Simon, I never took your comment the wrong way. I saw the emoji's and laughed. Sorry for any misunderstanding.
John.
John.
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So, after a short hiatus while I took my wife away for a few days R&R, I have managed to get a modicum of progress done. Carrying on from the last instalment I primed all the engine and gearbox pieces and lo and behold more seam work was definitely needed. These were attended to and re primed/undercoated. Now being fairly happy I moved on to the next issue. The valve springs. The kit ones are, in my estimation, unusable. Wire and a cocktail stick to the rescue. The cocktail stick proved to be just the right diameter. These did not go as easily as I had hoped. The fourth attempt proved okay, so I went with that one. Then there were the oil lines to the valves and the main oil feed to the bevel housing and the cams. Here be pictures of the engine so far.
The first one is for information purposes only and is of an engine built OOB.
You can plainly see the poor valve springs, also the wrongly placed oil feed. The second photo is of my engine and hopefully looks more like the real thing.
My main oil feed pipe is slightly too long, the loop in it should not be quite as pronounced but this is my second attempt, the first one was too short. I can put up with it, and it is built to please me.
The crankcases and bevel housing were painted with Vallejo Metal Color- Magnesium and then given a black wash to represent the chromate coating they were given.
The cylinder barrel and head were painted with the same make-dull aluminium. It is the first time I have used these paints and am very impressed. It says on the bottles for airbrush use, but they brush perfectly. Now onto the gearbox.
As usual all comments/abuse welcome.
John.Comment
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The added improvements look a lot better.Comment
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Thanks, Paul. I have jut noticed a seam down the camshaft drive tube. This whole bottom piece of the drive tube may have to be replaced. It is approx 2mm too short and in consequence lists like a drunken matelot. Will nothing ever fit right ?
John.Comment
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Just caught up with this, loved the look of this bike back in the day
In fact think it looks better than any modern bike .
Keep going JohnComment
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Yes, John. I totally agree with you. A classic in every sense of the word. Hopefully I can do it justice.
John.Comment
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Hello folks. Yes, I am still here. I haven't departed for pastures new. After an exceptionally long summer hiatus brought on by my love of Sun, Sea and Sand, caused by spending the first 26 years of my life in these sunny climes, compounded by a complete lack of mojo, I have finally got my 2 remaining brain cells lined up and working almost in unison. The first job tackled was to strip the chrome parts. I was dubious about this after reading the trials some of you guys had been through. Luckily it was easier than I expected. I put the sprues in a poly bag with a good few squirts of Mr Muscle oven cleaner (other brands are available) and after about 10 minutes the chrome just dissolved away. After a soapy wash and a good rinse I was left with this.
The plastic looks soapy but feels just as hard as all the rest. I have painted a few pieces on these sprues, mainly the engine plates for the moment.
I have assembled the gearbox and filled the unwanted seams. It is not perfect but when it is between the engine plates not much of it will be on view.
Gearbox on the left, of course. The end cover is meant to be separate. The carburettor is to the right. The main body of the carb is marred by 3 knockout pin marks. These are partially hidden by the choke tube I have retrofitted. This is the white piece running from top to bottom on the carb body. I have also bodged the mixture screw that was missing and the securing nuts to hold the carb to the inlet tract. Also the float chamber will help hide any shoddy work on this side when I get it completed. There are numerous photos of this GP2 carb on the tinterweb but I am mostly working from memory. The same carb was fitted on my Goldie, so I have experienced the real thing.
At the top of the photo you can see the front forks (just dry fitted together) which are going to be a problem. The sliders (the bottom pieces that hold the wheel) are supposed to be hollow to allow the stanchions to fit inside them. Unfortunately one of them has been cast solid, so the razor saw has been at work and now the final measuring will need to be done so both legs are the same length.
Hopefully some more progress over the weekend.
All comments, good, bad or indifferent welcome along with plain old abuse.
Cheers for now.
John.Comment
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Finally a miniscule amount more done to the Manx. Continuing from my last post I have finished the carburettor. This first picture is of the real thing and is for information purposes only.
The next picture is my attempt at the same thing. Blown up like this it looks absolutely abysmal, but in real life and using the 2 foot viewing rule it is not too bad.
I have also gone back a step and done some remedial work on the engine. Previously I mentioned that the camshaft drive tube was too short. I decided that it needed fixing so off it came. Luckily it wasn't glued too firmly. A shim of plastic card underneath did the trick. It now stands more or less straight instead of looking like the well known Italian bell tower. Once this was done I mounted the engine in the frame. This was when I found out just how brittle the plastic really is. I made the mistake of cementing the front engine plates in place on both the engine and the frame, to hold it in position while I manouvered the rear plates into position. The twisting motion needed for this snapped both front down tubes of the frame. I think this can be repaired fairly easily, but it is fighting me all the way. This is where I am now.
I am presently painting pieces on the sprue before attaching them. Cheers for now, all C&Cs welcome.
John.Comment
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John,
Very nicely done mate great skills on show.Comment
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Thank you Paul. High praise indeed from someone of your ability. A real boost to the mojo.
John.Comment
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Hi, Steve. No not a monobloc. It is a GP2. The racing carb. They can be a bugger to tune, but when done right they work fantastic. Only problem with fitting one to a road bike is there is no tickover. Found that out the hard way when I had a Goldie.
JohnComment
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Well now that the engine/gearbox is mounted in the frame I can progress with the drive side of the engine. The first thing I did was to install the HT lead to the spark plug. This is where I found out that, as is common with most of these kind of kits, the tubing supplied is actually too small to fit on the "pips" it is supposed to. The answer was to cut off the "pip", carefully drill a hole in its place and cement in a suitable size piece of wire. The end going into the magneto was straightforward as the connector is in a straight line with the lead. The spark plug end was different. Firstly, the kit has the spark plug in completely the wrong place. Where they have it, it would be sparking in the open air between the cylinder head top fins. I chopped off the lead fixing "pip" as per the other end and once again drilled and cemented in a wire. This wire was then bent where it entered the spark plug, so the lead and plug ended up at 90 degrees to one another. The pin on the other end of the plug was then removed and sanded flat. A blob of CA in approximately the correct position and job done. Now looking a whole lot better. At this time I also cemented on the rev counter drive. Unfortunately this is as far as I can go with correcting the top end ( the valve springs were done when I did the other side). The reason being that the cam box is completely the wrong shape and size, so there is nowhere to place all the fixing bolts. As it will mostly be hidden by the top frame tubes and petrol tank I am reasonably happy with how it is. After this I started on the primary drive. Engine sprocket, primary chain and gearbox sprocket are all one piece, so a bit of gentle persuasion (SWMBO said it was brute strength and ignorance) and it fit in place. Glued on the clutch end plate and this is how she looks.
The main thing left to do on this side is the primary chain guard. More bodging work needed on this piece. The forward fixing bracket is okay, if a little chunky. However the rear one will need some work. The kit has it bolted to the outside of the frame gusset, however the real one bolts to the inside of the gusset I will firstly try to thin down the outside of the bracket to see if I can get it to slide inside the gusset. Failing this I think I will have to remove the bracket and replace with a thin plastic card one. This is the part in question. The offending bracket is on the right.
That's all for the moment. Please excuse the rubbish photo's. As usual all C&Cs more than welcome.
John.Comment
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