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Retro Custom 67 T120 Project

69K views 129 replies 40 participants last post by  Cosmoline 
#1 · (Edited)
Very excited to have brought home this girl today from the back woods of Maine! Starts on the first kick, runs and drives fine, matching numbers, 11k miles, supposedly even has original tires and brakes. Quite a find! She'll be getting a full restoration and returning to her former glory very soon. Planning to do a fairly mild retro custom build while also restoring and preserving all the original parts should I ever want to go the concours route. Stay tuned for plenty of pics and progress reports. Now on to the photos!

Bought from this fine fellow (Coburn Benson) who used to own a Triumph dealership in the 60's & 70's in Haverhill, MA:


Here's a shot of his shop back in the day:


All loaded up and tucked in for the ride home:


Coburn included some extra parts he'd been hoarding as well and included a bunch of paperwork, documentation and manuals. Check out the red one, it seems to be a hand typed engine overhaul manual for the 650...


And some various shots of the 67...






Stay tuned as this project progresses!
 
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#35 ·
Back to work!

Finally got the right hardtail in the mail so I bolted it on to see how things sit. Also spent the day stripping the paint off the tank with my girlfriend. Pics...

This stuff is evil in a can, works great but damn is it horrible to work with...


Evil bubbling action...


Not bad for the first pass...


My amazing woman, jumping right in and cleaning out the underside of the tank with her much smaller hands. The tank came out great, some hacker painted over the original paint so I figured there would be dents and bondo galore but it turned out to be great underneath...


Tank all done and set on the newly bolted up hardtail roller just to see how things look. The forks haven't been lowered yet but things are looking good...


More to come soon!
 
#45 ·
Not 100% bike related but I built myself a fairly badass 8 ft workbench today which will come in very handy for this build. I plan to mount up a vise and drill press on one end, bench grinder/polisher on the other, hang all my tools on the pegboard, and mount up an engine stand in the middle. Mig welder will mount on the bottom shelf and I'll be mounting a real fluorescent overhead light (that's just my shop light in there now) and power strip tomorrow...

 
#51 ·
Cosmo,

what kind of speedo is that?

thx,

Svenski
It's a Smiths Chronometric Revolator 6T S.647/107/N. It was used on pre-unit Triumph/BSA/Nortons from 1951-59. They are getting increasingly expensive and harder to find. Got mine for just over $400 USD but I've seen them go for as much as $800.
 
#54 ·
So today I chopped up two rear fenders and made them into one. I'm not the worlds greatest welder, but I'll be damned if I didn't get it right on the first try without any heat distortion or alignment problems. I consider myself lucky!

I also got a great deal on a lift table at Harbor Freight for $299. PM me if you want the coupon code. Here's some pix...









 
#60 ·
Nice bench Cosmo! Wish I had built one like it instead of buying the one on sale at HF. When I saw you stripping the tank I was like NO!! then read it was shitty paint. Love those Triumph tanks, perfect size shape and trim. Can't wait to see the whole bike done.
 
#61 ·
Today I finished up fabrication of the back fender and mounted the tail lamp which involved cutting out the ridge in the fender and re-welding in a flat piece so I could bolt down the tail lamp and gasket. Once that was done I cleaned up all the welds and shot some primer on the fender and brackets I made the other day to keep them from rusting. Very happy with how things are turning out...













 
#65 ·
The joint weld is about 8 or 9 inches from the bottom of the inside part of the fender under the seat. As for the overall length, its modeled after pre-unit speed twins of the 50's - those fenders were about the same length or even longer. Also there will be four brace points, two coming off the frame and two struts on each side of the fender. I also left the fender a little long on the bottom in case I have to adjust later, better too much than too little.
 
#66 ·
New headlight came in today. I wanted it to be a little smaller than stock and not so much chrome. This fits the bill nicely but I've gotta convert it over from 6v to 12v.



Mocked up with tape (high tech!) and roughly centered to the tank...


Try to imagine it without those dorky elephant-sized headlight mounting ears coming off the forks...



I think I want it to sit about an inch lower than the position you see here...



Later!
 
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