Frame Restoration

[Steve Little]

Ive just been busted by my wife.
Its Good Friday here, and I wandered out to the workshop...(I guess its a bit of a habit) and shes come alookin for me and isnt taking "No" for an answer.
We are off on a camping trip for a week so I will complete the frame then

Hope everyone has a safe and happy easter with family and freinds.

[Steve Little]

Lauries frame 002.JPG Our standard Bullneck
We have modified one of our standard Bullnecks to assimalte the look of the early Bullnecks.
I think these early bullnecks that did not have the extra metal behind the bearing cup have confused a lot of people into thinking they are the early neck.
Most people look for the extra metal to identify a Bullneck.
The best way to identify a earlier frame is to measure the total elongated area at the botom of the neck.
Bullneck is 2 3/4" (70mm) and 41-46 frame is about 2 3/8" (60mm)

[Steve Little]

46 frame resto 028.JPG
After a little blending with the die grinder it looks like this. For the life of me I coudnt find the 5/16 unef tap to drill and tap the grease nipple hole so I will do that later. A good roughing up by the sandblaster and a coat of paint, and I believe the customer will be happy.
It looks a bit skinny on the ribs in this picture but it looks normal to the eye. Must be the angle or the wifes camera lense.

[Steve Little]

Then weld and linish/blend to assimalte original look. The guy who does the sandblasting can be instructed to give this smooth area a good going over.
Not realy sure how to orient these pictures into the correct lineup but you get the idea

[Robert Luland]

Keep it coming Steve. It's great stuff, Bob L

[Steve Little]

46 frame resto 029.JPG Here is a picture of the repaired spigot.
Next job is to repair the seat post bush area that had the top section cut off.
I turned down a peice of thick walled pipe to the correct dimension of the top of an original seat post cluster.
I bored the inside to accept the bush. Normaly the tube would come up through here but I will bore it for the bush.

[Steve Little]

I knurled a piece of tube and cut out a section to repair the missing piece of the spigot. I put a nice V on each end of the repair piece for weld penetration, and then slipped a piece on 1 ˝ tube over the snout of the spigot to hold it in place while I tacked it in place with the TIG welder.
Appologies for the picture quality. The old shop camera is not the best...and to be truthful, even with my glasses on, I cant tell if its a good picture in the view screen until I load it up to the laptop.

[Steve Little]

The seat post cluster has been severely modified during the frame’s chopper stage.
My guess is that, the top half of the backbone spigot, backbone and the top section of the seat post cluster has been cut off to achieve a flat surface for the base of a chopper seat or a metal plate could be welded to this section so that body filler could be smeared over the area for the sanitary look that was favoured at the time.

Whoever has tried to recover this frame for the re-assembly of the bike, has welded a piece of seat post tube to the top of the cluster to support the piece of seat post bush that would have been sticking out of the top.
The tube looked odd without the casting around it so we have removed the bush and cut the extension tube off.

[exeric]

Looking forward to it Steve. I always learn a lot from your knowledgable experience, and well researched observations.

[Steve Little]

Hi. We are about to start a new frame restoration, and I thought it would compliment the information of the restoration we did last year.
This is mostly, a front half restoration so we will be brazing on a neck and fitting sidecar loops etc.
After a couple of phone discussions on procedures, the owner decided he had the skills to pull the frame apart but after doing this, he decided, he did not have the proper equipment/jig to ensure the correct alignment during re assembly.
He has done a good job of disassembling the frame and the following shots show where this frame has suffered at the hands of the demon chopper guys at some time in the past.
The owner wants the frame restored to original specs, and I will document the repair and re-assembly of the frame as we proceed.

[Steve Little]

I have been curious about the "Forward Sweep" Is there any factory documentation in the form of a blueprint, drawing or repair manual instuction? The common Knuck/Flat repair manual only shows instuction for checking the fork with a rod through the stem hole aligning with the rocker stud holes. I have seen early NOS forks that do not show curve. Does anyone have a spec for the forward sweep?

Kyle. You have PM.

[DANPATCH]

Bull neck frame

What was the serial number for the Bull Neck frame Thanks Steve

[exeric]

I've had 3 or 4 early forks and they all had the forward cant or sweep. I recall seeing a drawing Steve Little posted of the dimensions he has documented. Oddly enough, I never noticed it until Peter Reeves pointed it out to me. So much for my powers of observation.

[koanes]

I have been curious about the "Forward Sweep" Is there any factory documentation in the form of a blueprint, drawing or repair manual instuction? The common Knuck/Flat repair manual only shows instuction for checking the fork with a rod through the stem hole aligning with the rocker stud holes. I have seen early NOS forks that do not show curve. Does anyone have a spec for the forward sweep?

[Steve Little]

The rear leg of 1936-1940 springers have a forward sweep in them.
The 1941- early 1946 are a ( true) inline springer. If you stand back and look at a foreword sweep you will see it.