Once the rim had been prepared it and the new painted hub were taken back to John at North East Wheelbuilders to be built up into a complete wheel.

A little over a week later I received a call to tell me it was ready to pick up so it was back to John’s to collect it.

Job now was to apply the coachlines around the painted centre of the rim.

A couple of 4 inch lengths of 2 inch square timber were sorted out and a groove and a hole were made in both.

This allowed me to place the wheel between the open jaws of the Workmate with the axle resting on either jaw. The timbers were then placed with the groove over the axle and a bolt passed through both the hole and one of the holes in the Workmate’s top and the timber pulled down tight onto the top of the Workmate.

Now it was a simple job to place a paint-laden lining brush against the rim and gently turn it so as to leave the required coachline on both sides of the wheel.

Once the lines had dried out a coat of laquer was applied over them.

All that was needed now was to fit a tyre and tube.

According to the book, a 1937 Model 100 Panther wears a 3.25 x 19 inch tyre front and rear.

First thought was an Avon Speedmaster on the front and an SM MkII on the rear. Further thought said to fit an SM both front and rear as I intend to use this girl both as a solo and hauling the Steib S350 I currently have on the R12 and the Speedmaster is not a good tyre for the front of an outfit.

Problem arose on checking the websites when I found that the SM is no longer available as a  3.25 x 19.

I found that I could get a Mitas tyre, intended for front or rear fitment, on which a package deal was offered of tyre, rim-tape and inner-tube so it was a case of order it up and await delivery.

Last thing was to sort out the speedo drive.

Unlike more modern bikes this is taken from a gear-wheel threaded onto the bearing boss in the front brake hub.

This meshes with a gear on a right-angle drive that screws into a socket on the front brakes backplate.

First thing was to fit the new gear-wheel I’d got from the Owners Cub spares scheme.

This has an internal thread which matches the one on the outside of the bearing boss.

Now the old gear had been removed back when I started this rebuild in the 1980‘s and the  thread on the boss was gummed up with it having been taped over when I sprayed the hub so I wasn’t too surprised when I couldn’t get the thread to start, so it was down to clean out the thread with solvent and small “toothbrush” type wire brush.

It still wouldn’t pick up the thread, I must have spent a good quarter hour cleaning and re-cleaning the fine pitch threads on the boss and the gear when suddenly light broke through!.

The brake-plate and so the drive are on the right-hand side of the bike. This means that the drag from the drive would tend to unscrew the gear from the hub!

So I tried it the other way and the thread picked up straight away. It was a Left-hand thread!
I could have kicked myself for not realising it sooner.

Then it was just a case of measuring how far the gear-wheel was in from the brake-plate and screwing the right-angle drive box far enough into its socket to get the gears to mesh properly and the job was done and the wheel ready to fit.