Thursday 22 December 2011

Fill in jobs...

This is an original Lucas Altette, bought from eBay for the Ariel. Apart from one stripped thread and non-original acorn nut, it is perfect.
It came with the right angle bracket, an original Lucas one, that is used on the earlier machines with the smaller battery. Since Amelia should have the big 20 Amphour battery, we will use the straight bracket shown attached to the horn. I bought this from Vintage Bike & it looks like a nice quality part.

Tuesday 20 December 2011

All gone a bit quiet

Not too much activity these last two weeks, as Christmas is coming and I've been away at work. However, I've managed to straighten the headlamp rim and I have stripped much of the scratched chrome away - there was a couple of very large scrape marks & dents. I've knocked out the dents and I have lead loaded the scrape marks. This needs a bit more work but is going to be a good solution.

I've missed a few eBay items - a pair of tank rubbers & plates, originals, which went for £51, a rear stand with all fittings which went for £130, and a lifting handle... No matter, I have plenty of other work faces!

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Parcels still wrapped - more electrics

Well, the eBay parcels are still under wraps. Christmas is coming and sometimes it isn't wise to buy too many present for other women, however much shiny paint & chrome they will have when they are finished!

So in the meantime, let's get on with the headlamp. We've got a nice original SSU700, no repro bits here!

The instrument panel looks like it is off a WD bike; it's in great nick but the ammeter is wrong - it's not the white face one with the ignition light that should grace a Square Four headlamp.

Also, there are some flaky bits. The edges of the pilot light aperture are rather ragged - it's an aluminium casting and I'm not sure how to repair it yet. Then there is the rim:

The picture is not too hot but it's bent and it looks like it has been thrown down the road. I'm going to see if I can straighten it before I give up and buy a new one.

Here's the inside of the switch panel from the inside. All right & proper, apart from the ammeter I mentioned before. A new one will have to wait though - the proper ones will be like hens teeth!

Lighting switch, cleaned up nicely.

Here's the pilot light mounting plate. It was missing, but I made this one from some photos & dimensions provided from the fantastic people on the AOMCC forum. It's designed to hold one of these in the underslung pilot lamp:

And here is the ammeter, with the steering damper knob lurking in the background. I'm going to tackle the rim and the headlamp fasteners with a Plug 'n' Plate chrome plating kit, and see how much of the original stuff I can save.



More later.