Honda PC50 1970

A real spur of the moment purchase this one! Although it's turing out to be something of a bargain... eBay spares or repair, bought for £58! Having looked at it, the condition is too original to restore, yes there are some rust spots on the paint, but it seems to be cleaning up well & has the feel of a well cared for old bike... Restoration would spoil that effect... Possibly...

It's currtentl partly dismantled as it had to be made to fit in the car! As it's on a 'J' plate it'll be tax free too, which will be a bonus for the lucky buyer... should we decide to sell that is!
Having spent a few hours cleaning I can confirm this little bike has survived remarkably well & I'm looking at preservation as opposed to restoration...
There is a problem, however, there is no spark, the HT coil is fine, the points look OK... current thinking is pointing to the low tension coil behind the flywheel...

Sandwich Windmill

Good progress this Sunday, the pictures pretty much tell the story....
The tank was seperated from the bund which was cleaned out (smelly) & contained a surprising number of snails (why would they want to live in there?). What little oil was left in the tank was pumped out & photos were taken of the damage with a view to getting it repaired.

This later turned out to be far from cost-effective!
We are now back to thinking round the problem further, one only hopes the thieves have spent the few pounds they would have recieved from the oil they stole wisely? I would hate to think that we've been put to all this trouble for nothing!!!

The hoist in the workshop proved really useful again as we seperated the tanks...

The camera inside the tank (above), the blue hose is from the pump

Later in the morning materials for the repair of the cap were delivered, two pieces of Elm, cut for the ribs or curb & one piece of oak. The winch was used again!

Sandwich White Mill

Before we could do much more we need to move the old tank which had been damaged by the thieves who stole the oil. The pictures tell the story of what was about an hours work...
We now need to empty out the last of the oil & work out what to do next... repair? replace? new? used? siting? screening? security?

Stationary Engines at Sandwich White Mill

The Mill hosted a Stationary Engine group this morning....

Some turrned wooden items made by one of the volunteers for sale in the Museum shop

Krys' Garage

Should have had the official, & long awaited "topping out" ceremony today as the last of the ridge pieces went on. We only had enough of the proper stuff for just over half the roof but managed to find a piece of "U" section coated steel which was wide enough for me to cut down with an angle grinder to give two pieces of to cover the rest of the ridge.













and on Sunday we almost completed the cladding, rigged up a solar panel to charge some batteries & covered the two windows we are still need to find glass for...

Honda CB125s '74

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I guess its about time this one made its debut on here... a cool little seventies throwback... a Honda CB125s.

Originally another ebay local bargain, pretty much complete, except for the R/H side panel & a couple of other minor bits... but with bent front forks... a problem that was solved by rebuilding the forks using the stanchons from the early CG125 (they're the same).

The bike has had a copmlete strip down over the past couple of years (including the engine... several times!) the frame etc were stripped back & re-painted, but it was decided to leave the tank... it gives it the look of a cared for old bike... or was it because I couldn't trust myself to get the stickers back on acurately?!!

It first returned to the road late '11 but soon suffered a siezed big-end bearing for no apparent reason? We assumed at at some point during its "hibernation" water had sat in the crankcase & corroded the surface of the crank pin...
However, a replacement was sourced & fitted... only for the gasket between the two havles of the crankcase to leak... that was duly replaced & now it leaks at the cylinder base gasket... a new one is standing by, but the leak doesnt seem too bad for now so I'll just monitor the oil level for a bit... can't face taking the engine out again just yet!

..

Waiting in the evening sunshine....

Summer 13

The time came to finally get round to investigating the oil leak at the base of the cylinder...

At some point in its history someone had clumsily tried to remove the barrel by driving a screwdriver between it & the crankcase.... The result was damage to the lower face of the cylinder allowing oil to escape as it gets pumped up to the valve gear via the rear right stud passage way.

Although aftermarket cylinder/piston/ring sets are available, I've yet to find them for sale in UK.... In the meantime I decided to try to machine out the damage, the barrel was mounted in the lathe & a couple of light cuts taken...

It looked ok, so the engine is now being re assembled with new gaskets from Thailand, it remains to be seen if there is enough clearance between the piston & valves or if two cylinder base gaskets will be needed...

Sandwich White Mill

The Mill now has a useful little shredder which will mean we'll be able to recycle all our green waste on-site, removing the need to drive to the tip!
An ebay local bargain...I must admit, however, to feeling slightly nervous when I read that it had a two-stroke engine (aka the machine of the devil) but it was demonstrated before money changed hands & started first pull when I tried it... result!

Krys' garage

 Another reasonably productive weekend... & there's still another day to go!

The main doors got started on Saturday, all the mortices & tenons cut... Sunday morning saw one door glued up with the lipping pinned around the inside to fix the cladding onto. By the end of Sunday afternoon it was hinged & the lower half clad with the remains of the old shed roof!

 

 The Fiesta still runs & was having its tyres pumped up before being tested up the track a couple of times... all seemed ok so it was moved outside to allow the tractor to be moved into the garage to sort the drive belt & fit the float to the carb (when it arrives from the US!)