Wednesday 29th June - shednight

spent most of the day sanding bits of the frame, forks & stays.

Arrived at the shed around 6:30 which was quite full. Norm & Cam working on the super rocket, Toljy building pieces for his '42 chief, Brian working on his 741 bobber, old mick collecting a seat & various bits, Jason & Steve over for a drink, Wayne with Abigail, Andrew helping me with the leaf springs & Chris with a few surprises.

I'd replaced the 3 bottom leafs

with some hardened steel that we needed to shape & drill. Andrew marked them out & we had to use the cobalt drills to hole them. Next step will be to take them back to the spring shop to have them shaped, hardened, rivited & banded. & then a nice coat of paint.

I then went and sand blasted my barrels & heads.

Later that night I spent some time with Wayne & Chris trying to figure out what sort of wheels we would use.

One solution would be to use the hub off one of my old chief wheels & lace on an 18" rim. & buy a brake drum etc.

I bit the bullet & sent Ziggy a massive order when I got home ..... gulp ..... brakes, shoes, drum, axle, intake nipples, brake crossover, footboards, oil lines ~ $2000 !

Then I found a 101 seat bracket on the internet so another $125 to spend.

I'd previously made a seat for Mick projects & he asked me what I would need for mind. Turns out he has part of a 101 seat & a leaf spring ..... so off to Mandurah tomoz to collect. Thankyou Mick.

Chris also bought up his complete seat so between the 2 I should have most of it sourced. Thanks again Christopher.

Wayne had ground down the lobes off a set of cams & was looking to fix some ollie cams.

My main job now is to try to figure out what type of pistons I need. The rumour is some sort of Honda pistons will work with my set up.

Peter Birthsiel in Melb suggested I call Jurgen in Sweeden who had recently built a 101 racer using chief flywheels ..... so I will call him tonight.

Drove down to Mandurah & visited Mick. He gave me an old seat pan & a leaf spring. Unfortunately the fixing leaf was broken & the holes didnt match my other one. So back to the drawing board

Managed to source some seat springs from Murray Morrel in Perth

The finished bike might look a bit like this ?

from Buck's Indians photo collection ......

or maybe like Eric's Vaughans racer ....

Sourcing parts

I'm missing a lot of parts.

The main source of parts is either ....

- buying repo parts from Indian dealers in the states

- ebay for old parts

- begging from friends & club members ( thankyou Chris !)

First up is the tank which I get from Ziggy .... ouch. The boys would have started with a rusty one full of holes. At least this wont leak !

The engine internals were ordered from Moen at IPE in Denmark. ...... OUCH

1 x STPINH Brg hsg, pinion side (bore 1.6950"), 110.00

1 x 40871OS Brg hsg, drive side (bore 1.7540"), 175.00

1 x 28B16 Nut, drive side bearing housing, 18.00

1 x STPINS Pinion shaft, Chief wheels in Std cases, 175.00

1 x STDRS Drive shaft, Chief wheels in Std cases, 110.00

1 x 43067 Crank pin, 110.00

4 x 3390003/4C V/spring covers, o-ring, "cad" 48.00 ea = 192.00

2 x 20B91X Pin, cam follower .005" O/S, 19.17 ea = 38.34

4 x 41853C Push rod guides, 72.00 ea = 288.00

1 x 39726/8 Push rod, STD (set of 4), 176.00

4 x 16A55 Screw, tappet adjuster, 8.80 ea = 35.20

4 x 16A56 Lock nut, tappet adj screw, 4.00 ea = 16.00

2 x 42230 Valve, in, 28.00 ea = 56.00

2 x 42360 Valve, ex, 28.00 ea = 56.00

4 x 41851 Valve guides, 32,00 ea = 128.00

4 x 39909 Valve spring, 10.40 ea = 41.60

4 x 42232 Collar, valve, 10.80 ea = 43.20

8 x 42233 Key, valve, 1.00 ea = 8.00

Chris gave me a 101 handlebar and we went to work removing the bars from the casting. Andrew showed me how to locate the pins to be tapped out b4 we remove the bars from the cast.

This all went well & I ordered some new bars from Ziggy along with some sport scout conrods.

The other sport scout stuff arrived and we picked the 2 best barrels.

They will both need to be helicoiled where the studs have worn away. A few missing fins ..... but ok.

The bores looked ok but we decided to go 50 thou over.

From my reading ... we will need a short skirted piston to work with the set up we are going for. It is recommended to use a Honda 350 piston which I need to find.

Wayne gave me a drive side fly wheel so the engine is nearly ready to be built.

At the moment I need wheels ! I bought a Honda CB 125 front wheel which has a cable operated disc brake but I think it is to thin ......

I had already bought a M351 carb from ebay for my police chief, but I might use it on the hill climber

The bill so far ..... $$$

Total to date: $8,939

Probably forgot a few .....

Gifts:

Frame 0 thankyou Chris

Forks 0 ditto

Gear box 0 ditto

Cams 0 ditto

101 handle casting 0 ditto

drive side fly wheel 0 thankyou Wayne

Rear mudguard 0 thankyou Wayne

Engine cases 0 thankyou Peter Arundel

Engine cases 0 thankyou Ziggy

$$$'s

101 tank 1130 from Ziggy

drive side fly wheel 150 from Ziggy

sport scout rods 320 from Ziggy

handle bars 130 from Ziggy

Engine internals 2300 from IPE ~ valves, guides, pins, push rods, collars etc

Oil pump 350 from Ziggy

brake crossover 110 from Ziggy

manifold nipple 30 from Ziggy

oil lines 110

jocky shift 110

Brake drum 160

rivits axle etc 215

shoes relined 225

backing plate 350

footboards 225

Seat springs 75 from Murray Morrell

Pistons 280 from Rocky @ ironwigwam

Roller bearing for head stock + nut 528 !!!!!!!!! from Moen ouch

Case bolts, engine mounting bolts, brake pedal 200 from Murray Morrell

ebay

front sport barrel 380

con rods 165

351 carb 260

101 seat bracket 115

front wheel 200

hand grips 28

bobber seat 158

500 roller bearings for engine 164

Services

paint 250

sand blasting 220

Rebuilding the frame

The frame looked very rusted & pitted to me but the boys thought it would come up a treat with some love.

Step 1 was to tap it with a hammer to knock the loose rust from inside the tubing. A lot came out.

Step 2 was to file off some pieces of metal that had been added to the frame.

We noticed some hairline cracks on the top tube going into the headstock. I had to carefully file down the bronze. After getting a better idea of the problem we decided to

cut the frame & tap out the spigots from the head stock.

It was clear that the frame had been badly repaired in the past. We cleaned out the tubing & head stock & eventually re bronzed new spigots into the frame after checking that the tank would fit.

Pic of Wayne & Chris bronzing the frame tubing into the head stock ...

Next step was to file all the bronzing smooth & then off to the blasters in Malaga.

When the frames came back we gave them a quick spray of enamel primer to protect the steel.

I took the frame & forks home began the process of filling the rust pits with blade putty.

After weeks of pasting on & sanding off bogg I thought the frame was ready for spray putty. On it went & it bubbled straight away. I had mixed acrylic primer with enamel putty ... or something !!!!! #$$%%$

So I took the frame & forks back to the blaster & started again.

This time I would use 2 pack filler directly onto the steel. I filled the worst of the dents, scuffs & rust pits. It worked much better. Then I sprayed on an etch primer & lightly sanded it back.

In the meantime we decided to look at the leaf spring.

It looked ok to me but the guys thought we should take it apart as it was missing a leaf & seemed different to the other 101 6 leafs.

After drilling out the rivit we found one of the springs wasn't spring steel. I made a template for 3 leafs & found a shop that would supply steel that was nearly right. Unfortunately slightly thinner & a tad thicker. They wouldnt cut it.

So I will have to shape it cut the holes & then take it back to have it tempered.

Hopefully it will turn out ok & look like this 101 leaf spring.

Back to the frame ... the first coat of spray putty has gone onto the frame .... it will take forever to sand. 360 wet & dry then 600 & then 1200 when we get to the black paint.

I am going to paint it myself using aerosol cans. So it wont be a professional job ! Here's a pic of the frame with the wrong primer before I re blasted it.

Today I got a couple of layers of black paint onto the leaf stays. They look good.

Nov 2010 - a project arrives

I arrived up at the shed one Wed in Nov & Chris had a big surprise for me.

He'd bought me a 1928 std scout frame with leaf spring forks, some engine cases and a chief gear box. Part of the stuff he had collected over the years..

I was very grateful.

We decided that we would build it as a hill climber using chief fly wheels in std scout cases, sport scout barrels & honda pistons. This should rate the engine at 968 cc.

I broadly wanted to mimic the racer that Eric Vaughan had built in the US. Here's a pic

But this is how my pieces looked in Nov 2010

We borrowed a rim & tyre & put them front & back to get a feel for the racer.

There are 2 categories in an old bike build. The sourcing of parts & work required to get them to work.

My first priority was to find some sport scout barrels & drive side case & cam cover.

Wayne donated a cam side fly wheel & I bought a drive side fly wheel & 30's oil pump from Ziggy in the US.

Ziggy also donated a set of cases for the project.

One night in a haze of chardonnay I spotted a sport scout engine on ebay.

Unfortunately I won the auction & so began the 7 month process of getting 2 engines & 3 x 741 frames back to Perth.

Shed

Shed night occurs nearly every Wednesday up at Waynes shed.

Everyone is welcome and there can be 3-4 bikes being built at an one time.

The main guys are (see pics above)

Chris - been collecting Indian parts in Aust for 25 years & built a number of bikes. His last project was a rigid frame chief bobber.

Norm - bush mechanic. Can build a bike from any rubbish tip.

Tolj - just completed a 741 bobber & about to restore a 40's chief.

Wayne - DAM & shed owner. Great guy with a ton of Indian knowledge.

Jimmy - every shed has a chick magnet

Scuddzy - another master with metal manipulation.

Last year Wayne built a 20's hill climber from parts that weren't wanted.

We completed in the Albany hill climb. here's his report.

http://choutbreeders.blogspot.com/

the chout

That w/e got me thinking ...

I wanted to build a hill climber for next year

The seeds were sewn

Background

the diamond b4 her trip to Perth

My Indian journey started in Hong Kong in Oct 2003 where a great mate had talked me into buying a 1946 Indian chief.

I imported it from Davenport USA & had it restored in Melb over a very long 7 years.

Whilst waiting for the restoration to finish (~ 2005) I bought a 1951 Blackhawk ex police bike also from the US which was still original & unrestored & again in 2010 bought this 1947 chief

which I rode around Tasmania.

My background is accounting & my mechanical knowledge was limited to checking petrol & air in the tyres ...

I relocated back to Perth Western Australia in 2009 & met a great group of Indian/Harley riders all belonging to the Early American Motorcycle Club. www.eamc.com.au

the bottoms from the left ... Brian, Chris, Andrew, Glen, Steve, Toljy, me & Lennon

This is a pic of us at the Bunbury run in 2010.

The president of the club is Wayne Elezovich. Every Wednesday, he opens his shed for anyone that wants to fix/build old american motorcycles.

I have been attending the shed nights for over a year & in that time I've have watched the guys build & fix many machines. I was just starting to understand what I didnt know ! ...... but found the learning fascinating.