the 1957 Triumph Freebird engine rebuild continues.

All mocked up with the rocker boxes sitting on top, the alloy pre unit head is all but done.

There are a lot of jobs that cannot be finished until parts get back from chrome, so anything that can be done in the meantime is what is being done around here. There was another set of rocker covers that was polished, but they were for an iron head. After switching to an alloy head, these boxes were polished up and reassembled using the new brass parts. The oil passages were all blown and poked out and new seals used in the job. The O-rings the inspection caps came with were probably fine functionally, but I really like the red line the vintage fibre seals make.

Cadmium plated hardware for this bike and some others back from the plating shop. One more of the time-consuming jobs that go along with this sort of work. Having everything in organizing boxes makes the rebuild a lot smoother.

The cylinders were blasted in prep for some paint. They are at the powder coat shop now getting a baked-on ceramic silver paint job.

Took the alloy head to Big D Cycles for some new valves, springs and guides. There were several helicoils and a spark-hole insert placed into stripped screw holes, and some new exhaust spigots were put in.

Just waiting on the clutch actuator arm and some case screws to come back from chrome to finish the gearbox assembly.

The bottom end waiting for the cylinders to come back. Studs are all back in the block.

While putting the first cylinder base stud in, it occurred to me that a set of nuts welded to handles would make installation easier. The time it can take to extract a stud can be a few minutes if it is really stuck, if the wrenches slip off the nuts or round off the nuts edges, or if you drop the nuts or stud in the case. The other problem is that it messes up the finish of the nuts even if the edges are still good. This simple tool takes away those problems and the install/removal takes less than 30 seconds. I have used the double nut method for stud extraction and installation for years, but after seeing how well these work, there are some other common sizes that would be useful to have around the shop. Both tools are identical and the handles are slightly bent to clear adjacent screws and the timing case.

Seriously, 30 seconds or less.

The primary cover just waiting for the rest of the engine.

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.