1937 Royal Enfield

Spent today sweating over a hot plasma cutter and TIG welder.
Because I had not found any of the frame rear section I had to make the plates that hold the rear wheel in, with adjustment slots and mountings for the rear guard stays and stand. Using 8mm plate I cut them to what I measured from the axel, what looked right from pictures and what looked right to me. I cut 10mm pieces of 20mm round bar and welded them to the plates for the mudguard mounts and a piece of 16mm bar 20mm long for the chain adjustment mounts. These were TIG welded to the plates and smoothed with a rotary file to make them look finished, then drilled and tapped them.

I tacked the plates to a piece of 16mm bar that I had welded to a mount on the bench in the right position for the rear axel, got them square and made the tubes to run back to the frame. These had one end flattened in the press, drilled and bent to the right curves to fit to the rear plates. I bolted them into place, slipped the doubling tubes over them and welded to the axel mounts.

 

Soon as I take some more photos Moo, been a bit busy lately.

 

Another update.
Made a bit of a miscalculation with the rear wheel spacers. When fitted I found the chain was about 10mm out of alignment. I had to remake the spacers to shift the wheel to the left, but then there was not enough thread on the axel to tighten the nut. I bought a new die ($50, ouch) but the only one I could get in that thread was a 2" one, all my others and holder are 1 1/2". Spent Saturday morning making a new holder, threading the axel, machining spacers, etc.



Right, now I can fit the wheel.



Spent Saturday night listening to Grasshopper on the radio and working out where to put bits.



Loosely fitted some of the new bits today and made a list of bolts for shopping tomorrow.

 

Have a few more pieces welded in today.
Made the outer frame for the rear rack with the mounts for the two side tool boxes to be bolted to. Will remove and fully weld clamped on the bench to keep it straight, and add the cross bars in the rack. Rear mudguard is now bolted in and chain guard fitted.

 

Have finished all the pieces for the rack and rear guard mount. Welded extra piece into chain guard to cover gap between engine and guard.

And the front guard is bolted in and steering stops welded on.

 

Little bit more done in between building other things.

 

Have spent a bit of time doing some of the small fiddly brackets etc.
Turned the end of a piece of 16mm bar and splined to fit a spare brake arm from my YDS-5 250. This is required to bring the brake actuation from the right side of the frame to the left where the brake is.

Spent the weekend making an oil tank to look like the original battery. I turned a thread into a 12mm piece of alloy to take a battery cap from a car battery. This is where I will fill the oil tank from, with an outlet to the pump discreetly located at the bottom. Tank made from 2mm alloy sheet with two 'terminals' welded to top. This will be covered in black stoneguard, the textured stuff used around the bottoms of cars, to give the look of the old style rubber coated batteries. This is mounted in a 1.6mm steel frame, bolted to the bike frame. Have all the muffler bits tacked together ready to be taken off and final welds.

Starting to look like a bike now.

 

If it is any good I was thinking of full rego.

 

I needed somewhere to hide the rectifier as they weren't around in 1937, but also wanted to have something that looked like a 1930's voltage regulator that would have been on the original bike. After getting a new cdi for the Suzuki, I looked at the cdi box and thought it looked like an old style Lucas regulator from the top, so I pulled the guts out of it and fitted the rectifier into it, complete with screw that look like the one that held the Lucas type together. Drilled 1/4" hole in the back engine mounting, cut off one side of the cdi box and fitted. Looks like it was made for it, and have reused something that was a throw away.

 

Ahh, but it's not a custom frame Chris, just a repair/rebuild of an original.
Still using the original head stem with the serial number on it. Besides, there are no records left from 1937 (I've tried to find some with no success) and ADR's didn't start until 1976.