Welbike

[scooter]

 

[scooter]

Thinking I will wrap this area in a cloth saturated with nutra-rust to start.

 

[scooter]

Blimey....you need a set of British Whitworth spanners, old chum.

I bought a set of Whitworth sockets and wrenches when I owned a BSA. I haven't touched them in 30 years.
You can find them on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/8pc-Whitworth-Combination-Spanner-Set/dp/B0017MHGAW

I'm wondering where you find a 12 1/2 x 2 1/4 tire...er...tyre?

I followed that link but didn’t realize what was going on with the old standards at the time. Little more reading and now i got it. More wrenches and sockets on the way

Thanks for the link wantep

 

[scooter]

Whitworth wrenches arrived, sockets in transit

The translation table is at the top

 

[scooter]

Admin - I realize this isn’t a Honda thread. Just let me know if not appropriate for the site. Since it’s in the gas tank thought it would be ok and enjoyable for folks but just let me know

 

[Coastal Redneck]

R U kidding? Just stumbled across this thread and I'm enjoying the heck out of it, LOL. Cool project, Scooter, you're just the hand to pull it off, and it will be interesting to see this bike cleaned up and operational. I'm with CJ on the canisters, it would be heller cool to find one, but I reckon it's a long shot, most were probably put to other uses and/or rusted out, but if ya found one you could paint a bad@$$ British paratrooper insignia on it, LOL.

 

[scooter]

Sidewinder/Coastal Redneck - glad you’re enjoying this. I must say of all my finds / bikes this one is by far my favorite.

The connections back to my childhood and refresh of some old memories has already made the bike priceless

Last week I took a day off from work and ended up spending several hours in the oldest original bicycle shop still open in the US in Princeton NJ. Established in 1891. Someone put the wrong nuts on the front axle and the guys at the shop invited me into the back and let me search through the oak bins of old axles to see if I could find a match while they did their work. Bought them lunch, and told my stories of how their shop was so much like my grandfather’s where I spent many a summer day as a kid. Explained to them that their stacking of old spokes still in their original boxes up there high on that shelf over there looked identical to the way I remember it from when i was a kid. Grand pop would call out the size of the spokes and quantity and my job was to climb up grab the right number and set them up in the inner hub for him to lace. Then we’d sit there together and he’d teach me the various lacing patterns and how to count them out. Then I’d tighten up the nipples with that cool pump action hand screwdriver and set it up in the truing stand for him to finish.

When I got home I called my mother and spent another hour talking and going over every detail of her fathers store, the arrangement of the oak display cases, the shelves, the smell....

 

[Coastal Redneck]

Nothin' wrong with reminiscing... the older I get, the more I enjoy going back and reliving positive memories. The way this country is headed, the memories are often better than the modern realities... they don't call 'em "the good ol' days" for nothin', LOL.

 

[scooter]

Pretty much have everything freed up and components removed from the frame. Engine is out and sitting off to the side for now. Waiting on the PB Blaster to kick in on the gas cap on the left tank and the pressure pump on the right tank. They just don’t want to move at the moment.

The pressure pump is needed since the gas tanks sit below the carb.

Parts are in good shape with nothing more than surface rust for the most part. Cycled small parts through my ultrasonic cleaner and a nutra-rust bath last weekend. The rims, muffler, and other steel parts are in my electrolysis bath having the rust removed

Original Dunlop tires are in (one NOS and the other a nice used one). Figured out that the same tire was used on some “high end” English pedal cars in the ‘50s and a search on pedal car tires instead of the actual tire brand and model lead me to a nice used one

 

[scooter]

Sounds simple, but finally got the gas cap free. Need to make a special tool to remove the pump from the right tank. Not complicated, just needs to catch some slots

Made up a spanner tool to remove the front fork and the fork is off. I found one spot on the fork neck on the frame where there seems to be a nice patch of original paint. I’ll want to try and get a paint match from it before I start to clean it up

 

[scooter]

On a good set of front forks there is a small set of lips that the lower bearing race slips over. This is shown in the one photo from a company that makes remanufactured parts. The other photo shows my forks and as you can see one of the lips is fully worn away and the other side is cracking.

I think I have two options as far as fixing the set I have. 1) increase the bore and sleeve it or 2) machine the surface flat, weld up a rim of extra material and machine it back to spec.

Anyone experienced with this type of repair care to offer up an opinion. Thanks in advance

 

[OLD CT]

I would buy one of the repro's and try to r&r it into the original if possible.

 

[scooter]

OLD CT - Thanks - I’m going to treat your reco as my fix option if one or two doesn’t work.

 

[scooter]

Spent several therapeutic hours scratching paint using a 30X eye loop and x-acto knife from one of the tanks to get to the original numbers and paint. Turned out better than expected and I should be in good shape to get a good color match from the section on the side of the tank. The front had previous scratches where the blue paint was filled in and just wasn’t going to work.

Haven’t fixed the front fork yet, but believe I have acquired most of what I needed including the parts to rebuild the missing original seat including a new cover for it

Progress is “slow” but steady

 

[scooter]

Pulled the frame out of my electrolysis bath washed it down with phosphoric acid but there was some residual water inside the tubing that wouldn’t shake out. Electric smoker was just big enough. 1 hour at 275 did the trick