Britbike forum Forums British Motorcycle specific Brands Vincent forum 1950 Black Shadow: Total Rebuild

Aha, my strategy of pretending to ignore the lost tools worked. They came out from wherever they were hiding and placed themselves in plain sight in a baggie in a container on the bottom shelf of the Vincent workbench.



They weren't there yesterday, because I'm sure I looked there more than once…

Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor (Thanks!), almost all the gaps in my set have been filled since I photographed them in March.

The next photograph shows the set in numerical order from K1 at the top to K19 at the bottom, with the reproduction K15 tire pump off to the side.



The only two missing are K4B (Terry's Spanners stamped-steel 2BA×3BA) and K17 (tan shop rag). The anonymous donor is making great progress in getting an identification for the cloth from which K17 was made, so really only K4B remains to be found. As I must have written before, most spanners of this type either have even sizes on both ends, or odd sizes, so ones like the missing 2BA×3BA aren't common.

An exploded drawing of the chain adjuster is in the series "B" Parts List. A few fellows in the U.S. have copies of it, probably some Poms as well.

I have several versions of the B+C but not an earlier one of the B alone.

I thought I had prevailed upon Texas John to forward you a copy. I think Dave Dunphy might have a copy as well. I physically posted Texas John a copy because, even though I have the usual? eight fingers and two thumbs I am severely digitally challenged.

Congratulations on finding the tools which weren't really lost. Glad I'm not the only one who can lose things which are in plain sight! I did a quick search just now, and found the following possibility:

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vincent-k4a-k4b-terry-open-spanners-245295973

Even if the purchase does not pan out, the link does contain a picture of the little Terry's spanners.
... Gregg

I don’t have a copy of the early book, but do have an exploded view of the adjuster with part numbers. Also 2 pages of text discussing earth/late versions, disassembly etc. You are welcome to copies of what I have. VOC Spares has the individual pieces and I assume John has them as well.

MM you should have a K4B , arrived with you 13.04.22 - but where did you put it !!

I'd love to have copies, so thank you in advance. However, to be clear, my adjusters are fine so I don't need parts for them. One was frozen, but now it isn't, so both only await polishing to be as good as new.

As an aside related to the earlier B-only parts manual, to keep my obsession with books somewhat under control, over the years I tried to limit myself to parts and shop manuals for bikes I either owned, or aspired to own. As two examples, I had a lot of Gold Star material before I got my first Gold Star, and I have an AJS 7R manual even though I've never owned one. I don't remember if I ever came across a B-only parts manual in the past but, if it were cheap enough I would have bought it even though I don't want a Series B since one of these lesser marques is enough for me.

I realize having misplaced the tools for a day reduces my credibility, but I'm actually pretty good about organizing things. In my defense, the entire set of tools was together in one baggie, so it was the baggie I misplaced, not the tools…

Anyway, I looked again and I don't have the spanner you generously sent in April. This likely means one of two things: either I lost it (possible, but fairly unlikely), or it was a brand other than Terry's Spanners. After collecting many of the original-type tools for the set, I filled in most of the remaining gaps with equivalents. For example, the next photograph shows two 1/4W×5/16W Jenbro spanners, part number K6.



I initially had the bottom one for the tool kit, but it's of a later design so it was bumped by the earlier version at the top when I acquired it.

Anyway, what happened to the K4B you generously sent in April is lost in the mists of time. Even if it was the incorrect one (which it might not have been), I feel terrible that I don't know what happened to it.

These do appear on Ebay from time-to-time, but "always" in the UK with huge shipping costs (e.g. one on eBay now has £99.99 estimated shipping, but the seller never responded to my request for a reasonable quote). But, thanks to gunner, he grabbed one from eBay and it will be on its way to me shortly. So, K4B problem solved.

As a general comment, I want to again thank various of you on the Britbike community for generous help, not just with the Vincent, but also with other bike-related issues in the past. And I don't only mean help with "free" advice, I mean responding with actual physical items as well. I've tried to be equally generous with advice and parts wherever possible.

p.s. News just in, someone else has had a university conservation lab analyze an original K17. After a few months waiting for them to get to it, they determined that it is linen. I now have until Thanksgiving dinner to come up with a convincing explanation for why a section of the good tablecloth is missing.

MM, you lost it ! it was a Terrys , I sent you photos of it on 25.03.22 to check it was the right one. Anyway glad you've got another one sorted.

Damn! I'm very sorry about that. Now another search of the garage is called for, this time looking for something much smaller.

No worries MM, given the amount of gear in your workshop losing a 3" long spanner is quite acceptable !
It'll turn up one day.

For myself, disorganization takes a while before it begins to impact progress and a little while more before I finally address the problem by doing a major clean up. (Great way to find things btw.) But then for a while, that clean work bench or desk or lathe is so nice......for as long as it lasts.

If it was mailed, maybe now the office is the place to look.

My office has gotten a bit out of control since the school year ended and I no longer shared it with my granddaughter for nearly three months. However, school started earlier this week so I have no choice but to clean up my act, and my office, before next week.

While on the subject of the toolkit, the following photographs show both sides of two 6" Jenbro pliers, one of which I'm pretty sure was supplied in tool kits at the time of my 1950 machine, but the other of which might or might not be appropriate as well.





The round vs. rectangular region of the wire cutter portion immediately stands out, although closer inspection reveals other detail differences. However, unlike the two spanners shown in a post yesterday, it's not obvious (to me, at least) that the design of one is newer than the other. Comments from those-who-know on which version was made c1950, and which was made earlier/later, please.

The drawing M033 in the Spare Parts List seems to favour the one on the left. The drawings were (almost) always accurate.

I hadn't thought to look there, but it certainly supports the one on the left (or middle, referring to the next composite).



However, what does it look like in the earlier B-only List? It's unlikely they would have redrawn it if the design had changed to the other one between then and when my 1950 C was made.

Anyone who has followed my various threads for any length of time probably realizes my approach to many things is that anything worth doing well, is worth doing to excess. With that in mind, I really don't want my paint booth to spring a water leak in a year or two (or five…), so I've tried to excessively seal it against that possibility. The next photograph shows several examples of what I mean.



What can't be seen is the flange to which the compressed and respirator air hoses are attached is bolted to the side of the booth with a rubber gasket behind it. Although essentially no water could leak past the rubber gasket or the heads of the four 10-32 machine screws holding the flange in place, I've covered them as well as the circumference with outdoor-rated silicone sealant guaranteed for ten years. To the right are the heads of two machine screws that hold the bracket for the paint gun, which are similarly covered with silicone.

The corrugated panels of the shed overlap so should exclude water but, primarily to ensure no dust or tiny bugs could enter, I caulked the entire length of each of those seams on the sides and roof. Then, to be sure the seams were perfectly sealed, I covered the caulk with aluminum tape rated for 325 ℉.

Where I'm most concerned about the potential for future water leaks is around the base. The base to which the panels bolt, which in turn is fastened to the platform, has a height of ~1", so only if water levitated by 1" would it reach the top of the base.



Despite that, I caulked around the bottoms of the panels, the screws holding the bottoms of the panels, as well as the outside edge of the base and the inside edge that's inside the shed. I subsequently decided that wasn't excessive enough, given that the base was the most likely entry point for water, if water ever found a gap, so I covered it with an asphalt-based sealant.



I'm not sure how long black asphalt would be happy in the hot sun so I will paint it white as soon as there's a gap in the monsoon long enough for the paint to dry.

The point of this excess is the grumpy customer insists on having an iron-clad, ten-year, maintenance-free warranty before he does the final clean-up on the inside in preparation for painting.

Unfortunately, I realized there's a defect in my original design.



Actually, I was aware of it from the start, but just hadn't appreciated how troublesome it would be because I did my planning prior to realizing how troublesome it would be to not have air conditioning.

While I have a power outlet for the fan that will blow clean air across the parts, the fan has to be plugged into that outlet when I'm outside the booth. That would mean plugging the fan in, removing my shoes, getting into coveralls, and putting on the respirator, all while the hot air from the fan is removing the air-conditioned air from the paint booth. What I need is a switch for the fan inside the booth so I can get completely ready to paint while in cool comfort, and only switch the fan on when I'm ready to pull the trigger on the paint gun.

The supplied-air respirator also has to be plugged in while outside the booth, so I need a switch for it as well inside the booth so it doesn't start blowing its warm air until needed. I have power running from the garage connected to two separate 20 A circuit breakers, so I plan to leave the A/C and LED light on the present circuit, and have the fan and respirator separately switched inside the booth using the other 20 A circuit. So, a bit more cutting, installing, wiring, and caulking needs to be done before the booth is in final form.

Another trip to Home Depot; another $80 bill. Since no paint has yet been sprayed, it remains to be seen which expression, or combination of expressions, applies to my paint booth: "in for a penny, in for a pound"; "throwing good money after bad"; or, a fool and his money are soon parted."

Most of the $80 went toward electrical components so I can switch the fan and the supplied-air respirator from inside the booth, but also included was a cheap disposable drop cloth for the wall behind the paint rack, and a spray can of rubberized water seal.



I had planned to buy a quart of white paint to cover the black asphalt to keep it relatively cool,[*] but stumbled across this rubberized spray in the same aisle. It's white, half the price of a quart of paint (also, half the volume), likely adds more protection against possible water leaks than a coat of paint would, and claims to be UV resistant, so it kills multiple birds with one stone. There was enough in the can to completely cover the periphery, with none left over.

[*]As an aside, I've been wearing the black gloves shown in a recent post in another thread while caulking and asphalting, and within 1 sec. of one of my hands being exposed to direct sunlight the glove gets noticeably hot.

it is traditional , in buildings
to not have the floor wider than the walls .

that depends

I made significant progress on the wiring for the fan and supplied-air compressor. The first photograph shows that a cross-support provided a rigid mounting point for the switches in a location that's out of the way.



Holes were cut, insulation resealed, wires run, machine screws tightened, and RTV applied in generous quantities.



A waterproof cover will bolt to that housing after the sockets are wired.

For any electricians who might be having indigestion, think about this wiring as being nothing more than an extension cord that only will be plugged into power when needed, and into which the two fans will plug, not permanent wiring for a house. If a six-foot-tall pack rat eats the wiring I'll see it when I start to plug the "extension cord" into mains power. If that pack rat eats the wiring inside the paint booth, I'll have to locate the hole it came in through and seal it before I can continue painting.

Don't worry about the six- foot pack rat, worry about the twelve foot rattler that's eating it.

Good point.

A generous benefactor emailed a copy of drawing MO33, the contents of the tool tray, from the earlier B-Series spares manual. To look for differences between it and that of the C-Series drawing I aligned the two in Photoshop, inverted the scale of one of them (i.e. made it into a negative), and overlapped them with 50% transparency of the top layer. If the range of grey scales of the two jpg files had been identical, which they weren't, any areas of perfect overlap would have disappeared, and any areas where there wasn't overlap would show up as either solid black or white.[*]



As can be seen, other the H.R.D. logo on the B-Series drawing and the Vincent logo on the C-Series drawing, the two drawings are identical. Obviously, the drafting office only changed the logo.

What this laziness on the part of the drafting office means for me is that if the 'B' drawing accurately represents the shapes of the tools supplied with bikes at that time, and if there had been changes in the shapes of any of those tools by the time of the C-Series, the later MO33 drawing won't show those changes.

[*]To show this technique in detail, I did the same thing using only the C-drawing to have an identical range of grey scale vales. Since the resulting solid grey block doesn't look very interesting, I did the overlap at 48% transparency to allow a bit of the image to appear.



The next image is the same as the previous one but at 50% overlap, causing the entire image to be solid grey, but then with one of the overlapping drawings offset by just a few pixels.



The final next image also is at 50%, but with no offset between the two drawings, and this time with a black square added to one drawing prior to inverting it, and a black circle to the other drawing.



As the above three images show, this technique is extremely sensitive for revealing differences between nearly-identical drawings or photographs.

The wiring, switches and sockets for the fan and supplied-air respirator is done so I'm almost ready to conduct the next/final test. That is, to see how cool the A/C unit keeps the shed when the fan is blowing air. However, rain chances rise from today's 50%, to 80% through the weekend, before tapering off, so that test will have to wait until at least Monday.

Meanwhile, the A/C unit recorded a personal best yesterday.



It was hot, but overcast, so not a worst-case situation, but it felt just a bit chilly when working inside.