The New Saddle Arrives

Well the new saddle has now arrived, it is a close copy of the original Lycett, quite nicely finished and looks the part when offered up to the bike frame.

It came with a pair of new support springs but these have only half of the number of turns of the originals and have a very “stretched out” look to them so they will not be used as they “do not look right”.

When I went to bolt on the support brackets to the saddle frame I found that the copy was not as close as it might be, since the mounting hole centres in the brackets were about 1mm closer together than those on the saddle, but a little work with a rat-tail file and all was well.

Then, once the brackets were bolted up it was obvious that they were not parallel to each other but were splayed, so I gripped them one at a time in the vice, applied a little pressure to the saddle frame to bring them into line and the new saddle is now mounted in place (well, I’ve still to bolt the support springs to it but that’s all).

With the current foul weather all I’ve got done with the paint job is  to rub down the front hub, which is now ready to receive its top coats before it goes to the wheel-builder.

I’ve also rubbed the tank down but it still needs a bit of work before it gets its top coats, there are still a couple of scars visible through the primer.

I was hoping to get away with giving it just a heavy coat  of spray-on primer/filler but it looks like I’ll need a spot of filler on the scarring, rub it down flush and then another coat of the primer and rub it down again before the topcoats go on.

For a 1937/38 bike the tank should be finished in chrome plate with cream side panels but the tank I have has suffered the ravages of the dreaded tin-worm and is corrosion pitted. By the time these pits were polished out the tank metal would be thinner than I like for a fuel tank so rather than try to re-chrome it I’m going to use the older colour scheme of a dark green tank with light green panels. I will however use the 1937 tank logo of the Panther head rather than the Leaping Panther of the earlier models.

Working on the tank has revealed another problem, the fuel tap.

This tank has only one outlet so you need a tap with a built-in reserve, the one fitted is the old flat slide “Hexag – ON” type and is beyond redemption,

Easy enough, these are still listed both with and without reserve, that is until you look closer and find that P & M, in their ineffable wisdom, have used a tank boss to take a 1/8 inch BSP tap body.

The normal taps have a 1/4 BSP body which will not fit and as it’s a smaller tank thread you cannot use an adaptor bushing!.

I’ve tracked ONE supplier who lists this tap with a reserve lever, all the others only have the 1/4inch version or the 1/8inch tap WITHOUT a reserve, and of course the 1/8inch tap is twice the price of the 1/4inch one, I’ve had to push this old lady once through running out of fuel and I’ve no intention of doing it again!, that’s how I know the current tap is buggered.

So I got onto that supplier, only to be told it was out of stock and they did not know when they’d have any more in, Typical!.

It’s beginning to look like I’ll have to modify the tank mount to take the standard tap!.