John Player Special restoration project

grandpaul · Dec 31, 2015

htown16 said:
I just finished stripping down a bunch of sub assemblies, forks, wheels, bottom end, gear box, brakes, so I could inspect them and order parts. ...the parts are all shiney clean right now and new bits are making their way here through the postal system.

I know you have a project thread, where are all the photos?

hee hee

htown16 · Dec 31, 2015

Photo's will be forth coming.

grandpaul · Jan 1, 2016

Rear fender rehab day. This is the bottom left tail light bracket hole "before"

Bottom left tail light bracket hole "after"

Front mount hole "before"

Front mount hole "after"

grandpaul · Jan 1, 2016

Upper front mount holes "before"

Upper front mount holes "after"

Rear hoop holes "before"

Rear hoop holes "after". Darn rust JUST got under the chrome in a few tiny spots. I'll touch them up with a small paintbrush and some Rust-O-Leum metallic silver paint.

grandpaul · Jan 1, 2016

Done with "stage 1"; next will be chrome polish

Inside was semi-scruffy, now spiffy clean

Next: chrome polish & elbow grease...

grandpaul · Jan 1, 2016

Quick tip - before tapping the swingarm spindle into the tranny cradle, insert a long bolt into each hole and align them

After aligning the bolts, remove them and tap gently with a rubber mallet till the spindle just meets face-to-face withe the outer face of the bushing

Not too bad on the alignment. Just rotate the swingarm a bit, and it SHOULD align perfectly. Then, insert the lock bolt

grandpaul · Jan 1, 2016

If you are handling the tranny cradle and swingarm solo, it makes it MUCH easier to spread the frame just a touch so that the assembly slips right in and lets you easily wiggle it to get the through-bolt in place.

Just waiting on the cad plated stuff to properly bolt it up and give it the pre-final adjustment.

Remember, the rubber booties go on BEFORE you offer the sub-assembly up to the frame. Notice the boot on the right (left side of bike) is left pushed back to allow access to the adjuster holes.

Progress!

grandpaul · Jan 1, 2016

Shocks looked pretty sad, but the dampers had not leaked and they have good compression and rebound damping.

Yanked the springs, stripped the bodies and eyes, gave them a nice shot of Rust-O-Leum glossy black and set 'em to bake a while under dual 500 watt work lights

"It just so happens" that I had a spare set of new NJB shocks on the shelf with the same length springs, so that was a no-brainer.

grandpaul · Jan 1, 2016

Ahhhh... MUCH better!

Just temporarily bolted in place with plain hardware, till the cad plated stuff gets here next week.

Not a bad day today.

grandpaul · Jan 2, 2016

Postman arrived today with my rod bearing shells and missing crank stud. Now the bottom end can go back together!

I KNOW as soon as I torque the case bolts, I'll find that *&^%$#@ missing stud!!!

Paddy_SP · Jan 2, 2016

Superb - keep it coming!

o0norton0o · Jan 2, 2016

grandpaul said:
Quick tip - before tapping the swingarm spindle into the tranny cradle, insert a long bolt into each hole and align them

After aligning the bolts, remove them and tap gently with a rubber mallet till the spindle just meets face-to-face withe the outer face of the bushing

Not too bad on the alignment. Just rotate the swingarm a bit, and it SHOULD align perfectly. Then, insert the lock bolt

GP, Are you committed to a totally stock restoration? would a pair of kegler clamps or a late model cradle be considered a chance to improve handling or a bastardization of a restoration?

I can totally relate to cash rushing out of your wallet like a faucet,... I know the feeling. Great resto. Thanks for sharing the pictures. I am reliving my ground up rebuild through your pictures, only it's not costing me thousands of dollars this time..

grandpaul · Jan 2, 2016

o0norton0o said:
Are you committed to a totally stock restoration?

would a pair of kegler clamps or a late model cradle be considered a chance to improve handling or a bastardization of a restoration?

As close as I can.

No clamps needed, the swingarm spindle and tranny tube are a perfect fit with zero slop. The bike only has 5K miles on it.

grandpaul · Jan 4, 2016

Somewhat of a rare occurrence, the postman showed up on our doorstep on Sunday morning!

It was parts back from cad plating. Turns out this new firm I tried produces a more "silvery" color, but it cost 25% more, and it seems there are a total of 7 flat washers and a large star clip (front brake master cylinder boot) missing. Good thing I have spares on the shelf. Time to sort and confirm no/any losses...

Batch 1 of 9

2 of 9

(The 8 isolastic bits are now redundant)

3 of 9

grandpaul · Jan 4, 2016

Batch 4 of 9-

There should be a large star washer / retainer for the master cylinder rubber boot at the lower right, it went missing.

5 of 9

6 of 9

grandpaul · Jan 4, 2016

Batch 7 of 9

8 of 9

Finally, batch 9 of 9

A set of 7 large flat washers should be right of center at the top, they've also gone missing ...

It was a lot of work, but necessary to avoid (expensive) surprises. Now I can order replacements and not lose time.

So, on with it. The chassis should be a roller today, hopefully on new tires (if the shop can get them out by this afternoon).

Paddy_SP · Jan 4, 2016

Superb!

Fast Eddie · Jan 4, 2016

You certainly like laying things out and lining them up GP !

grandpaul · Jan 4, 2016

Fast Eddie said:
You certainly like laying things out and lining them up GP !

You should see the photos with each of those batches and the printouts of the batches "before" (to verify each bloody bit). They are very large for uploading, and harder to see detail, so I skipped them.

Mark · Jan 4, 2016

Clean and organized, that's just how I like it.

I wish that my projects moved along as fast as this, but with a full time job and quite a few different irons in the fire,
Things have steadily slowed to a crawl around here.

Looking good GP, keep it up!