The main frame is in good condition although the black paint is badly chipped and showing many areas of pink primer. I rashly decided to srtip it chemically, a decision I greatly regretted as it took nearly a week of intermittent work until I had the main frame fairly clean. The black paint gave up easily to the cheap stripper I had but the undercoat was very resistant and needed Nitromors. Some parts such as the engine plates I stripped mechanically.
Parts partially stripped.
As noted before, the chain stays had been cut at the wheel end and had lost the mountings for the rear stand. I set to with the trusty angle grinder and a piece of 8mm plate and carved out two pieces using a wheel lug from a Model 100 rigid as a pattern. These were drilled and tapped for two tubes to mount the stand, and two pieces for the stand rubbers were turned and trimmed to fit. The parts were then assembled and welded together by ace welder Rex.
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| Rear stand fittings. |
The sidecar fitting present on the right hand chainstay appeared to be brazed in and was immovable. I cut off the ball and drilled out the rest using increasing sizes of drill until I could drive out the thin wall of metal remaining, ending up with the original hole undamaged. There is no thread in the twin down-tube frames unlike the later rigids.
At a Solent Section meeting, the first I had been to for a year, someone mentioned a local powder-coater who came well recommended for being quick and cheap. I packed all the bits into a box and went over there on the Monday. I had it all back clean and beautiful on the Wednesday for a cost of £80, an absolute bargain.
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| Powder coated, all this for £80 in 3 days! |
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| New rear stand mount. |
.Although lacking many parts I decided to start on repairing the Cycle Parts that I had to hand, namely the mudguards. The rear one, an Indian pattern one, was new and unused so this needed nothing more than a quick rub down. The front one, donated by Rex, was cracked and had a few spare holes so these were patched using my limited ability with the gas welding set. The tinware was then sprayed with cellulose primer followed by top coat which was matched to a green panel on the petrol tank. The label on the tin says this is a Lada colour, but so what!
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| Tinware in Lada green. |
I calculated the radius of the rear mudguard using a program on the internet and set it up in the frame at the right distance from the centre of the axle using the lifting loop and the lower front cross fixing as fixed points. This enabled me to measure the length of stays required and these were made from half inch diameter steel tube. The ends were crushed in the vice against a shaped steel block to give the correct transition from round to flat. I used a similar process for the front stays.
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| Mudguard stays, front and rear. |
As these girders are a bit odd Pantherwise I only had three fixing pints for the headlamp stays so I made these to suit from half inch diameter steel tubing.
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| Headlamp stays. |
Other sundry parts that needed making were a rear mudguard to frame bracket with cleats for the CVC unit, a speedo bracket, front brake cable stop, steering damper stop and a top bracket for the front mudguard.
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| Sundry parts. |
I had no footrest parts so used those on my 1936 M100 as patterns. Whilst I could cut and bend plate and turn bar the serrated ends that bear on the engine plates are more difficult. I made these by cutting and turning a pair of inner footrest brackets from a post-war heavyweight and the parts were welded up by the indefatigable Rex. Finally all these bits were powder-coated black.
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| Footrest parts |
I needed some tool boxes and as these are hard to find and expensive I decided to have a go at making a pair. Sherb kindly lent me an original box for this model of Panther.
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| Original toolbox. |
The main problem for my limited ability working with sheet metal was the front around the lid. This has a joggle for the lid, is curved along the top and has a return on all sides. Easy with dies and a press, less so by hand, so I broke it down (figuratively) into separate parts I could form from strip. Firstly though, I needed a bender so I turned to Youtube and made a simple roller bender.
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Roller bender
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This enable me to curve the strip for the top and I cut pieces for the sides and the returns of the front. Using 1mm thick sheet I cut a long length to cover the top, bottom and sides in one piece providing a joggle for the lap joint on the underside. I assembled a wooden former from layers of plywood screwed together and used this to form the returns on the back for attaching the long strip. For the front I welded the prebent and cut strips together and cut a lid from 2mm sheet. The whole lot was then soldered together and clips sourced from Ebay riveted on.
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Toolbox parts, top and sides strip, wooden former, lid, back. strips
for the front and the hinge. |
I was quite pleased with the result but then had to do it all again to make the second one, bearing in mind that they are handed.
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| Completed box.before painting. |
As noted before I had a set of girder forks with this machine which, although clearly not the same as Panther ones, appear to be Webbs. The basic girder and the yokes are sound and have been powder coated. The distance between the upper and lower spindles on the girder was quite a bit more than on the set fitted to my 1936 Panther so I made some suitable spacers for the headstock. these keep the links more or less parallel. Head races and balls I had to hand. I had replaced the top links and made a new set of spindles using EN24 steel. Luckily the yokes and girder appeared to be unworn at the pivots. I also sorted out the friction damper using a knob I found in a box of bits.
The spring was too long and had to be cut down in length slightly. I roughly measured the spring rate using a bathroom scale in my hydraulic log splitter which gave a value of about 100 pounds per inch. With a load at the front wheel on my M100 of 200 lbs I cut the spring so that the links were roughly level at two inch deflection.
