Exhuming the cold remains of my old friend

I have not long returned from a visit to my home town of Weston – super – Mare in the UK.   The trip was to catch up with members of my family and start getting the Velocette's rolling chassis and fuel tank ready to bring home to France.

I wasn't expecting an oil painting since the bike has been left outside in my Mum's back yard for the last ten years, albeit tightly wrapped in plastic sheeting, it was going to be ugly.  As I peeled the sheets away, having cut off the brambles, I noted that some of the sheets had actually stuck together and my heart began to weigh heavy.  In fact, it took a good ten minutes to free the bike (minus engine of course) from the wrappings and I felt my worst fears were confirmed.  There isn't one area where the chrome plating is saveable, most of the painted parts are in need of a re-paint and I have a suspicion that the plastic coated frame from Geoff Dodkin will need a heavy touch up. The picture says it all.

Oh dear.

The front tyre was flat and cracked through but amazingly the rear one was still inflated. I gave it a tug and it rolled free of the longest parking place of it's existence very easily (allowing for the flat tyre).   Two minutes with a household broom removed the cobwebs, insect corpses and years of accumulated clag and dust, revealing my old friend still has those beautiful lines.

It could be worse, it could.  She is very beautiful nonetheless.

The swinging arm still works, the shocks don't leak and do still damp (mind you, with no engine, so that could change) and there was no play in the swinging arm bearings.   I expect the wheel bearings are shot though and I'd be living in denial if I didn't pull all the bearings and bushes apart for an inspection.  Nonetheless it's nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be.

The exhaust is completely rusted all over, but mine had a strange kink in the end that made the fish tail ground too easily, so I don't mind replacing that part.  It may well be cheaper to replace the silencer than try to re-chrome it but I'll look at that later.

The fuel tank was very bare, the paint having fallen off in large areas, but the metal revealed underneath was in some areas not rusty at all.  Again it could have been worse.  Then I found the five gallon fibreglass racing tank that was on the bike when I bought it.  It's as ugly as sin, but somehow I was pleased to find it even though I didn't bother unwrapping it.

Then a final piece of luck. Amongst a load of old papers was a letter from Geoff Dodkin confirming that he had exchanged my old frame for the current one. I have explained previously how I had an altercation with a Ford Cortina back in 1979 resulting in a written off frame.  This could be a very important document when it comes to trying to road register the old girl.

All in all a fruitful trip.  Transport to arrange and lots of other things to get on with then.  

Trumpets, Papers and Filler

Another month slips by and I have done almost nothing to the Velo.  I am only human and so when the possibility of another bike arose last summer I took it.  It's a '68 T100T Triumph Daytona.  I have bought it, imported it and registered it French.  This took around six months and the arrival of the French log book coincided with the fuel tank leaking.  So that's where the effort for this month has gone, re-welding, filling and cutting back for the re-painting of this bike:

The Trumpet - it's a runner you see.

I'll do a blog for the Triumph seperate from this one, but I have learned an important lesson here and that's the documentation thing.  You see, although I love living here in France, one of the downsides is that you can barely break wind without the correct (and very complicated) paperwork.

To import and register a bike made by a defunct company, you must first have a certificat de datation from here:

http://www.ffve.org/

They need copies of the original log book, photos of chassis and engine numbers, photos of both sides of the bike, copies of the purchase receipts, their own form filled in correctly.  They have a manpower problem that meant it took three months for me to receive a certificate only to find my name spelt incorrectly, so back it had to go for another fortnight!

With this certificate in my sweatty hand I could send it with these other documents to apply for a French log book (carte grise):

Certificate of no TVA (VAT) to pay, Application for carte gris, certificate de datation, original uk log book, marrage certificate recognition (because the edf bill is in my wife's name), the edf bill, the photocopy of my passport, the tax d'habitition bill and the receipt from the previous owner (untranslated).  Nothing unreasonable really but so many bits of paper!

 Once registered, I took it for a blast and as I said, found the fuel tank leaked from the centre weld at the front.  This is usually vibration damage and / or corrosion, so I have had to whip off the tank.  It's been stripped down, had the welding and brazing done, and now I'm getting it ready for a re-spray.  If you've ever done this sort of thing you'll know how much rubbing down and preparation is required.

Tank stripped back around the leak and painted with flower and water (whitewash is better though).  A drop of fuel sloshed about in the tank and the leak shows up as a damp patch - erm...

Removing the old paint... Pffffffff.  I did it by hand because I didn't want to do any more damage to the old metal.  I found more sins that had to be fixed propperly. 

 
While I was at it I popped off the carbs and re-built them too.  Even if the ad says "carbs re-built by a pro" just pull them apart anyway because you'll find something wrong.  For me, the main jets were the wrong size, everything was clapped out, one needle was not straight and there were no 'O' rings in the joints to the head, the slides rattled in the bodies and they were full of muck.  The only reason the floats sealed must have been because of the viton tips on the float needles.

"rebuilt by a pro" - but probably some years ago...

So there goes a month.