Motorcycle Restoration.

[plaques]

Bought as basket case, that is a euphemism for a pile of junk, it stood at the back of my garage for over 20 years. Comprising of ‘almost’ an engine, a gearbox and a frame plus mud guards. The redeeming feature was that all the bits were part of the original 1930’s bike. A vintage New Imperial 350cc side valve. At the start of the restoration my first enquires were with the Vintage Motorcycle Club. The query asking if anyone knew anything about this model was met with the reply “Nay lad, anyone who knows owt about them are all dead”. As always someone did know. An extremely helpful collector and restorer in Wales, said to be the world’s authority on this make, started the conversation with “Congratulations, there are very few bikes like yours around and you are number seven, but don’t get too excited they were so rubbishy that people just threw them away.” So by default I’d got a rare but rubbishy machine.
Restoration was a slow and sometimes frustrating road. If people were prepared to throw the complete bike away there is little chance that they would keep a worn out part for the next 70 years hoping that it might ‘come in’. This was the problem that faced the old Barlicker who I bought it off. Sadly he is no longer with us to see the end result. After exhausting the usual sources of supply the only solution was to make the parts myself. Petrol tank, chain cases, wheel assemblies, silencer and numerous other bits and bobs took shape in my garage workshop. Is the end result acceptable? Perhaps not to the professional eye but to the ‘man on a galloping horse’?
Well at least a bit of our old motoring heritage has been preserved.

[PanBiker]

Excellent, it looks OK to this man, on or off a galloping horse! Did you take any before and after or in-between photo's?

[plaques]

Unless the viewer is some king of mechanical nerd you can see their eyes glazing over at the very mention of blind cylinder heads, magnetos, pilgrim pumps and the mysteries of wheel lacing. For most people it would be akin to watching paint dry. Everyone’s restoration project has different problems to solve and images of the “what do I do now” type tend to be aimed at specialist forums. I hope that my posting will bring out more examples of this widespread hobby.

[PanBiker]

I have a similar quest in the Amateur Radio threads, like most technical hobbies what amuses or interests one can mean nothing to another. We have another member who is restoring a Morris Minor and another whose husband has a garden railway. Stanley makes all sorts of steam engines and other stuff in his shed. Mick, further up north turns in metal then in wood and sculpts the material as well. Lots of the ladies on the site paint and draw. All good stuff for the site.

[Stanley]

Nobody is forced to look at technical topics but remember that guests look in as well. Remember what Steeplejack's Corner did in its hay-day.

[plaques]

Here are some details of the New Imperial restoration project. As always it is difficult to know where to start and where to finish. In my case I've chosen to start with the crank case bolted together and sat in the frame along with the gear box

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Image 1. A general view of the timing chest with the timing gears and push rod cams on the bench.

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Image 2. The gears now in place with their respective timing “dots” lined up to the crank gear.

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Image 3. The engine “spring cush drive” and single plate clutch. The clutch is opened against a single central spring similar to that of the cush drive.

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Image 4. A view into the valve port of the integral head and barrel. Both valve seating and guides were re-machined.

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Image 5. The original piston was missing. This replacement, from a Velocette, required a different size gudgeon pin bush.

[plaques]

New Imperial restoration Continued.

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Image 6. Magneto and spark plug set in place. Notice the large blanking washers over the valve chambers. The valve spring covers are telescopic in their sealing action.

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Image 7. A view showing the “Pilgrim” oil pump. A worm and wheel pump with the oil flow adjusted by varying the stroke of the pump. Oil was drawn from an integral oil / petrol tank. Circulated round the engine and dropped into the sump. The sump then had to be drained at regular intervals.

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Image 8. The original petrol / oil tank. Heavily corroded and not worth repairing. A new tank was made from scratch.

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Image 9. Inverted hand levers made from 3/8 square bar.

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Image 10. Handle bar and steering head also showing girder fork damping mechanism.

[plaques]

New Imperial restoration continued.

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Image 11. The petrol “tundish”. To assist with starting raw petrol was dripped directly into the cylinder and then sealed up again.

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Image 12. A trial build. Checking out the gear box and hand change mechanism. With an output of 4.5 BHP this bike was capable of speeds up to 24 MPH. The massive 4.5 inch diameter front was capable of stopping the machine in less than 100 yards.

[Stanley]

Less than 100 yards eh? Reminds me of our old Albion tanker......

[Bodger]

plaques, you may enjoy this link about Pavel Malanik re building old obselete bikes, if he has no parts he machines from the solid, quite a craftsman ?
http://theoldmotor.com/?p=81575

[plaques]

Thank you Bodger for the link. The world must be full of engineers both amateur and professional who have a great deal more skill and patience than I have. On a similar line to yours I can recommend this American site for quality and detail. I have set the link address so that the site is easy to open. This is the American Excelsior not the British one.

http://flashbackfab.com/excelsior-proje ... roduction/