I completed lots of little jobs over summer, including rebuilding the engine with new piston, bearings, gaskets and 12v (rather than the original 6v) ignition. It also got a very expensive new crankshaft, since I had mistakenly beaten the crap out of the threads on the old one during disassembly. I have since invested in a rubber mallet.
The bodywork was media blasted, welded and painted in a slightly-ironic shade of 'RAF Blue-Grey' by Tony at Bodytone. I think it suits the bike's shape really well.
Jelly at the Phirm put fresh metal back into the severely rusted seat pan after my own welding efforts went severely awry. Meanwhile, I replaced the scary tetanus-arse-jab rusted and cracked shards of seat spring for good, solid blocks of composite foam, with an inch of lighter-duty foam on top. The seat pan will be powdercoated silver before it goes on the bike.
I spent three full days crouched in the snow, contemplating the new wiring loom before finally getting to to work. I still don't have a battery that will fit the tray - that comes with the next (and hopefully last) order of parts from Germany.
The tank got a coating of POR-15 tank seal. Seems like good stuff.
So with the engine and wiring loom fitted to the frame, I started work on getting it running. After some initial problems with an air-tight filler cap restricting flow to the carb, it fired and ran: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzau3TQpi5o
