Petseal etc.

In all honesty it's you that's coming over as the know nothing wanker.
Just so you're aware.

 

The biggest problem with all "this" is that kenny boi/krustycunt/whoever
seems to be confusing a restoration project with keeping an old bike looking
good and working well, or returning said article to a useable condition as
opposed to making it a garage/showroom ornament.

He talks of English wheels as if he knows how to use one, but obviously
can't, coz he hasn't considered that no one (and mean absolutely no-one)
would consider using one to repair an already formed panel, be that a car
door/bonnet/quarter panel or a bike tank. When panels have been clobbered,
they stretch and for most people, the cost of shrinking the steel back to
original shape (only possible if you can get to both sides of the panel at
the same time) then re-forming with fettling hammers and dollies is too high
to justify when the bikes/cars have a fairly low value even when new. This
is why body fillers rule the roost for the majority of jobs and why tank
sealers rule the roost for most leaky/porous/rusty fuel tanks.

I believe we'd all prefer a nice new tank on our SOB's or to have a section
of the tank removed to allow easier access to the insides, but as TOG
discovered, you're looking at 500 quid for the basic tank job and that's a
heck of lot for any regular bike. Not "quite" such a smack if the bike's a
classic that parts are unavailable for, but still not for Mr Average.

Kenny boi is also forgetting (or conveniently ignoring) the time/cost
restraints. Restoring a classic XK 120 (as an example) can take anything up
to 6 months of 5 day weeks and cost in the region of 90,000 quid, whereas
bringing a bike's tinwork back from the dead costs around the 500 quid mark
and takes less than a week of actual "labour". A lot of time is taken with
paint curing and what have you. but no-one on here has ever called that sort
of work a restoration. It's a delaying tactic, that's all.

The whole point is... he wishes the he could actually *do* the job, but
knows less than **** all about the REAL job and just spouts bollocks based
on what he's seen on TV and read on th' interwebb. He's what's known as a "5
minute expert"

 

With MIG brazing now being the most common method. It's also used on day to
day repairs on cars such as new Fords, and VW's. Nothing else is allowed, as
normal welding (gas, arc, MIG or TIG) causes changes in the high boron
content steel used in these cars now, so although any good weld will *look*
good and actually *be* good, the problem is just "north and south" of the
weld which has now been seriously weakened by the welding process. Mig
brazing is the only way to retain the same levels of safety (think of the
children) that were present at manufacture and produce a good joint.

 

Eh? What have I said to make you lump me in with that twat?

 

The first winner we undertook together (one of the 140's) was done in my
garage at home too. Granted the garage is 30ft long, but it's only a single
car garage width, so we built a "rotator" that we bolted onto the underside
of the car allowing us to rotate it 90 degrees and get to the undercarriage
while it was vertical. **** of a job, but the results were (apparently)
worth it. That was 20 years ago.

I told the boy-chic he knows **** all btw. He was amused

 

You seem to think that making a tank is difficult. It's not. It's like
everything else in this world. The first time you attempt to fabricate
something, it's likely to look like crap, but improvements come. It's not
rocket science and it's not artistic blessing, it's simply practice and a
bit of hard work. Why, even YOU could do it if you bothered to get off your
arse. Actually.....

Somehow, I doubt that a daily ride is going to be bring that sort of money.

 

So that's a "No" then. At least we've sorted that out.

btw, I don't think P38 is a good idea on an alloy tank, not when there's
milk available at very little cost. (You may need to think about that)

Now you can go about your business

 

That's OK. Looks like he's gone again. Same thing happened last time -
somebody outed him after he'd made an arse of himself and given us all
a good laugh.

Amusing to find he thought he could get away with it this time )

 

I've always preferred this definition of an expert:

An ex is a has-been and a spurt is a drip under pressure.

 

Tis a small world. Before working for my parents, my brother used to
work for VSE, the XK engine specialists. Which, in a strange quirk of
coincidence, is owned by the guy who used to run The Beetle People (VW
restorers who weren't sued by their customers afaik) in Risborough.

 

Precisely.
Most bikes are simply not worth a total restoration project.
I am currently working on the blue 400 Four. With Superdream Comstar
wheels and forks it is never going to be "right" without spending far
more than it can justify. It needed some carb work, one downpipe, a
chain and sprockets and some new cables to fix the mechanicals.
The engine sounds sweet and runs nicely so it is getting a fibreglass
pattern rear mudguard to replace the unobtainable chrome original.
There is some rust on the frame and swingarm but this is cosmetic rather
than structural so the rust will be taken back to clean metal and touched
in. Other assorted tinwork will be stripped and repainted black and
then finally the tank and sidepanels will be repainted and new decals
applied.

All fairly simple stuff, as a pensioner my time is cheap and the
result will be a good rideable bike that looks tidy and will give
many more years of use.

But it will never be a show queen.

 

G.W. Bartlett was the company I worked for. I really enjoyed being
there until the Director of European Operations fucked me and Gary the
owner over. For some reason I went to work for him when he started his
own firm and he tried to **** me over again. I got my own back by
starting my own trim firm in direct competition and nicking all his
customer records, and consequently all his smaller customers, leaving
him with only the contract stuff to deal with. I went and got royally
pissed when I heard his firm had bit the dust and he'd been bankrupted
for a second time - lost his house and everything.

He was a Jew, now you know why I hate them so much

 

WTF?

 

Every Jew I've ever encountered in business has been a **** who'd
stitch you up without even batting an eyelid, simple as that. I have no
idea what they are like on a personal level because I refuse to accept
any into my circle of close friends, a choice based purely on the ones
I've known from my business dealings with them.

 

You're a completely different Krusty. The other krusty is the **** who
posted under the name krustykritter., so no relation.

 

Yeah, a good description if ever there was. "Expert" is a word I really
don't like to hear, either from someone who professes to be one, or from
someone who says someone else is one.

 

99% of what we do these days are vehicles that we know are used daily, or at
least regularly and there is absolutely NO point in spending thousands on
them so that some **** can T-bone it on the way home from work or a Sunday
blast.

Full on restorations are far too expensive for the majority of people, even
inexpensive resto's usually cost too much. An example being a couple of RD
350's we quoted on recently. The owner wanted full on show winners, which we
were happy to provide, but the cost was too high (and the cost wasn't
particularly high in real terms), but as soon as prices go north of 1000
quid, wallets snap shut faster than a nuns **** at breakfast time. Our
Chummy in this thread can't see the difference between resto and repairs
though, but I've tired of him now anyway.

 

It's very possible Loz. We used to get body panels from a company in
Hinckley Leicestershire called "Leaping Cats" who apparently bought the
original dies from Jaguar when they stopped producing parts for the old
sheds. they needed a lot of "massaging" once bought though as the dies were
"well used". They supplied us with two front wings for a 140 and each were
made up of 5 separate pieces and the headlight nacelles were both off-side
and not an off-side and a near-side. The dies for the near-side nacelles
were long gone I imagine. We ended up fabricating a near-side nacelle or the
thing would've looked cross eyed.
[/QUOTE]

 

The latter gets me, at least half the times I've contemplated buying a
used bike privately.

"Who's serviced the bike?"

"My Dad. He's an expert. Knows all about bikes...."

"Oh yeah? What does he ride?"

"Well, he used to have a BSA...."

 

I can understand people who are on a budget, but I can never uderstand
why people think everything should be cheap.

"But that's more than I paid for the bike!" is the usual response to a
quote like the above.

And the answer is: "Yes. You bought a cheap old bike. What did you
expect?"