1952 Vincent Black Lightning

Monday 28 September 2009

Work on the motor begins

At last I've started work on Abigails motor. Whilst it was whole I de-greased it, paint stripped it and washed it off. this was followed by vigorously wire brushing the inner casings. I've decided to keep the inner casings as bare aluminium whilst polishing the outer ones. The barrel will be high gloss black and I'll figure out what to do with the head and rocker cover later.


First part of the strip down was to remove the head and barrel. Three bolts in the rocker cover sheared off with no hint of resistance as soon as a socket was applied. Too be honest I wasn't shocked and my local engineer will be called upon to extract the stumps along with the three already sheared exhaust studs. The first glance inside wasn't too depressing. The cam followers looked fine and their is only very slight pitting on the lobes. I've yet to get the callipers out, but I'm optimistic. No other bolts put up a serious fight and soon enough the head and barrel were off. Again, only slight wear is evident in the bore and it's not bad enough to catch your finger nail. Like the cam, I've yet to measure things accurately, but am reasonably pleased so far (I mean, there could have been all manner of scares in there). The inside of the head is sootier than I would have liked with a thick carbon lining and I haven't ripped the valves out yet to check them for damage either.



As you can see, I've placed masking tape over the crank mouth as a precaution against foriegn bodies falling in. I don't intend to split the crank as I know the motor and know there was nothing wrong in there. This bike will not be living a hard life once I've finished it so there is no point in costly work for the sake of it.

Next it's time to rip off the outer casings, starting with the clutch side. Easy work with no grumbles from any bolts. I'll check over the clutch basket and plates just to be sure, but like I say, I know the motor and she never displayed any clutch problems in the 60,000 miles I had her.



And finally off comes the rotor side casing. Just like the clutch side. No struggles here either.


The plan now is to put it all back together. I'm going to start with the outer casings, mainly because it's the cheapest bit. I will be putting the top end together as I can afford it and will be sorting it out one stage at a time. So here's a picture of the outer casings currently. The next entry [hopefully] will see them begin to sparkle.

Just a foot note to that last part. I want these casings to shine, but I don't want to polish out any of the character this engine gained in its faithful service so far. This bike must look like it was born in the 60's, which was a long time ago, and so you'd expect a few 'laughter lines'.



Tuesday 15 September 2009

A tidy up in the Dray

Abigail has hit a bit of a wall at the moment. Everything will cost more than funds will allow and I have to square the balance sheet before I can proceed. It's really tough, but if I'm not strict with myself I'm in danger of breaking the bank.

To keep myself out of mischief, I decided to invest a little time (and money) into sprucing up the shed. I had recently had a massive tidy up and re-organise, but now it was time to get out the paint. I had some left over exterior emulsion after painting the outside of the house in August and thought £25 for a tin of floor paint wouldn't kill anyone, so the job was on!

My two sons were volunteered to help and the three of us set too with emptying the shed and sweeping it out. I went on with 'cutting in' and the boys attacked the walls with the 4" brushes. By lunch time the first coat was on and we were all very pleased with our efforts. A quick tip to any budding Dictators out there... NEVER LET THE SLAVES REST! No sooner had I fed my tiny work force than the little buggers were off! I went into the kitchen to make a brew, turned round and they were gone to the distant cry of "Off to my mates, see you later. Oh and thanks for the sandwich" Charming!

Alone, I quickly got on with coat number two. As I was going over my lads handy work for myself, I started to be rather pleased they had left me to it. Patchy wasn't the word for it! Still, I was glad for their help and coat #2 would cover all the sins. By the end of day one the walls were finished and I was knackered.



Day two was 'floor day'. Everything that had been taken out on day one (and stuffed back in anywhere that night just to get it under lock and key) was whipped out again! Some of the wall fixtures could now be put back up and the large floor unit re-fitted in its usual spot. The floor was attacked with large scrappers and swept within an inch of its life and I was ready. My would be slaves had got wise to the old mans methods and made themselves scarce with feeble excuses like playing rugby for the local team so I was going to have to do this alone.

I 'cut in' the edges and around the bench with a 4" brush then attacked the main area with a 9" roller. Too be honest it went on quicker than I thought. It looked a big area, but wasn't that bad. The only downer was the fact that one tin wasn't enough for the two coats it was going to need. Bummer! Another £25, not such a cheap job after all! Another problem was the drying time between coats. 6 hours, plus I couldn't use the floor for 24 hours after the second coat. Abigail and Lucy would have to camp out for a night.

By 7pm the job was done, and rather good it looked too.

Jobs left to do include fitting the wood burner flu pipe and running a water supply to the shed. I would like a small steel sink out there for parts cleaning and have had thoughts of heating the water via the wood burner. Always things to do.