Where have I got to, and where I am going?

I started stripping and fixing up my Trophy in August 2010. In that time, I've sorted out various problems, small and large, as I've come across them. This has been done by progressively removing, cleaning, stripping and refinishing ever more components. Over such a long period, I'd quite lost track of what had been done and what is left to do. So I decided to help myself by having a round up of the things I know still need to be done on a piece of paper. The picture below is the result: elements sketched in red identify what I need to do, things in grey are basically done albeit salted away all around my garage, shed and loft. 

Priority for now is the rear suspension. This is because I can't do the front forks until the rear is fixed and rebuilt. The bike needs to rest on at least one wheel.

I've asked a friend to weld up the damage on the swinging arm. I also have to replace a couple of needle rollers in the shock linkage, as posted yesterday.

Footrest hangers

The footrest hangers on my Trophy were tatty but in good structural condition. Rust was breaking out on all the steel work - the alloy was free of corrosion but missing paint through chips and wear from the previous owners' heels. 

 After cleaning off and the application of paint stripper, I was down to a firm surface. However it is not easy to get good adhesion for paint on aluminium alloys.





A few manufacturers make special primer for non-ferrous metals. I used a Finnegan's product (same people who make Hammerite and Smoothrite). It comes out red oxide colour and a bit rough because it doesn't flow as well as conventional paint. It is soft so easily rubbed back ready for a top coat.

Footrest hangers undercoated with Finnegan's Special Metals Primer

I decided to leave parts of the rider's footrest hanger bright because I like a bit of a gleam here and there. Also, I've seen paint rubbed through by heels on most other early Hinckley models. So I'm more than happy to break out the Autosol Solvol from time to time to keep it in good order.

 I used Smoothrite silver for the top coat. It is a decent aluminium shade and very robust. I got the exhaust hangers, which are made of tubular steel, powder coated black. I also stripped, repainted and rebuilt the seat lock assembly, which is mounted behind the left-hand pillion footrest hander.

 I buffed up the bare sections of the rider hangers with a DIY polishing kit. It's a three stage process, using coarse, medium and soft mops on an electric drill. Each is dressed with a different cutting soap. It is possible to get to a mirror finish this way.

Rider footrest hangers, part polished and part painted

Overall, I'm pleased with the results. It should be a robust finish that I can maintain long term (allowing for the self-inflicted decision to use Autosol and elbow grease).

Rear suspension linkage

I discovered a problem with the rear suspension linkage - one of the clamps on the drag link spindle was cracked right through. 

 So I decided to strip out the swinging arm, shock and linkage complete for a clean. It gunked off nicely, showing that on the whole the castings were in pretty good condition. The only problems were some pitting on the swinging arm and evidence of scraping near one of the chain adjusters, probably because of a badly fitted luggage carrier.

 The bolts came undone with a bit of a heave. Unfortunately, when the seals came off the lower forward bearing, it was clear that it had suffered badly from water ingress. Having grease nipples is one thing (there are five altogether) but they do need to be used.

 The bolts retaining the top of the drag links are a bit tricky to get at - they have 18mm heads deeply recessed into the swinging arm. However I was very pleased to see they were in fantastic condition.

I bought a second hand linkage complete with drag links from a 1996 bike. The castings were different, with the Hinckley version of the Triumph logo cast into them. The 1991 castings use the older, Meriden style logo:

Meriden style logo from 1991 castings top
Hinckley-style logo from 1996 castings bottom

 I washed out all the needle roller bearings with paraffin and a tooth brush. The rust was disgusting slurry of rust and old grease.

The replacement linkage casting was in fair condition. Unfortunately, the forward lower bearings also showed evidence of quite a bit of corrosion.  The linkage contains two HK2030 INA needle roller bearings - I shall need to replace these.

The components came up beautifully though.  HK2030s are also used in the upper drag links - larger bearings are fitted in the lower eyes, protected by rubber seals. These were all in good condition so no need for changes there.