Written by: Saturday, January 04, 2014 5:27:58 PM
This bike had been standing for many years, it is owned, by the brother of the guy that I refurbished a 1959 BSA Super Rocket, see my blog of April 2009.
As with his brother the Lightning was originally their fathers bike.
The owner decided he would like to make it into a “Rat” bike, but in order to get it legally on the road its going to be refurbished as standard and once all the legal jumping through hoops are completed we can see were we go from there!
As usual I take many pictures, the main reasons are to help with the reassembly and to be able to show the owner where problems occur, they are the ones that cost the extra money!
Does not look too bad, fair bit of rust as expected, most of the parts seem to be there
General pictures to indicate condition
These markings help to identify where parts were relative to other parts
(very important as the manufacturers assembled them that way and they definitely know better than I)
Although not factory markings these help identify varying length spacers
As expected the tank we in a terrible state, so a full de-rust / stripping was done and the inside given a full epoxy lining, the outside etch primed in preparation for painting (if either of these coating are left to long the surfaces will start to rust very quickly)
The white powder is the petrol additives that break down over years (a good indicator of how long the bike stood) it also ends up rock hard and as you see it can/has eaten right through the carb bowl! (in this case there is no alternative but to replace the bowls, unless you want all the petrol to drop out of the carb when you are running at high speed!)
The wheels need a complete refurbishing, rims either re-chroming or powder coating, new spokes and nipples. These pictures are essential to ensure that the spokes are laced correctly, also take measurements from the hub centres to the rim to ensure the offset is correct (most rims have some markings, if you can find them under the rust, make a note of which side the markings are on, again helps with the assembly)
Essential to take pictures as you remove the wiring, also make notes of exactly which cables connect to which wires
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