Chapter 14. Life’s Never that simple

I finished last week’s blog with the exciting news that my rear mudguard was available at the Argos click and collect. What I didn’t realise is that my Argos being within the Epsom Sainsburys I would have to join the supermarket queue that went literally half-way round the car park. Anyway an hour later I emerged with an enormous cardboard box – perhaps that should have given me a clue.

I mentioned earlier that I had seen exactly the right sized guard at Kempton but decided to wait until by next visit when I had more luggage capacity. Having tried to contact several of the regular auto-jumble stand holders I drew a blank and went for one of those advertised in eBay – you know “only one remaining” etc. Absolutely no complaints with what was in the box, it was a steel mudguard with nicely rolled edges, except it was too wide, much too large in diameter and too long, otherwise perfect. I quickly went back to the advert and realised that the diameter (i.e. the radius of curvature) was correct, but I had misread the thumbnail sketch, and that was the inside not the outside of the guard. Probably a case or ordering some parts late in the evening on my phone when I should have been watching an educational documentary on the TV. The width was also near enough correct – but on the slightly over size. The length was no issue as I knew I had to cut it down.

I wish I’d taken a “before” photo, but it clearly looked ridiculous, hanging way out behind the rear tyre. Measured up it was 3 inches too large – I had to get this dimension from 67 cm down to about 60 cm .

If the circumstances had been normal I would have jollied up to the guys in the workshop below the Flight Shed and asked to use their English wheel. This is a workshop tool I had experience of during my apprenticeship days at Hawker Siddeley. We were tasked with making a fruit bowl out of a fairly thick sheet of stainless steel. Even now I can still feel the impressions of the edge of the steel sheet in my palms – clearly it was one of those exercises designed to be as hard as possible in order for us to appreciate, if not acquire, the skills of the tinsmiths. I’m very proud of my fruit bowl and the accompanying salt and pepper pots, beaten into shape on an anvil, and we still use them 47 years later.

Alas the English wheel was not available, but Google came to my rescue. I can’t remember exactly what I typed in to search, but just a few links in I came up with a thread from Low Brow Customs. These guys are based in Ohio, and as you’d expect are the archetypal Harley custom shop, but I’ve had several occasions where their hands-on practical approach has given me some “get you out of jail” tips. A picture is worth a thousand words here;

Using a couple of lengths of 2” x 2”, with a suitably sized block in between, I worked my way round the guard, a couple of inches at a time, opening out the width. With one “pass” this pulled the diameter in to approximately 61 cm. It works well with the rolled edge, but Low Brow say it probably wouldn’t be so effective with a straight edge. Obviously, the width increased further, but the profile was exactly right, as below.

I always had a plan for reducing the width as I’ve gone for a 3.25 rear tyre and most guards would have probably been too wide. A couple of years ago a friend of mine was clearing out one of his neighbour’s garage (with his permission I hasten to add) and asked if I wanted anything. I was on my guard (pun not intended) not to come back with a car full of junk, but there were some surprisingly good finds. My eyes instantly landed on one of those green quart oil cans, like the Castrol ones but sadly without the logo, and a Joggle tool. I had always wanted one of these so both were rehoused in my workshop. Again going back to my apprenticeship days I tried to work out the developed length for the joggle and the amount to be cut out for the reduced width, but in the end resorted to a couple of trials with the excess length of guard.

To the title of this chapter, Life’s Never that simple: Marking the guard up was OK but cutting it out with a hand held jig saw wasn’t at all easy, and very noisy, so apologies to my neighbours. I had to rework the joggle to get it in line with the curvature, then trying to clamp the two halves together was one of those jobs where I needed four hands. Eventually I used a section of the cut-off guard to hold one end and a clamp where I was to tack weld.

I completed the weld along the whole length and smoothed it off with my favourite tool, the Bosch hand-held grinder. For those of you learning welding – on a job like this, not flat on the bench, I find it very useful to position a rest for my torch hand, which is the length of wood clamped to the right of the weld. My style gurus, Perry and my brother Alan, advised I should cut the back end off straight, and that is the final incarnation as shown in the top pic, with suitable bracket. 

You’ll have noticed the tank has knee-pads fitted. Way back when I was researching parts for this project I concluded that the petrol tank I got with the bike was a pre-war BSA but not a 1932 BSA B31-2. The correct knee rubbers would have been oval, but I have no idea what type of fitting. My tank has two bosses on each side and I assume the rubbers would have pushed on over these. I found some pads that had a similar arrangement but were selling at over a hundred Euros a pair. In the end I bought a couple of the “tear-drop” shaped pads from Feked and decided to worry about mounting them later. 

The plates that came with the pads had mounting holes in the wrong place and were not the correct profile to fit the side of the tank, so I decided to make my own out of sheet steel. I also discovered that a 20mm electrical grommet was a tight fit over the boss and decided to go with this method of fixing. Two days later….. I had beaten out two suitable plates and drilled the 20 mm holes in the right place. I bought an Erbauer cone drill set which make life a little easier – my metal bashing and filing arm was giving out by now. The final arrangement uses a tight-fitting washer to slip behind one of the bosses and locks the pad in place.

I had made up some foam pads to go behind the rubbers but these gave just too much thickness for the rubber to stay in place, so the finished result is a little knobbly, but then so are my knees.

I’ve got more fabrications to complete over the next week or so, primary guard, battery box and rear brake pedal, but hopefully the end is in sight. After last week’s appeal for advice, with replies from several members of the Motorcycle Team, I decided to make the saddle cover myself – or rather Jane will do the clever bit and I’ll fit it on. We (the concept of shared ownership is gradually creeping in now) have also decided to keep the tank chrome for now, so that saves me a challenging painting job.

It was sad news that came out of Brooklands this week. There are many personal tragedies at this time, but I feel very sorry for those staff who have lost their job with the redundancies. I understand the reasons and can sympathise with the management having to make a tough decision. But for every individual it would have been not only their livelihood, but also a unique and interesting place to have worked. I’m sure we all wish them the best for the future.

Stay safe and well

Gareth