Rear wheel metal finishing and repair for the 1957 Triumph Freebird Bike.

Getting close to having the metal finishing done on the 1957 Triumph Freebird bike. The majority of parts are at the chrome shop, but some last minute parts still need to be chromed. Because the rim on the rear wheel brake panel was a little banged up and had been plated before (the previous plater probably buffed the steel to the point it is thin and easily bent,) it was replaced with a new one. The replacement was an aftermarket new unit that came painted and appeared to be a decent reproduction at a price of $145.

After stripping and drilling it out, it was obvious that the wheel panel rim was poorly aligned. Perhaps if I had noticed this before touching it, I would have sent it back and searched for a nice original one, but at this point I was committed to figure something out. There is an arm that mostly covers this area to the point it is barely visible on the assembled bike, but it cannot be left like this when so much effort has gone into making the rest of the bike right. When the rim was separated from the plate, none of the surface texture appeared beneath the rim, meaning the texture was from blasting after the parts were assembled, probably to prep for paint.

The spot-welds on the rim were drilled out and the rim rotated to align it better, but there was no way to make it fit correctly around all the posts, so the area around the threaded post seen at the top of the picture was ground a little to make it look right. Looking into the drilled holes on the rim, you can see how far off the rim was rotated from the backing plate.

After welding and grinding, it is as if nothing was ever done. The added benefit to separating the ring from the plate was that it was easier to polish out the sand-blast texture with the ring removed, and that after welding, there are no divots from the spot-welds present.

Once again, a brand new Triumph Bonneville rear wheel brake drum fresh out of the box. This will be sent to chrome, but needs polishing.

The drum was first put on the lathe, and a considerable wobble could be seen on the rear surface while the machined inner side ran straight and true. After it was evened up, the surfaces were worked to get the remainder of the drum smoothed out and polished. Around the five o’clock on the drum there is an area of casting inclusions that will need filling.

An alloy head from a 1962 pre unit is being rebuilt for this build, but a frozen exhaust spigot needed removing. After three weeks soaking in kerosene punctuated by half a dozen heatings with a torch, there was zero movement. The answer was to take a dremel cutting wheel and score the inner part of the tube. By going just deep enough, small pieces could be removed with a pounding from above without hitting the fragile threads of the head. This was tricky, taking a couple hours, but the only other methods would involve the possibility of thread damage and the need to machine them again…not something you want to do if you don’t have to.

The outer rim and first part of the port took a little damage, but that is easily dressed down. The threads are still crisp and the spigot screws in snuggly. The head was given a complete valve job with new guides pressed in.

The gear box adjuster for tensioning the primary chain was missing on this bike, so an NOS set of the needed parts was purchased and polished up in preparation of chrome plating.

Wire brushing all threads, bead blasting bigger parts, all in preparation for cadmium plating.

Just like the gear shift shaft seen in the previous post, there was a lot of rust and pitting on the shifter guide plate. In the search for a new one, a lot of used pre-unit transmission parts was found that had two shift shaft quadrants and a guide plate for the price of what you have to pay for just the repop plate. The original shift shaft quadrant also had some severe pitting where the springs are perched and some smashed splines. The shifter fit over the splines just fine, but appearance-wise it needed changing. The spring perches, shaft surfaces and splines look great on the new shafts and these are evidently from a later model than what was in the original tranny, with a groove for an o-ring cut into it.

1957 Triumph Freebird going for plating and polishing, custom brass footpegs, and hardware rehab.

The table of parts getting ready to head off for chrome plating and polishing. The aluminum parts minus the engine cases are going for polishing, and the steel parts are going for chrome. A lot of the parts have been stripped of chrome, some polished out, but there is still a ton of work here for the plater and polisher to do.

Besides documenting the parts for the plater, it is a good reference to have for assembly.

I contemplated and even had a couple suggestions to do nickel plate on the frame, but just not so sure the difference between the nickel and other parts that will be chrome (like wheel rims and forks) would look as good as all chrome. Still time to change my mind, but for now it will be chrome.

Can’t wait to see this polished out…especially by someone else. This will mark the first time ever to send aluminum polishing out. For the last thirty plus years, I have always done my own polishing, but now trying something a little different. Having jobs like this done will give me an idea what the job is worth. Even with all the prep on these parts there are hours to go on them.

The oil vapor catch-can bracket finally had a small plate welded on to allow it to be mounted with rivets.

Held in place by some Cleco fasteners to test the fit.

The original footpeg brackets were modified to accept some brass foot rests.

After the top was ground flat, holes were drilled and tapped, and the sides widened by welding.

During the process of matching up the surfaces. Looks like this one needs a little more welding.

Did half a dozen different sketch-outs for the tread pattern. Squares or rectangles will get the nod most likely.

Rehab for some original cheese-head screws. These screws usually get replaced by socket-head screws, as was the case with the Freebird engine, but the original look has a more vintage vibe. They are also costly, with some vendors asking as much as fifteen bucks a screw! Although some are Posi-drive heads, most of them are Phillips and can be made to look a little bit better with a couple quick techniques.

A piece of steel with a 1/4” hole is laid across a gap in the vise and the screw placed in the hole and hammered. It is amazing how just a couple medium blows can push the buggered-out parts back down. Next, a number 3 JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) cross screwdriver is hammered good and hard into the head to even up the edges a little. JIS screwdrivers are different from Phillips, with flate sides on the vanes of the tip. Phillips vanes are slanted to make them “cam out” when they reach the appropriate torque.

After the hammering steps, they get chucked up in the drill and run against the belt sander for a couple seconds.

This is the type thing that makes working with a sixty year old bike a bit of a challenge. The transmission shift shaft was severely pitted, but otherwise functioning just fine. To repair it, the shaft was ground down to fresh steel , welded and ground back down to the right level.

Chucking it up in the lathe allowed it to be taken to the right level. This is the after of the same surface.

Aluminum finishing case halves, Webco bits, and Joe Hunt Magneto for the 1957 Triumph Freebird build.

Getting into the engine on the 1957 Triumph Freebird project. The side covers were matched up on the primary, clock case engine case halves and transmission covers. The rough original castings do not match from the factory, with differences on the mating surfaces that have to be evened up. This work needs to be done with the halves bolted together, so it was done prior to disassembly.

There are two covers on the tranny, stacked on each other. I wish there were some before pics of this. The lines between the cases are almost invisible. The casting lines and rough texture will also be polished out. The reason this was done at this stage was to get the parts needing chrome and cadmium plating off the tranny and engine.

Getting the case halves and clock case covers evened up. There is a flare on the middle motor mount that will not be evened out, leaving it as a place to pound when splitting the case halves. A simple engine stand was made to get this part of the job done.

Some of the before ugliness. The flare on the case half on the right side is easy to see in this picture.

The clock case cover all evened up.

Still getting the chrome parts prepped prior to plating. Sometimes you get a pleasant surprise. The original plating was flaking off, revealing a brass fixture and some copper plating left from the plating process. With all the brass going on this bike, it will be left as-is.

Getting ready to send this vintage Joe Hunt Magneto back to California for a factory rebuild. Though the patina is beautiful, it will be refinished to show quality aside from the original Bakelite cover.

The rear brake plate on the rotary table getting ready for some speed holes.

A couple vintage Webco pieces to choose from for the rocker oiler. The arched one in the back will replace the one that originally came with the bike.

The back of the original primary cover and some of the chain rash. The other cover in the background will be used in its place.

One last thing. One of the interesting things to take notice of is the progress of the manufacturing process. On the original 1957 cover (the bottom one in the picture,) there are some gouges on the bottom where it meets up with the frame. In the later cover, there are recesses cast in to overcome this defect. There is also a notch cut into the chain guard that was not on the original cover…not sure why that mod was made.