1:Hottank dipping
removesthe paint
andrust.
2:Here is theframe
beingcoated.
3:Shinyfork yokes
arefitted to the
newly-coated fr ame.
4:Thebeginningofthe
assembly,alwaysan
insp iringtime.
5:Fork sliderspolished
andbrake platesorted.
REBUILD
that goesbackonnow is therefor keeps.This is a
restoration but there will be oneobvious deviation
from standard, as the forkyokes willbe polished alloy
rather thanpaintedblue –myapologies to the purists
but Icouldn’t deal with the minframe colour... far too
1980sfor me.
An hour onthepolishingmachine has freshened
up theyokes leaving themgleaming and Ifigure
that should anyfutureownerwant to paint themit
wouldn’tbeabig ta sk.The steeringhead bearings
proved to be nasty butat£30 foranewpair itwasnot
abank-breaker toswap them out.Aside from that the
front endrebuildhasbeen adream –when stripped to
be cleaned internally, thehardchrome fork legs proved
to be inperfect condition and the dampercomponents
insidewere clean andundamaged.
The alloyforklowershad survivedremarkably well
and I’dusuallyget going with polishingamachine,but
on this occasionIdidn’t want to riskover-polishing the
lovely cast-in SWM logos. Instead,Idid them the hard
way, starting with strips of 280 grit emerywrapped
aroundthelegstoremove thedeeper scratches,
thenworking with pads ofred, green and thengrey
Scotchbriteon theeasytodamage areas, onlyusing
themachine on smooth parts.
Acoupleof gougeswere toodeeptoremove
completely but Ihavegot most out and after thefinal
buffthe remnantsof this damage is al most impossible
to see. Re-assembled andfilled with 10wtoil,theyare
nowfunctioning smoothly, and have beenslipped
into theyokes with fresh cap headbolts forthefinal
as-newtouch.
Afterweeksofagonisingabout the wheels, I
chopped the spokes out, as theyneededreplacing
anyway,restoredthe hubsand then took the whole
lot to Central Wheel Components for someunbiased
guidance.After inspecting themtheir sage advice
was... If the machinewasgoing to be fortrials use
only, the original and slightlybatteredrims could
potentiallybeokay. But ifIwas consideringroad use
theywerefar from straight -eno ugh.As theSWM is
road registeredImade thedecisiontoleave thewheels
thereand openthewallettohavethe hubs laced into
fresh Akront rims with stainless-steel double-butted
spokestofinish the job properly.Whilethe wheels
were awayIsent allthe brakeshoestoVilliers Services
to have trials-grade,oversized linings bonded to them,
as Idid onmy Beamish Suzuki.The difference it made
wasmassive and at afractionover£40 for thelot. Not
adifficultdecision!
Whenthe wheels came backtheylooked incredible,
and therewas nowayIwould put the eons-old tyres
backontothe shinynew rimsso I’ve gone forafresh
set of rubber .Mychoice?Atotal no-brainer.Apair of
Michelins, not onlyare theythe periodfitment for the
SWMJumbo,but alsoadamned good trials tyre.
Although the wheels andtyreshavebeen the most
expensive parts of the entirerebuild.IamsogladI
went for it... She’sgettingthere!■CJPowderCoatings
JacksonPlace,Humberston,GrimsbyDN 364 AS
Tel: 01472211222
■CentralWheelComponents(Birmingham)
8 - 9 StationRoad,Coleshill,BirminghamB 461 HT
Tel: 01675462264
■J&SEngineeringColwynBay(magnesiumwelding)
Unit 6 ,PhoenixWorkshops,StationRoad,Mochdre,
ColwynBay,Clwyd,LL 285 EF
Tel 01492338266