It was at this point that I took 6 months away from work to circumnavigate Britain in our newly aquired 25 year old motorhome. I have reached the grand old age of 55 & could draw some money from my private pension, so myself & my wife decided to do something before we were too old to appreciate the memories.
So, while we were away I though that I'd get the rechroming done. We have a plating company in Crewe, so I took a few items down for them to have a look at & price up.
"It'll take about 12 weeks mate" said the assistant behind the counter.
"That's fine, I'm away for about 6 months" I replied.
The small parts were quite expensive price - wise, but the exhausts nearly made me fall over. They wanted £360 for the silencers & £60 for the downpipes, I told them that I'd leave those for the time being. So, off we went on our travels.
I have been busy looking for a job since I got back, so haven't made a lot of progress on the bike, but did call round to the platers as I hadn't heard from them in 7 months....... Guess what? They hadn't done them
The parts had been put on a shelf & forgotten about.
"I'll have them done in a couple of days for you mate". How can they quote 12 weeks originally, then do them in 2 days? I'm still trying to work that one out. They did make a nice job though.
What you are looking at there ladies & gents is £200 worth of chrome plating, scares the living daylights out of me.
It was tme to fit the shiney bits to the bike
Next was the front brake caliper. The piston was solid in the caliper, so I had to heat the caliper & be a little brutal with a pair of waterpump pliers to extract the piston. It did move eventually, so that was one problem solved. I had ordered a caliper rebuild kit which came with new seals & bleed nipple, so tried to remove the nipple, which was seized solid into the caliper, things were a little harder this time because I didn't want to snap the nipple in the caliper as calipers are as rare as rocking horse poo. I used plenty of heat & with some gentle persuation it started to move & after about 15 minutes, the nipple was sat smouldering on the bench. Icleaned & painted the caliper, fitted the new seals & pads & placed it on the bike.
So, this is where I'm up to at present. I still have plenty to do, but I'm back at work full time at the moment as my boss is on holiday. I have won some very rare, nos Allspeed Expansion chambers on good old Ebay, but they are from a Danish seller, so hoping that it isn't a scam. I've paid by Paypal, so should get my money back if it is. Watch this space.
