A Few Disappointments.

Things have slowed down with Christmas approaching, however, it is time to start looking at the paperwork. The bike was imported to the UK from the USA in November this year and includes the usual Notification Of Vehicles Arriving submission (NOVA). The NOVA should allow me to register the vehicle with the DVLA here in the UK. In order to get an age related number, i.e. a registration number from 1966, I have to prove the vehicles age. This can be done through the Vintage Motor Cycle Club by sending rubbings and photographs of the frame and engine numbers, naturally these have been sent off for verification and I am looking forward to hearing soon.

Having dispensed with the formal paperwork, for now at least, I was left with one document to deal with. In the bottom of one of the cardboard boxes that the bike was supplied in, was a receipt from 1985 for some suspension parts and bushes. This seemed like an opportunity to gain some knowledge of the bike's history.

I checked out the phonebook for the town these were delivered to and there it was, the recipient of these components still living in the same street. A short trawl of Facebook and I was able to contact the previous owner, however, despite trying every member of the family, no one replied. Then, looking closer at the receipt and checking the part numbers, I can see that the items are for Norton Altas forks, my BSA doesn't have Atlas forks so I am probably on a wild goose chase, which is a tad disappointing to say the least.

Back to the bike. Having stripped the frame right down, I am left with a seized swing arm pin meaning that I cannot easily remove the swing arm. Options include 'brute force' and my favoured approach of 'nice and easy'.

By loosening the nut on the end of pin and placing the swing arm under tension with a large clamp, I simply kept applying copious amounts of penetrating oil and additional pressure each day until the arm started to move. On day three I found the clamp on the floor. The seized swing arm had moved under the pressure, brilliant! However, a few moments later with the realisation that it was the Solent Block bushes that had moved within the frame rather than the swing arm pivoting about the pin, I was left disappointed again.

I have now managed to locate and order a new BSA pin and bushes from a company in Austria. These should be with me soon, giving me the brute force option which simply means hacksawing through the bush and pin at each side of the swing arm.

The third disappointment came when I noticed the external engine casing sitting on my bench, it looked to be warped, offering it up to the engine confirmed this. The image below shows the casing sat on a piece of plate glass and it is clearly warped. The second image shows the casing offered up to the engine and confirms the worst. The only saving grace is that the engine casing on this model did not have the timing inspection cover whereas most other models had this improvement. Therefore I have two options, get this machined or get another casing with the inspection cover. I may even do both as part of me wants to keep this original as far as I can, Disappointing though.

Day One

With the Bike safely home is is time to start the strip down and inventory. Armed with a Parts Book and a set of Whitworth spanners the bike is carefully stripped, bagged and boxed.

The bike is cosmetically quite poor but everything, as far as I can tell, is original. The tinware has had a couple of professionally implemented repairs and, whilst the paintwork is poor, the general condition is very good.

The bike was imported to the UK from the USA. One interesting thing is that in the bottom of a cardboard box containing the remnants of the gearbox, was a receipt from 1985 for some suspension bushes. The receipt may be nothing to do with the bike but the address of the person ordering the bushes was Siloam Springs in Arkansas. An added task to my list is to trawl Facebook and start asking around, some history of the bike would be wonderful.

The swinging arm has a some rear foot peg brackets welded to it, further supported by Jubilee clips. It's a poor job, and won't take much to remove them once I remember who I lent my angle grinder to.

Draining the front suspension of oil turned out to be fruitless as the forks were full of water, although, to be honest, I thought Arkansas was a dry place. Clearly new bushes and seals needed throughout.

Although the engine has not yet been stripped, it looks to be in pretty good condition. For now I have simply mounted it in the engine stand ready for attention later on in the restoration.

In terms of the frame and cycle parts, these will be painted using a cellulose paint system. I did consider a high quality powder coating but feel that a decent professional paint finish would be more appropriate for the bike.

As for the petrol tank, this will need some serious professional work. For now I will give it a decent polish and see what can be done later in the restoration.

The Starting Point

This is what it would have looked like in 1966, although discussion is still underway as to whether my bike should have a polished tank i.e. no yellow paint. Rupert Ratio and the brochures of the time don't quite agree.

The pictures below were taken from moments after completing the purchase. This represents the starting point.