Matchbox back on the road

Caferacer

She is a 1960 G80.

A bit more on the "build". The color and the decals were applied to make the sale "show" better I imagine, I believe some sort of red is a Matchless/ AJS color of the era. Before the compleat frame, sans engine, was left in a TX flood to rust away it appears the last episode in her life was to satisfy the dream of some tonto Evil Knivel wantabe. Both axels were bent, front bearings were trashed, front fork legs were badly bent, the rear (jampots) shock shafts were even bent! If you are famillar with this era Brit construction Ya can imagine it was quite a jump. The forks had been left full of water and the damping parts were rusted away, on top of that they had frozen at some time and cracked both sliders down the outside (look close at the photo)

So--------I straightened the forks and shortened them 4" to put the bend area above the trees, cut the springs and left the unuseable damper parts out. Straightened the front axel and put it back together with the crap bearings awaiting my machineing a new axel that will take new bearings at less than $50 each, another story only "bon" & AJS/ M folks may understand. Put a very tight fit shaft collar on the top of the sliders to prevent catristrofic failure untill I can modify the trees for a pair of jap tubes and sliders.

The Jampots were bent so bad I couldn't even attempt to straighten the shafts so I hammered them down to the stance I wanted, cut the rusty old springs and put 'em on. Swingarm hardtail hahahah, alowing for the drastically modified rear fender mounts.

The engine trans, not flooded, turned out on dissembly to be "useable" for this level of "restoration" hahaha Had to "time sert" the spark plug hole as the helicoil was about to pull out. Did the valves and left the big hole and piston alone, they aren't pretty but compression is good enough to break a leg as they say.

As I say the first photo dosen't tell the real story but it has been a fun ride so far. I had done similar projects on basket Brit thumpers in the early 60s so it has been a trip back in time for me.

Oh, and, yea I regulary shoot 2 different .416 Rigbys as well as a .375 H&H that spent 15 years in Africa as a loner rifle for clients of a PH