DOWN TO THE NUTS AND BOLTS

Not able to do anything more to the car until the chassis is flipped over, in the the meantime I did a bit more stripping of the donor Moto Guzzi.

Off came the petrol tank, after draining out the fuel, in the photo you can just make out the masking tape tab attached to a wire, with the legend 'Petrol Warning Light', the first of many such labels that will be attached as the wiring loom is eventually removed. The exhaust down pipes, followed by the air filter box and battery tray were then removed, the carburetters were next, but the throttle and choke cables took a bit of thought before they could be released from the handlebar control, got there in the end with out having to resort to wire snips.

I was puzzling about how I would eventually remove the engine and gearbox from the frame, the workshop manual says that a supporting cradle is attached to the engine, the frame and front wheel is then lifted and rolled forward, up and over the engine. I can now at least see where all the engine mounting positions are and as I don't have a cradle I intend to to use an engine crane to suspend the engine whilst I remove the bolts and then hopefully lower the engine to the ground, we shall see!!!

A RIVETING EXPIERENCE

Last week I eventually got the last 120 holes drilled in the base plate and over this weekend I cleaned up the holes with my old 10mm drill bit, both sides of the base plate plus the the chassis, 720 holes to be precise. the photo shows half of the chassis holes cleaned up and swarf removed, back breaking and shoulder numbing manual work, but it had to be done.

OK Monday, set aside for riveting, but what a day!! the first thing to go wrong was that, try as I might, I could hardly squeeze the bonding/sealing mastic out of the tube, by the time I had covered about twelve inches, my hand and forearms where aching even though I was squeezing the mastic gun double handed, I hoped that reason was, that because it had been quite cold over night, the mastic had thickened and my solution was to dunk the tube of mastic in very hot water for half an hour, It did the trick. It was a messy job and hoping to get two nice equal beads of mastic either side of the rivet holes went out of the window. One large bead was erratically applied which Jacquie helped to spread liberally over the chassis rails.

The base plate was lowered and loosely bolted down. With a bit of adjustment to the plate Jacquie started placing the rivets and I followed around with rivet gun which made a very satisfying sound as the big rivets where banged down. Excess mastic oozed out of the joints and got stuck on everything, so whilst I riveted Jacquie cleaned up with liberal quantities of white spirit and paper cleaning cloths.

I was on a role when half way through, the tip of the riveting nozzle disappeared inside the barrel, the tip had sheared off. I checked the air pressure and it was within limit, I was to put in frankly 'buggered'. I tried my hand pop riveter and manged to pull a few home, but no way was I going to be able to pull a hundred odd rivets that way.

Fortunately Machine Mart is only a five minute drive away and I soon returned with what looked like an identical gun although the nozzle had a slightly different profile and this one was shiny red, the only downside that it was twice the price at £60 from the Ebay one. Job was soon completed and all surplus mastic cleaned away. Time and more riveting will prove that buying cheap was a false economy this time.

At the weekend some chums are visiting and I hope to persuade the male halves to turn her right side up, in the meantime I will endeavour to get a refund on the defunct gun,

DELIVERANCE

It all arrived in the same post amazing! Four 4.9 drill bits, air riveter gun and the 20mm, replacement swing arm pins, which have been stored with the freshly painted, swing arm ready for fitting as soon as the chassis is back up the right way.

The drill bits were put to immediate use and half of the holes have been drilled ready for the rivets. There was just enough air left in my baby compressor to try out the air riveter and boy did it bang home those big 4.8 rivets, my Ebay purchase was great value at just over half the price than the same gun at Machine Mart.  Unfortunately my 2.5kw generator isn't man enough to power up the compressor, I have tried it out with a 50m extension lead, plus another 25m of cable and despite my concern about voltage drop it seemed to work fine. However I am still about 15m short of my garage, so I have ordered another 50m reel. I had originally considered putting in a permanent electricity supply, but the armoured cable would have cost in excess of £600 and the final cost would probably be over £1000, by the time a trenching tool had been hired, and a professional electrician had connected it all up, so 80 quid for a couple of extension leads, seemed the best way to go, especially as my genny powers up every other tool that I need.

Another 120 holes to drill and then I can get riveting.

SPRAYED OFF

I collected the swing arm and brake back plate from the sprayers today, they look great. The back plate is still wrapped in bubble wrap, but the guy in the paint shop said 'he had done a little baking, but it was only done a few hours earlier and he would rather not wrap the swing arm in case in left marks'. I laid it in the boot and drove home carefully. The photo shows it laid on a dust sheet and tomorrow I will wrap it and store it safely until the floor plate has been riveted on.

Talking of which, I have now marked out where most of the holes need to be drilled for the rivets, every 50mm, each mark has been dot punched and a pilot hole drilled into the alli. Just need to finish off and hopefully the 4.9mm drill bits should arrive soon.

I have also order from Ebay an air riveter, as my trial rivet with a 4.8 rivet, using the usual pop rivet gun required an enormous amount of effort. Several hundred rivets need to in place before the sealant goes off and I realised that I was going to need some extra muscle to do the job quickly, it should arrive in a couple of days.

BOTTOMS UP

At last I was able to recruit some chums to come over and help me to turn the chassis upside down, ready to drill and rivet the bottom floor pan on.

I had already stripped off the scuttle, cowling and rear cover from the chassis, tided up tool and bits and bobs from the floor pan, which was loosely bolted onto the chassis and would obviously stay attached as the chassis was turned  I tried lifting one end off the trestles and thought 'no problem' three of us should be easily able to lift it.

 Frank and John arrived early in the evening, keen and ready to earn their promised refreshment and with Jacquie standing by with the camera, we lifted the chassis and backed it out of the garage and let it down onto its side, on to a board I had positioned in readiness. I readjusted the trestles and as we lifted we turned the chassis bottom up, walked it back into the garage and let it back down onto the trestles. A little packing was needed for the end trestle and all was secure.

Job done, beer and nibble for everyone, thanks guys. Next week I can get on with marking out where I need to drill for the 4.8mm rivets, but first I must order some 4.9 drill bits, I am sure that a 5mm bit would be fine, but better do the job properly, Ebay here I come.