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.