LH Colt restoration

[paul.wirdnam]

Ah ha...another restoration blog .

A Colt was my second ever restoration, first being a WD BSA M20. I remember the ignition coil having an intermittent fault that took some time to trace . Keep posting your progress!

[Paul_Linden]

Hi Paul, it's my second bike resto project too.
Anyhow, on with tale....... it seemed reasonable to keep the bike in the same original colour, which Ariel call Brunswick Green (the only other colours I've seen for Colts are black and red). Difficult to find paint now to that colour specification, although Bronze Green (Land Rover) and British Racing Green are both pretty close. I'm not after an award winning finish, which ruled out a professional spray job. So a local auto factor did a colour match from the inside of the toolbox, which was not sun bleached or oil stained so as close to original as I could. Did you know that the colour on printed paper swatches from paint manufacturers will be 'off' after a year, and shouldn't be relied on? So I did the spraying myself, and two coats with a light rubdown in between was adequate. The picture below shows where I was in January this year - can you see the centre stand on the bench, with the semi-circular additions to its feet? More about that later

[Paul_Linden]

So after painting the frame I got to work on the centre stand. First, heat and bend it straight so the lugs meet the stop tabs on the frame, and also straighten the hexagonal bar so that the frame, bar and stand all line up and the stand can move freely. The feet on the centre stand had worn away and a previous owner drilled and bolted some semi circular bars on, (see previous pic) which weren't that good, so I took them off and made my own new feet for the centre stand using some solid steel bar. The trick here was to keep the new feet aligned and level, which was achieved by welding one long piece of bar that joined the two feet and then cutting the middle section out. Rounded the edge of the steel bar to make it roll more easily. Greased up the hexagonal bar, sleeves and centre stand and put it all on the frame. All worked smoothly and a new spring from Draganfly keeps it firmly in the up position. But will it last? Well only time will tell. About six months after doing this repair a NOS colt centre stand came up for sale on eBay, with a buy it now price of £50. What a dilemma! Throw away my nicely repaired stand, and replace it with a new one, or stick with my work and save £50? In the end I had the courage to stick with my own repaired stand.

[Paul_Linden]

Stripped and cleaned the rear plunger units. The four rubber buffers had rotted but Draganfly had them in stock and the cups re-chromed nicely. All very straight forward and no surprises.

Before putting the plunger units back in the frame I tried a dry run without the springs which also let me check for play in the bushes and the plunger column. Glad to report all was in order so put it all back together with lashings of grease.

With the rear spindle forks in place I ran a few checks with the rear hub in place (rim and spokes had been taken off the hub). Curiously the gap between the rear forks was half an inch wider than it needed to be. When the wheel nuts are tightened it all clamps down all right, with the hub running true. However, I did discover the rear spindle was bent! The picture below shows by how much. I wonder what happened to do that - no actually it's better that I don't know!

[john.nash]

Don't keep me in suspense ... let me flick to the "last page" and get a glimpse of the finished bike !

[Paul_Linden]

Rear wheel arrives back after being getting new spokes and rim by the Devon Rim company. They did a great job (no I don't own shares in them!) and I'm using them again for the front wheel. I was tempted to rebuild the wheel myself but sometimes you just have to pay an expert to do it (like rebores and crank rebuilds). The picture below is a "cheat", in that the wheel is just slotted in, as the brake drum and other fittings are not there, but I just had to see how it looked.
Another thing about this picture is the bag of bolts - Namrick (another company I don't own shares in) sell bags of imperial bolts. Very useful and much better than buying them individually or scrabbling around in the garage to find a 3/16 nut or whatever.
I should also name check the company that did the chrome plating on the cups - Doug Taylor in Bristol, again, a great job (and again, no shares).
Lastly, I've started loosely bolting on some fittings, including the bent metal strips above the footrests, whose purpose I'm still not sure about.

July 2011

[Paul_Linden]

Don't keep me in suspense ... let me flick to the "last page" and get a glimpse of the finished bike !

Hi John, I'd love to show you the finished bike, but that day is still at least a year away! I'm about one third of the way through, but I thought it was enough to show what I've done. And also, when (not if) I get stuck, i'll be asking for some collective wisdom from the group!

[Paul_Linden]

Cleaned the fittings for the rear wheel (speedo drive, spacers, chain adjusters) and put in a new spindle. The Smiths speedo drive is elegant and simple, the only weakness perhaps is the die cast thread on the body which is easy to cross thread, as has been done here by a previous owner. I put on a speedo cable nut at the correct angle to encourage the thread to go back to where it should be. It worked, but this thread will now always be weaker.

This time the rear wheel really is finished with the rear brake linked up and working, and the sprocket on. The tyre is a 'Chen' brand and I'm regretting it already. I should have gone for the Metzler, or even taken one off the beast lurking under the dust sheet (surely you noticed that?). My experience of tyres from the far east was twenty years ago and the quality then was dire - too much nylon and not enough rubber, made for scary riding in the rain Please tell me they are better than that now.

[Paul_Linden]

Back in August some of the tinware went out for bead blasting and came back like this. Predictably new holes appeared in some parts - the bottom of the rear mud guard and toolbox - like lacework. Also there is a hole in the bottom of the primary chaincase where the brake pedal has worn through. The rear mudguard isn't in the picture as it was being prepared to have a patch welded in. All the pieces received a quick coat of primer to keep the rust away.

August 2011

[Paul_Linden]

Rear mudguard, stays and bracket painted up and ready for a dry run to see how it all fits together. Early Colts like this (1954) had a 2.75" wide tyre, and later models a 3.00. I fitted a 3.00 tyre for better handling so the mudguard is going to be a tight fit. Also the later models do not have the valances on the sides of the rear mudgurad that this one has, unless of course this is a non-standard replacement. Quite possible given that the rear number plate bracket is non-standard, and remember that bent wheel spindle? Something obviously has been going on with the back end of this bike.
One other thing, it proved difficult to find new grommets for the holes where the wires for the rear light go through the mudguard (I found a factory that sells them by the thousand!) eventually sourcing them loose in an old fashioned DIY shop. The grommet selection boxes you can buy from DIY and car spares shops have nothing even remotely close.