Hmm think your right , I am lucky in that my brother has an engineering business and has a powder coat facility so makes it tempting as free. I may just prime it in powder as he has some good Zink rich primer that flats off nicely and then wet top coat . I hadnt realised until earlier that you had a 69 ! and it looks lovely if mine turns out like that I will be really pleased . I am learning more daily about the 69 and read earlier that the horns are hard to come by , and guess what mine are toast ! I had a closer inspection and they are prety shot . On a good news front I may have got lucky as found some replacement sliders which hopefully will arrive soon so pleased with that .
These are my my old sliders , you can see the splits . I havent taken the stantions out yet as seized solid . Thinking is I could do with the nuts off the bottom stations and shuttle valves or are the valves aluminium and likely to be shot so better skipping them and just buying new rather than spend an age trying to get the blighters out.
I’ve restored a couple of 1970’s Japanese bikes and I’ve always avoided powdercoating, the frames were originally wet painted and IMO look so much better repainted rather than powder coated.
Thats settled it if I can't get them apart in 5 mins or less with an angle grinder they will add to my scrap pile , kind of curious to see whats in there . Btw Darkman , did you have a build thread for your 69 ? I couldnt see one for the bike itself , Thanks Hamburg , I am going to the Bristol bike show this weekend and planning on looking at a lot of restored bikes and asking if what finish they have on their frames if its not obvious . I do get the look of wet paint though.
It was done before i started going on forums lol, i only started using computers 14/15 years ago and only joined forums etc in the last 10 or so as i gave up work to look after our parents as they all req care in there old age so had time on my hands, the internet/forums have saved me from going mad lol.
Ah ok , most admirable. Would have been a great reference resource no doubt ! Hoping to get some inspiration and pick up a few bits for the bike this weekends bike show . Some rims would be a nice find . I did note there is one on fleabay for £69 I guess thats the going rate , I was wondering the price for rechroming
Prices vary for chroming from 1 to 300 per rim so phone around, numbers on rims are MB11 W1230 for WM2 19" front and MB10 W1007 WM3 18" rear.
I need to get some chrome work done for an MGA I am working on so will have a good ring around for prices , At the Bristol classic yesterday I was quoted £160 a rim plus vat so quite pricey when I could just get some new rims from £65 but on the other hand it would be nice in the long run to have originals , oh the dilemma . I did however score a better prospect of a cylinder head , the one that came with the bike had been clearly swapped probably just prior to import . Clues being the loose bolts , one valve head missing and looking at the piston crowns it hadn’t mashed these crowns . I did that ! Also it had a 68 stamp . My new one is a 69 ! Ideal . £150 was paid but it does need new seats which is ok .
I spent way more than five mins cutting up my sliders this morning after realizing there was the possibility of saving some internals , I did save the Stanton nuts so saved £20 but may have made a balls up! last night I looked on my parts diagram and it looked like essentially the stantions are the only things in the sliders , I was expecting to see some shuttle valves and the plastic damper bits but I seem to on one leg cut through a steel bar inside the Stanton which is held in place by an Allen bolt in the base of slider . I got the Allen bolt undone on the one I cut the end off but the other is pretty fecked with rust and need replacing . A thing to note is my stantions were extra long chopper style , there were no shuttle valves to be seen but I did see some plastic damper tube things
I am starting to wonder if I have the right parts diagram or they were a fork set up from something else ! I cant seem to find that metal rod on any diagram .
Below is the part diagram I have , it shows no metal rod/damper also no long spring that goes in stantions that mine had just large diameter that goes under gaiter . Is this the set up on your 69 Darkman ?
Yes the diagram is correct for 69, if your old forks had springs inside this was a common mod back in the day for a clean look fork leg
Ah ok , thanks , not familiar with triumph forks or any other for that matter . So with a bit more reading tonight and great help here the earlier T120's had internal stantion springs with a more complicated /heavier dampers . The later had external springs as per my diagram . I am now a little worried about the replacement sliders I bought but yet to be delivered , after reading there may be two lengths available and secondly do they have same bolt hole arrangement in the base and are they interchangeable between models . Probably worrying too much , soon see I guess.
