The 1957 Triumph Freebird paint is done, petcock mods, and metal finishing.

The 1957 Triumph Freebird build is moving along, with paint done and parts starting to go back together. Jason Small of Small Time Motors did a flawless job on the paint. He was easy to work with and possesses a wealth of experience and knowledge on the subject of vintage paint colors and schemes. I have seen dozens of his paint jobs on finely restored British and Italian bikes, and the work is always impeccable. When I was sixteen, I had a 1963 Ford Econoline van that I customized and took to a local paint shop. Because the body work I had done was pretty sad, the paint job thrown on top of it sucked too. It took me forty-plus years to finally let someone else paint one of my customs again, but there is so much going on around the shop, it makes sense now. Given the quality of Jason’s work, don’t know if I will ever be able to justify painting one again myself.

Getting the badges mounting tabs took a little time, but digging how they look with the paint. The idea was a vintage color to compliment the other colors, but still keep things minimal and light. There will be a lot of chrome and flake at the Bornfree show, and there is no way to out-flake or out-bling anyone, so this bike went the other way.

The table of finished pieces is growing.

Testing the fit of the tail light. The fenders were a reversal of the usual white stripe on green on traditional Triumph paint schemes.

The rear taper of the tank sows how much it was cut down. Always a big fan of the Slim-Line Triumph tanks and the skinny waist they produce on a bike.

The small details of custom bike building. These are the detente plates for the left petcock, controlling how far and what direction the petcock handle turns. The one on top was made from .050 brass sheet to allow the petcock to open in the opposite direction from stock.

Changing the direction the left petcock opens made it where they could be mounted in a mirror image of each other without hitting the mounting bracket. Of note in this picture is the level of finish Jason routinely gives his paint jobs, with the underside finished as nicely as the top side.

in place now, the opposed handles give a symmetry to the petcocks.

A grill for the front brake panel was made from brass sheet and screen.

Another polishing-shop fail, this Webco rocker box oiler had pitting that was made worse by simply polishing without sanding. This was after a little sanding.

The finished piece after some sanding and buffing. There are some very small pits, but since this is a hollow structure, don’t want to grind it too far. I always think of a saying from medicine” sometimes a good result is superior to an excellent one.” It means to stop while you are ahead.

This is why I can never get anything done! Polishing blues on the 1957 Triumph Freebird bike.

In an effort to save time, for the first (and perhaps the last) time, I sent polishing out. I have always done my own polishing, but wanted to try letting a “show chrome only” chrome shop do the polishing after the parts were prepped here at the shop. Although some parts looked great like the front wheel and rocker covers, the job on the gearbox was a huge disappointment.

The front face of the cover after it came back from the polisher. The receipt for the job stated “polished to a mirror finish.” I know these sand cast parts can have problems with porosity, but these pits are even worse than when it first left the shop due to polishing without sanding first.

Prior to disassembly, a good deal of time was spent leveling out the surfaces of the transmission case to the point the lines between them are almost invisible. After this picture, the tranny was totally disassembled and then the front and middle cases put back together for the polisher to finish out.

This is how it came back, with valleys between the cases produced by polishing them separately and hitting the edges too hard. This shot really shows how bad it was at the top of the picture, where the line between the rear and middle case makes an obvious “V” where there was once a straight line.

Deja vu. A second sanding was done to level out the surfaces once more. The case walls are a little thinner after a second sanding, but not too bad.

If you want a true mirror finish, you have to sand first. Using a coarse polishing grit will make it shine, but instead of removing porosity, you just make it worse by elongating the pores like in the first picture in this post.

The case lines are near invisible again after a high polish.

Another fail from the polisher was that they used a DA sander to work the backside of the primary cover a little, but did not polish it out. This was after wet sanding and polish.

The small end rod bushings came in so I was able to get the block put together.

The choke lever came without a mounting bracket, so some .050 brass was used to make one. These loops will be silver soldered to make them strong.

Very secure once it is cinched down.

Put some more parts in the finished tray after some patina was applied. The key and top portion of the choke lever have the patina they came with, the rest was made to match. The hinge was made a couple of years ago from sheet brass and tubing.

1957 Triumph Freebird front wheel assembly, aluminum parts back from polish and more brass.

The bronze taillight with red glass lens was sanded, polished and darkened.

The bare taillight housing is made from two pieces of bronze taken from a messed-up cymbal i got from an old band mate.

The gas cap was wire brushed and dulled with cerium oxide, then chemical dipped to get some patina back. There will be some natural darkening that will occur by the time the bike gets to Bornfree 11 in June.

Just got this stuff back from the polisher. This is the first time ever to have someone do the polishing. It was kind of nice to miss out on the majority of the work getting them shiny.

I couldn’t wait to lace up the wheel. A set of Buchanan stainless spokes was used. The conical hub uses four different spokes, so you have to do a little figuring to get it laced.

Another special tool. An aluminum slug with a pilot that fits the bore of the bushing and allows for fast easy bushing removal in a press or in this case, a vise.

The two small-end rod bearings after removal. More evidence the “rebuild” on this engine was questionable at best. One bushing has been turned on the lathe at the end, and the other one had a chamfered inner edge and what looks like heat damage. A new set of .060 over pistons, rings and wrist pins as well as the rod bushings are on order.

I found some brass rocker shaft nuts that were polished and darkened.

Until the hardware returns from plating, only a small amount of assembly can be done. The mainshaft bearing, keeper and seal were installed after the seal was removed from the inside face of the sealed bearing. Digging on the shine on this gearbox!

The special tool made to press out the small-end rod bushings is perfect for installing the layshaft bushings in the transmission.

All new bearings and bushes in the engine and tranny.