1957 Matchless

1957 Matchless

Whilst waiting for parts for Triumph Thunderbird I was fortunate enough to locate a 1957 matchless G11 which was part of a deceased estate and was only partly restored to good to miss.

I am endeavouring to achieve the result as shown in photo below

     

Status of Bike When Purchased

1. Motor was assembled and positioned in frame, 


2. Telescopic forks assembled but not in frame,


3. No painting of components,


4. No seat,


5. Rear shock absorbers in pieces,


6. Headlight frame only,


7. No ignition switch, and


8. No speedo.

Photo of start point after cleaning and polishing,

Commencement of Rebuild

Removed gearbox and engine to allow for ease of access to polish components, patience is the virtue you need to possess

   

Refurbished and cleaned wheels no major problems, reassembled telescopic front forks cannot position awaiting shroud,positioned headlight supports and fork yokes.

       

Polished forks and made up jig to compress spring prior to assembly see photos below

   

       

PLACEMENT OF ENGINE IN FRAME

Fitted gearbox and plates also oil reservoir and tool box

JAMPOT SHOCK ABSORBERS  

Decided to refurbish shock absorbers as sourced from USA existing ones purchased had no internal components

Commenced by dismantling and cleaning and polishing components.

It was necessary to replace rubber bushes sourced rubber and was able to get bushes cut utilising a very high pressure water cutter.

For assemble it was necessary to make a jig to allow compression of spring to facilitate assembly

See selection of photos

 

 

It was necessary to modify frame to accommodate heavy duty jampot shock absorbers

    

REWIRING

 Ran wires and labelled with jewellers tags need a lot of patience, fitted nacelle with headlight and switch

Carburettor

Dismantled and cleaned all jets  and reassembled

 Clutch

Dismantled and cleaned all components, it was necessary to replace all of the trapazoidal inserts

It was important that we retimed bike to ensure all was ready for ready for our first kick start

Photos taken to show the components of the manual advance system

Completed

Amazing one kick and bike was running a little bit of further tuning to far advanced

On to the next challenge a 1948 Velocette MAC a lot of pieces in poor condition with the need to source considerable parts

Will keep me from being bored I guess!!!

Below is photo of current collection at this stage undecided whether to keep all running out of space

Worth the effort