Frame assembly begins.

      With the major parts painted and the gearbox ready it was time to start assembling the frame.




      First though, headstock transfers. With the front frame stood upright on the floor the headstock transfers were applied. I used waterslide transfers as I already had the top one and I bought the lower one from Classic Transfers who are slightly cheaper than the VMCC transfer scheme. The top one has white panels unlike the original varnish-on type where these are clear allowing the paint below to show through. Waterslide are much easier to apply and are varnished over when dry. (Don't use cellulose based varnishes which will destroy the transfers.)

Headstock transfers.

First parts laid on the table.

      The engine plates, bearing bracket and stand were loosely assembled with the greased sleeve nuts and central stud.

Engine plates, bearing block, stand and gearbox in place.

      The small scissor table shown lifted the assembly and with the stand down made a stable platform. With all the fixings loose and the right hand 7/16" bolt below the gearbox omitted the right hand engine plate can be swung down and the gearbox inserted and held in place by the top stud before replacing the bolt underneath. With the bottom gearbox stud in place the top one was taken out. The front frame was then put between the engine plates and the bottom 3/8" frame stud inserted. The frame was then swung up until the holes aligned at the top of the gearbox when the 1/2" top gearbox stud was inserted loosely. The second 3/8" stud at the bottom of the front frame was then slid into place.

Spacer on gearbox top mount

       The top gearbox mounting should be a snug fit between the left hand ear of the bearing bracket and the right hand battery lug on the front frame. If there is slack here it should be measured with feeler gauges and a suitable spacing washer inserted as the frame is too stiff to be pulled in with the bolt.
      In addition there is always a gap between the right hand battery lug on the front frame and the right hand ear of the bearing bracket. Again this will vary between frames and should be measured with feeler gauges and a spacer made to suit and inserted. In this case the top mount of the gearbox needed a washer 0.06" thick.  A washer 0.11" thick was fitted between the two frame parts and the stud nipped up.

Spacer between frame lug and bearing bracket.

      The two spacers to the bottom mounting, 5/8" on the left side and 1.125" on the right slid snugly into place suggesting the gearbox is in the right place. Only time will tell as chain alignment is fixed by the engine sprocket as its taper fit is not adjustable sideways.



Front and rear frames added. Sharp eyes will notice that the stand is in the wrong way round.

      The rear subframe was added and bolted at the top to the front frame and at the bottom to the  stand sleeve nuts. It was then noticed that the stand was in backwards. This is easily corrected at this stage by removing the bottom bolts and hinging the rear frame up whereupon the stand nuts can be removed, the stand reversed, and everything bolted up again. This took about five minutes.



Stand corrected.

      The swinging arm was offered up and the greased pin inserted until the flats at the end engaged with the recess in the bearing bracket. This was tapped in tight with a soft mallet and the adjusting nut and lock nut added and tightened. checking that the swinging arm sits centrally between the rear frame. Everything seemed snug and the arm moved smoothly with no play.




Swinging arm installed.

Rear Shock Absorber  Parts.

      The rear shocks were put together using the old parts painted and plated. The springs were ok but lightly rusted so were cleaned up and greased. All the rubber mounting buffers were perished so were replaced and new stainless inner tubes made. The replacement rubbers are  Mini front suspension bushes, that is for a proper Mini, not the modern 'Volkswagen' replacement.

      I have now run out of painted parts so need to get back into the spray booth and I also want to sort out the mysteries of the front forks.

Slow progress, or maybe not!

All done? Well actually no, still a long way to go. This is my M120 and Panther chassis which I’ve had for probably 37 years but it’s something to aim for with the Wreck.

The major parts of the frame were rubbed down and any rusty areas treated with Kurust which allegedly converts and neutralises the rust. It was then hung up and given a couple of coats of primer followed by three coats of black cellulose, all sprayed on.



Spraybooth, the old greenhouse. (Note the sidecar.)
 

You cannot assemble the springer frame without having the gearbox to hand unless you want to take half of it apart again so I turned to that. In addition I was waiting for the plating to come back.
Externally the gearbox was white with alloy corrosion but dismantled easily. The internals were found to be in very good condition and just needed a quick clean. The corrosion on the cases came off easily using a rotating wire brush bolted to an old washing machine motor. This gave quite a nice shiny finish. As is common the threads for the chain adjusters on the bottom mounting were stripped so these were helicoiled to 5/16" BSF, a coarser thread than the original Cycle thread which is easily stripped.
The brush was also used on the rusty ends of the kickstart and gear change spindles. Reassembly was quite straightforward and it clicked cleanly into all gears when finished. I replaced the sprocket which was badly worn and fitted the short clutch pushrod which was missing. The gear lever is rotted through and went onto the scrap pile.



Gearbox parts



Kickstart case parts



Finished gearbox.

Finally the plating came back. Many of the parts, particularly the shrouds on the shock absorbers were quite deeply pitted and were unlikely to clean up sufficiently for chroming so everything was zinc plated and passivated. Some parts that were beyond saving were replaced from the boxes that litter my garage. It's very frustrating when you know you have something but can't find it anywhere.


Plated parts.

Anyway all parts are there for basic assembly of the frame.