the torch and some silicone bronze rod that I keep here…tidied it up and repaired the splits (mainly around the bottom mounting-hole and then bashed it some more (the torch nearly always causes a little distortion) and brought it round, with a few other things, to Marshalls, my powder-coater.
Picked it up a few days ago and fitted the real Miller rear light (cracked on the left hand side by the screw from overtightening in years gone by) and an ancient glass reflector, which is broken, but still very usable (yes, the crome is a bit thin, too, the brass showing through, but holds a good polish and is suitably ‘patinated’ to get fitted again. (this piece I later has re-chromed…)
Other bits I received were the outer chain-case, which was originally chromed and looked really bad…I scraped most of the chrome off and Alan Marshall had it blasted and then coated it black. What a transformation! It looks fantastic, almost embarrassingly new, and is definitely going on the bike!
There were a couple of brackets for the Altette horn I scored…
and the famous “Webb” front brake-plate (after having been ‘fettled’) was finished, too. That looks a bit worse for the wear and the blasting uncovered a few ‘blemishes’ that cannot be filled (due to the temperatures necessary) when Powder-coating, but still looks reasonable. I have no intention of hiding it’s history when, if, I fit it, and so it will remain a talking-point if ever noticed:
All the holes are gone and the welding-seam has been blended in, but the bashes and dents in the plate and the ‘skirt’ (‘rain deflector’ to you!), which remain obvious. This is what it looked like before the repair:
Oh yes, the Kickstart boss with the ramp (BK-4) also was coated black, but I think I’ll stick with the one I chemically blacked, as is seen fitted to the gearbox now.
Then there was the trip to the chrome-platers’… a place called ‘Reflections’, whose speciality is bike and car parts! A couple of petrol-heads called Ian and Jamie, these guys are friendly and prompt, and the prices are very fair, too. They de-chrome, plate up and polish (ally, brass, copper, steel and stainless). Catch them respectively on their mobiles at 0401 029 222 or 0412 833 767. I took them a pair of very dilapidated star-springs for the fork-dampers, badly pitted and pretty cruddy. A week and $20 later and:
Great job, guys, there’ll be more work where these came from! They have a kickstart and some nuts and bolts and the oil-filler nut off the gearbox, which they are going to matt-chrome! Fantastic service! All they don’t do is so-called black-chrome (actually a form of bronzing).
Next up is a tale of two tanks…
© peter gouws 2012