Vinta-Translate

Wednesday 4 February 2009

Brassy







Hello again 'Vintafake' fans.....It's time I was giving a progress report...

Looking at the date of the last post you could say "About time Albert !". Well I can assure you I haven't been idle, out there in mi' shed, freezin' cold, all in the name of science....? Yes it's down at 'The Old Sidevalve Bar' that unique motoring creations are born. Oh yes ! Read on to find out what your Uncle Albert did with a brass curtain pole...

The afore mentioned curtain pole had been squirrelled away many years ago by my father. (Known in Pembleton circles as Skid for the fact that he claimed to have travelled more miles sideways than I had travelled forward....Hum ! another likely story) I knew of the existance of this valuable brass curtain pole, it was rumoured to be laying within the underground vaults of the 'Crackleport' family abode in the treacle mining town of Pudsey.

The pole could be just the material I needed to create an Briggs and Stratton inlet manifold of eye catching beauty, a work of art to equal Antioch's Venus de Milo...

Once retrieved from its slumbers it was evident that the inner bore of the pole was exactly the correct size to marry the Amal carb and the cylinder head together. I cut a short length guesstimated to be of the optimum tuning dimension. Also found in the underground vaults was a piece of brass plate, from this was cut 2 mounting flanges to match carb and head.

The jointing medium would be Silver Solder. I ordered a quantity on line and whilst waiting for deilvery bolted all 3 components together to hold firmly whilst soldering. This tip was recommended by Lea Thermallet a follower of 'Oilyracer' blog (which runs alongside these jottings as a record for all time on this monumental build)


Ensure joints are clean, apply flux, heat until flux goes clear, apply silver solder, enough solder to run through joint, allow to cool. Hey ! It all seemed to work out great. Within a short time I had myself a basic manifold. Further polishing required to fully exploit the brass was done first with file, then emery cloth, then Brasso.


So...there you go......another piece of the jigsaw in place........(still plenty to do though !)