Rebirth of 1939 NG

[Andrus.Luuding]

Hi There,

Thought i'd post here also few photos etc about progress i have made with my '39 NG. Still havent been able to start the bike as I have little holdback with few things but will hopefully get puff of smoke out of those new fishtails soon.
In Short i have rebuilt engine and gearbox, polished few covers, Engine has new bearings inc big end, cylinder was warn so liner had to be fitted, new valves with guides and springs, gearbox with new bearings and some new bushes. All fasteners got blackened that appeared to have signs of Black finish, some bits chromed etc. Front brake has original dust cover, just chromed and painted. Rear breake plate was bent due brake lock up so made new one up with dust cover from club spares. MagDyno was overhauled by Merv Kendall and it gives huge spark. Tank was repaired with silver as it was in pretty bad shape once old chrome came off. Finished off with copper and chromed and painted. Toolbox lid i would guess has been custom made by unknown previous owner. It has lots of tool marks on inside and have not seen any other ribbed one so far but maybe. This NG seems to have been fitted with chromed and painted rims and also chromed and painted brake plates. It does not show on factory records so it might be some last minute request by dealer or changed out by dealer himself. They were available for this model so it is ok and think chromed rims make the bike look better. Rims are original just cleaned and polished and rechromed. "Made in England" still visible, not perfect as some material had to be polished off due to corrosion. Have got Lucas Altette horn which has been also restored Model HF1234. Strangely this one is listed in Lucas equipment manual as fitted to bikes from '36-'51 but acc to parts book this bike should have HF934. Having little trouble with space between the front fender and horn (See photo below) so not sure if 934 horn would have different thickness. Anyone? Rear light i have custom made from car's front light. Painted the glass with red glass paint and so far it has to do... until Santa brings me original. Front light has repro shell but have original Lucas switch with panel. Glass for the headlight is not original and has few too many reeds ... (original should have 11 i believe). For bowden cables i have used cotton covered cable housing to make them look more period. Other than that work continues...

Have question about spokes pattern for this period Ariel wheels. Have bought new spokes from Drags and they measure correct acc to given details in Parts book. Still on front wheel i had them protruding max 8 mm through the nipple. Not all but i'd say 3/4 are between 4-8mm. These rims have every 4th hole offset for the shorter outer spokes in my opinion and therefore there are not too many patterns that can be used here. Has someone had similar issue with rebuilding such wheels? There will be still ca 8 mm left for the nipple to grip onto so it should be ok but normally spokes should not protrude so much. Now its just a lot more filing and grinding to be done.

Regards,
Andrus

[Andrus.Luuding]

Few more...

New rear brake plate coming together

Made up my own Lucas MT1130 rear light. Thanks for measurements and details to Mr. Ron Pier.

Finished with custom MT1130...

No space between horn and fender????

[barry.swanson]

...looks nice Andrus

[john.nash]

<posting for Steve Carter>

Welcome Andrew
My horn has a bit cut away to allow it to fit closer to the frame. Maybe that's your answer.

Steve

[Andrus.Luuding]

Hi Steve, Thanks. Thats different type of horn. Starting to think my forks are bent although they seem fairly staraight and was not a problem to get it assembled.

Does someone have a chance to measure from horn bracket securing bolt on the frame / engine to center of front wheel spindle with the front wheel off the ground and weight off the fork. Think this would show if distance is considerably different. Then something must be bent... .

There's a link to old thread about my bike from while back:

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1144

Regards,
Andrus

[Steven.Carter]

On my wng it's 19.5" if that helps


Steve

[barry.swanson]

...something is not right Andrus, when you compare Steves photo to yours,he has a lot more clearance....as you say, a different model horn also.

[john.nash]

Been out and looked at my WNG
Same arrangement and the horn is only around 1/4" off the mudguard. It's very, very close
I will take a picture tomorrow ...

[john.nash]

See.
Mine is very close.
However, the deflection of the forks do not alter the gap.

Have you got the front stand on yet (the one at the bottom of the mudguard) ? That might pull the mudguard round enough

[Keith.owen]

Oh Boy!
That is beautiful. It always takes ages but in the end it is always worth it.
What a lovely finish !!

Keith