Chassis build up

Not many words to add, but thought I'd share a couple of pictures of the chassis build.  The front end is now back together, all the bushes greased up and refitted to the frame.  It looks a bit like a bike again!
I'm picking up the zinc plated and vapour blasted parts this week so, work and family permitting, progress should be a little quicker from this point on.  It needs to be anyway, I'm a long way behind where I was hoping to be at this stage.

The only other news is that I've dropped a few bits off for chroming.  I had no idea how expensive it would be, although I'm looking forward to getting the parts back all shiny.

Publicity!

Good news on the awareness raising front! The BMF have published an article I wrote on Dad's 1964 rally entry, and the reasons for my 2014 project.  The magazine is called "Motorcycle Rider", see here for more info.  They've done a nice job of laying it out.  If you fancy your own copy, and why wouldn't you (!), you can buy one here.

Sponsorship and speedos...

I have put together a sponsorship page with Virgin Money Giving, to raise funds for Prostate Cancer UK.  All the donated money goes straight to the charity, with the added bonus of Gift Aid if you are a UK tax payer.  If you can manage to contribute to my fundraising page then it would be greatly appreciated, either click on the link below or the button at the top right of the page.
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/ridingalongwayslowly 

When I have completed the rally next year I'll be putting the C110 up for sale and all the money I get for it will be added to the total on the Virgin Money Giving page.

In other news, I've started stripping the speedos down so that I can clean up the clock face and the internals, as well as getting the chrome bezel's refinished.  I say speedos as I actually have four of them amongst all the parts I have.  One is a NOS item, but unfortunately has some mould on the inside of the glass over the dial.

I started by taking apart the speedo in worst condition, my sacrificial lamb to help me work out the best way to disassemble the other speedos in a non-destructive way.

Corroded chrome and grubby internals

Removing the bezel required gently easing up the metal edge that was folded during manufacture.  It's a reasonably tough and springy steel, so it is a slow process and needs some care.  However, I got there in the end and managed to extract the innards.  This speedo is particularly grubby inside where grease appears to have leaked from the cable drive onto the numbers and dial.  It'll take some cleaning!

Feeling confident I then had a go at the speedo off the red C110.  Unfortunately this wasn't so successful! You should be able to make out two cracks in the bezel in the photo below, which is resting on top of the speedo body.  Almost as soon as I started to ease the metal up it cracked, it was very brittle.  At least I have the parts to make one good speedo out of the two!

Slow progress and more dilemmas

So, not much progress was made over the Christmas break.  Despite my intention to be building the rolling chassis by now I simply didn't get the necessary parts to the finishers in time before Christmas.

Still, although I'm behind where I wanted to be with the main chassis, I've made some progress with the wiring loom.  After some help from Dad over Christmas with cleaning and repairing the insulation I've now refitted it to the chassis. It involved some real 'James Herriot' action to run it back through the frame tunnel from the battery box to the headstock, I had my arm right inside working it into place!

With the loom fitted I've started refitting the indicator and tail light bodies to the back end of the chassis.  However, this has caused me a bit of a dilemma.  The original finish on the metal parts of the indicators is anodised aluminium.  As you might expect after all these years there is a reasonable amount of corrosion and removing this has also removed the anodising, which gave them their satin finish.  I've had a go at polishing the aluminium, which isn't really the finish I was after, and the results are OK.  There is a bit of a mottled finish though.  In an ideal world I would probably vapour blast and then re-anodise the parts, but that's getting a bit serious for this restoration.  So I will probably stick with a polished finish.  I just need to work our how to get rid of the mottling, any pointers welcome!

Before

After

'OE' satin finish versus my mottled polishing!

This raises a bit of a dilemma with the switch gear as well, which is fairly grubby.  I have another two sets of switch gear, but all in bits (as in they've been completely stripped). I don't really want to disassemble this set, as it is the only reference I have for putting the others back together.  A polished finish wouldn't really be suitable for the switch gear.  I think I'll have to have a go at some gentle cleaning and see how it comes out.