Three men and a dog - project h100

[Tristan.]

Evening all, over the next few weeks we will be taking a bike apart, losing bits then failing to put it together, I'll post progress here for your viewing pleasure and to act as a log for us on what needs doing.

Oh and my apologies to both the 56K'ers, I empathise with you, my home connection is 4kbps dial up.

Preface
Me and two mates, Adam and Matt had been making noises about getting a bike for a few weeks now, we're mechanical engineering students at Plymouth, and a winter project seemed like something that might keep our evenings cheaper than the pub. Anyway after a bit of internetting and adpapering we saw this gem:
"honda h100 for sale, engine was running, now not. £75"
After we laughed at the wording a little we decided to do a bit of googling, where we came up with some awesome facts about it:
"top speed 78mph" "valves per dylinder - 4" (it's a stroker) "max rpm - 4500"
intruiging, how could we refuse this bizzare wonderbike, Matt phoned up as he has the nicest telephone voice, and we were told to phone back on sunday when he'd tell us where to meet. Ooh very cloak and dagger. The next few days were spent avoiding doing ay work,drinking and buying some rope, tarps and WD40.

Day 1
10AM came and went, I managed to get to Adams for quarter past, impressive since I'd been out 6 hours before trying to find somewhere to get a beer at 4 in the morning, and Matt, the lazy bastard arrived 20 minutes later. A phone call later and we had our rendevous point with the mysterious mr bikeman, Morrisons, unfortunatly there was no mention of wearing a red carnation or anything.

At Morrisons we got a text to watch out for a white transit, we agreed if we found Bolt croppers, big ass screwdrivers, gloves and number plates in the back we would give this one a miss, but it turned out he was a windowcleaner, or had acquired a windowcleaners van at any rate

Me and Adam were in the front with him, with Matt feeling like an immigrant in the back, he starts telling us about the bike
"yeah, it got nicked off a mate, by another mate, ragged round a field a bit. Then the engine stopped working for some reason, maybe because it ran out of oil, so all you need to do is rib the piston with some sandpaper" thankfuckfully it turned out he was talking about another bike, when he asked what price he'd put in the paper and we had a really awkward silence when we said £75.

Anyway, few more minutes of vanning and we got to lay eyes on the beauty:
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/111807120654.jpg
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/111807120731.jpg
(full rundown of condition later)

Anyway we got it for £70, with the V5 too, in his cousins name.

Now we just needed to get it home, four miles. The wheels turned fine, so we were thinking it'd just be an annoying couple of hours medium labour and then it's over, how wrong we were....

20 minutes pushing and we'd discovered three things that effected it's rollability, firstly the clutch was properly stuck, secondly the front brake seemed to be made of chocolate, literally jamming it on was the same resistance as pushing it up a slight incline, thirfly the rear brake had two positions, off and locked on, and yo needed to fiddle the springs on the hub to have it disingauge.

Fairly uneventful journey so far, couple of funny looks, and we saw a policeman hurriedly radioing in staring at us, and then we got to a slight hill.

the next two hours was possibly the most fun I've had on two wheels, I decided to throw caution to the wind, be slightly illegal and ride her along the pavement, the look on peoples faces as they realise some blokes hurtling past them at 7 miles an hour making loud engine noises was worth at least 80 quid, there were a few obsticles in the way too:
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/111807124718.jpg
and yes, I rode it down the (fairly wide) steps on the other side.

We were heading to Matts, as he has a garden, and ten minutes before we got there we passed my shoebox/flat, so the only logical thing to do was to hrab my full biking gear, including blacked out visor, gargle some water and prepare for some high speed action through the university. the wonders a black visor do for your ability to make a complete ass of yourself are huge, and I got my engine noises down to a bit of a tee, with Matt pushing and Adam walking 20 paces behind pretending he didn;t know us.

So after 2 hours we'd got back and made a fair few people laugh, bargain! Next we went on the construct our grage in Matts garden, but thats such a bloody epic thing it deserves it's own little feature with pictures, so I'll do it in a few days.

Anyway, we wrapped up the last half hour of daylight on day one by giving her a once over and called it a day.
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/111807164039.jpg


Day two.
We had a few hours, so we decided to see how far down we could get her, and maybe even drop the engine.
Nothing was seized to shearing point, which was nice, though the sparky won't come out with a normal plug wrench, a bit of dubya D loving might help that though, here she is in a cheeky shot, sort of teasing us with her scantily cladness:
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/PIC_0018-2.jpg
Phwoar, look at the 98cc of pure 1988 power:
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/PIC_0023.jpg

We had her down to her undies when she got a little bit knocked off the dodgy sidestand I mentioned, three pairs of hands reached out, mostly grabbing random unattatched bits, but she didn;t topple, we sort of looked at each other like "are we holding up a bike and barely noticing it, which led to me photo whoring an opportunity to be dead manley and lift up a motorbike rawr:
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/PIC_0024.jpg
Thats a war face! To be fair I had been holding it for a good minute by then because Tard on the other side of the camera got confused by the buttons, I really want to try to get her up to my head tommorow, and possibly hit someone with it.

Anyway, the only things now attatched are the bars (by the throttle cable, the wheels and the engine.

And the day before, when we did our once over, plus yesterday we made a big list of loadsa stuff on the bike .and here, for our refrence as much as anything is the list:

Rear mudguard: rotten, unfixable, possible bodge with a hacksaw.
Rear light, grabrail and indis: really really new condition, which is odd. Right hand iny is snapped off.
Rear tyre: good condition, shit tread pattern, she'll be reet
Rear wheel: ine, will clean up well
Rear brake: shoes may be ok from the way they were stopping me, mechanism blatently fucked.
Swingarm: fine (well by fine I mean in relation to the rest, a clean and either hammerite or spray.
Rear shocks: seem ok, not too corroded.
Chain and sprockets: corroded, but not particularly worn by use.
Rear brake linkage: bent, may be fixable (might try to sneakily fix it on machine marts vice)
Subframe: bit of battery leak, other than that, fine
Seat: Been re-covered, badly, also it had a big spider in it.
Battery: Presumed dead, will whip the multimeter out on it later.
Loom: 'seems' alright, though obviously thats irrellevant.
Centrestand: bizzarely tall and annoying, the bike only just sits on it, a stiff breeze in the right direction will topple her easy.
Gearbox: seems fine, had dead clean oil in it.
Rear brake lever: held together with a jubille clip
Bottom end: other than the next three entries, nothing makes a funny noise when kicked over so it gets a thumbs uo for now.
Clutch: wont disengage.
Left had case/sprocket cover: missing.
Flywheel: very rusty, no particular resistance when turning ignoring topend compression.
Gearoil sump: missing it's cap.
Carb: seems to have fat leaking from it, will be put aside for a bit probably.
top end: seems to be some compression, may be able to get away with just rings, though we're prepared for the worst, it int seized or come apart (so we wont need to break out the sandpaper )
Zorst: seems alright, was held on by two bolts at the head .
Mainframe: it has a mainframe? oh right, that bar under the tank, fine (as in the corrosion we expexted.)
Tank: couple of fairly big knocs, little bit of rust at the front. Key doesn;t fit and the locks been screwdrivered at some point.
Steering bearings: seem fine.
Bars and switchgear: Look very new.
Clocks: 33000 miles, Locks been screwdrivered at some point.
Lights: no battery to test, slight bit of electrical tape holding headlamp together.
Forks and seals: no pitting, seals are good, held up to dozens of curbs and stairs.
Front tyre: good bar the patter.
Fron wheel: again, will clean up nice.
Front brakes: probably just shoes gone.

Aanyway, thats the story so far. Tommorows plan is a full inventry of parts, and tools we'll need, which won't be very interesting, so I might snap some shots of our awesome garage!

[Endless Nameless]

As one of the other muppets coming under the "3 men" thing, I decided I should probably join the forum... Bike is all snug and dry in its garage as I type, I can hear the rain pinging off the tarpaulin! I'm Matt by the way, thats me on the bridge standing away from the bike.

Watch this space for further developments
____________________
A2 passed 22/07/08; restriction up 22/07/10 (just so I don't forget)
'79 Suzuki GS550E. Yes, that's a GS550, not a GS500.
Supersports "In a video editing competition I'd kick your sorry ass"

[Spearson]

As the final retard in this trio i though i should add my contribution to. I'm Adam (the 'tard behind the camera'). Always had a love for bikes been round them scince i was little, but always been more of a car man myself. Last year me and matt completly stripped down a yamaha sr125 and restored it and the chance to do it again was too good to pass up so here i am again at the bottom of a mountain of a project. But hey its going to be good
____________________
'05 Yamaha Jog R (in fancy plum) sold to a chav, '91 Yamaha SR125 (stripped and rebuilt) sold to an Australian, '88 Honda H100S (crap) bought by 3 retards

[Kickstart]

Hi

Keep at it. Looks like an H100S with S2 bodywork (S2 had bolt on down tubes on the front of the frame), although the registration plate suggests it is easily new enough to be an S2.

I have a manual for them so if you need anything scanning just shout (now I finally have a working scanner again).

All the best

Keith
____________________
Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Fawbish]

lol, looks ace guys

I like your write up style, made m laugh. You can tell its three pretty good mates doing some stupid shit together

That is a motherfucher of a list, how much money that gonna cost you reckon?

I reckon 2-300 quid might sort it but then again, i havent properly looked at the bike.



Keep at it lads, Im sure if all else fails, the running with and making engine noises is easily a cooler alternative

and top speed...christ above, thats less than a quid per mph, fuckin A'!
____________________
"Oh....it looks like Average Joe's is forfeiting the match!" - "Yeah, its a risky strategy but lets see if it pays off for 'em Cotton."

[Endless Nameless]

We're hoping to spend around £200 max on bits and bobs, mebbe a tad more if we really go to town on tarting it up (kinda up to Spearson as he'll probably buy out our shares in it when its done). Not counting the price of our garage, complete with bloody massive floodlight, in the cost as we'll be keeping that up as a useful place to work on the working bikes (only bike atm, the NSR in the pics, but I'm working on that) and for our next project, depending on how this goes.

Biggest annoyance atm is the fact that all 3 of us have big, decent tool sets at home and we're stuck down here at uni with next to nowt, just a few spanners that Tristan bought down. The rest of us didnt have the hindsight... 'parently we've aquired a cheap socket set so we should have an update tonight, plan is to drop the engine and decapitate it so we can see why she's a non runner. Mebbe try and work out why the clutch appears FUBAR as well.

Basically, yep, 3 mates just cocking around, having a laugh and trying to avoid doing uni work. Looking forward to giving an old girl a new lease of life too though.

Keith, thankyou kindly for your offer of scans from teh manual. We'll deffo be taking you up on that at some point, like when we get stuck... Cheers
____________________
A2 passed 22/07/08; restriction up 22/07/10 (just so I don't forget)
'79 Suzuki GS550E. Yes, that's a GS550, not a GS500.
Supersports "In a video editing competition I'd kick your sorry ass"

[Tristan.]

heh

[Tristan.]

Day four.
Hmmm I seem to update this at stupid o clock in the morning, , should perhaps stop being so nocturnal, anyway.
Adam got a draper value socket set, for 7 quid (I'm sure some of you are guessing what happens later ) so we were able to drop the engine today. It was amusingly light by the way, we litterally were wondering where the hell the other bolts must be, as I had my arms underneath and it didn't feel any different, the engine was carried up to Matts room, and stuck in our patented engine storage system:
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/1121071852251.jpg
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/112107185253.jpg
Sorry about phonecam quality, and yes, the clutch cover is a much nicer colour than the rest of it

Anyway, now we had the mighty power of budget sockets we could whip of the head, or could we...
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/112107185644.jpg

balls.

Well we wanted to do something vaguely usefull, so we went at the clutch cover, hoping to find out why it was seized, unfortunatly the bolts proved a match for not only our draper value sockets, shattering the 8 mil, but also my bloody halfords pro ratchet and even more annoyingly than that, they then came off easily using a socket from Matts multi tool from the bloody pound shop, which I refuse to let touch my bike.
Anyway, bolts off, I wanted to put it in the oven but we weren;t sure his housemates would appreciate it, so a hairdryer was nabbed, and after using far more leverage than we should of then...
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/112107195902.jpg
So yeah, we had the clutch cover off, unfortunatly we realised none of us have any experience with clutches, so we sort of took it apart a little, looked sheepish and covered it up with a binbag

No update tommorow probably, on friday me and Adam will be visiting halfords and the other toolshop to get refunds for our shit tools, and we might do something on that evening, It'd probably mak sense to start on the frame, but the top end really needs diagnosing so we can order parts, if anyone in the Plymouth area thinks they have sockets manley enough for the job gizza shout, your kindness would gladley be repaid in beer and entrance to our supercool garage construction.

Speaking of which, I still want to do a proper feature on that, but for now here's a teaser shot from day one:
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/111807164056.jpg
Thought I'd best do a bit of clone protection on my NSR

[Albion]

Good read, looking forward to the updates. Looks like you guys are having a laugh as well!

[Fahd]

This should be an interesting thread, I have a Honda H100 S2 as a toy when I'm not out on the other bikes, so I may nick some of your ideas if I see anything particularly nice...

Heres mine... (needs a bit of a clean! )

https://www.bikechatforums.com/files/dsc02080_142.jpg

Make sure you spend time actually riding it to! they love being wheelied!

https://www.bikechatforums.com/files/dsc02091_209.jpg


If you need any help give me a shout through the P.M on here...
____________________
I Ride: Honda CBR 400RR.
I Drive: Audi S3.

[Tristan.]

Cheers Albion and Fahd, it is indeed fun, and hopefully she should be getting ridden plenty, if not on the road theres a big old alleyway next to the garden, and its a student area so no kids running out or owt.

Day five
was generally quite shit, Halfords wouldn't replace my broken spanner because it was the ratchet that broke, but the independat toolshop Adam got his stuff from were cool and we picked up a ratchet an extender, a sparky puller and a socket for the head bolts.
Unfortunatly when we got the head off we were greeted with this:
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/PIC_0027-1.jpg
Pics don;t really pick it up, but it's seized at some point, then been forcefully unseized, the conrod has a little play in it, so what we were taking as new rings, or probabky a piston at most, due to its ease of turning over has turned into almost a full rebuild, the conrod's OK, but we'll have to replace the big end bearing, to hopefully remove that play.

So yeah, crap day, we sized up our options:
New (second hand) engine
Cost - 50-80 quid
Pros - give it a clean, maybe new rings and shove it in, sorted.
Cons - might eat itself after a few miles, would need to find one.

New/second hand top end + l/h crankcase
Cost - 40-120 quid
Pros - if new we know it's all sound, if second hand, very cheap
Cons - expensive/same prob as option 1, we have to split crankcase to get at bottom end bearing.

Rebored cylinder, oversize piston, new bearing.
Cost - 50-80 quid
Pros - we know it's done properly.
Cons - need to source a decent machinist, the piston's already .75 oversize so a larger one may be unavailable.

Wildcard Engine swap
Cost - 50 - 100 quid
Pros - ... no idea, depends what we can get our hands on
Cons - Obvious really, finding one to fit, then clearing it with the DVLA. The H lump weighs barely 12 kilos and has three mounting points, theres no way we could fit something more powerfull in that, a shame because I have a cg registered in my name which got nicked, if a cg's lump fitted we could simply swap the plates and be naughty (bike theives left me my numberplate )

Anyway, an expensive day.
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/PIC_0030-3.jpg
I'll post what we did today, tommorow, since I have no camera battery left

[Kickstart]

[Tristan.]

Hey Keith, we were erring on the side of caution with the barrel, , it may be reusable though. Adam's taken it to a machinist today, to price up a rebore, and the guys there will probably be able to tell us if it doesn't need one. Thanks a lot for all the help youve put into this project.

Anyway, Day six.
Popped down to the breakers, to see about a s/h topend, there was an alright H100 there with most everything except a top end, and he's going to have a dig around, so we'll pop back on wednesday, with a list of things we might be able to pick up.
Got 4 spray tins of primer and 4 of satin black from the pound shop, and a few other bits and bobs, then we went to Cap'n Jaspers and had lots of food.
Stripped the rest of the frame on the evening, ready to start the proper restoration.

I dont seem to have any photos of saturday might see if anyone else does and sneakily edit them in, in the meantime here's one of the Piston:
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/PIC_0051.jpg

Day seven
The H's weekaversity, it was an alright day, stuff seemed to start getting done, by people who arent me, since I slept in till 3, 4 hours after we were meant to meet up. Anyway by the time I hauled my arse outta bed and got there the bike looked like this:
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/PIC_0043-1.jpg
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/PIC_0044-1.jpg
With all the bits carefully catagorised and put into seperate boxes. Anyway, now comes the 'fun' part, a mountain of bike parts and a mountain of wet and dry, wore wool, WD40 and degreaser Meh, at least we'll own one of the cleanest H's on the road.

[alun111]

If you're painting the frame i'd recommend nitromorse. Strips the paint down to bare metal, ready for priming and spraying.
____________________
Summer: '00 Honda CB600F Hornet
Winter: '93 Suzuki GSF 400 Bandit VP Variable Valve
Past Bikes: Lifan LF100-5 Lifan LF125-A Honda C70

[Endless Nameless]

Minor update: Just got back from the local engine specialists who have told us that they can hone the barrel and it'll all be well and good. And it'll only set us back a tenner, which is rather handy. So hopefully we'll have a complete engine by Christmas

Gotta go back to the scrapyard now and say that we no longer need a head. Will need to try and get a decent seat as ours is rotten, rear mudguard for the same reasons, and a centre stand as ours appears to belong to something totally different and doesnt hold the bike. Also a crankcase cover.

Frame is gonna be hand done, 'cos we are skint student types, so it'll be lots and lots and lots and lots of wet and dry and elbow grease. Adams done it this way before with a SR125, it works alright. And it'll be easier this time 'cos there's 3 of us to share the work! If Tristan gets out of bed before it's getting dark anyway...

Any ideas of doing the bike up as a cheap and easy runabout or to sell on at a small profit having had some fun have gone totally outta the window with the realisation that we needed serious engine work. We're gonna try and do the bike up to the best of our abilities and budget and try and get it as smart as possible, while using as much of the existing parts as possible also. Then Adam will probably ride it as his bike, but we'll all pinch it when we fancy a go (he doesnt know that bit yet).

Aiming to be done for the summer, so keep watching!
____________________
A2 passed 22/07/08; restriction up 22/07/10 (just so I don't forget)
'79 Suzuki GS550E. Yes, that's a GS550, not a GS500.
Supersports "In a video editing competition I'd kick your sorry ass"

[Spearson]

If anyones wondering what this illusive sr project looked like heres a quick idea of what i started with and what i finished with. Enjoy

At the start:
https://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u318/Spearson18/P1010016.jpg

https://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u318/Spearson18/P1010017.jpg

Once finished:
https://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u318/Spearson18/P1010058.jpg

https://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u318/Spearson18/P1010044.jpg

Though i should add something even if it osn't constructive, scince i hav not said much yet. But hopefully the H100 will turn out the same way my last project did.
____________________
'05 Yamaha Jog R (in fancy plum) sold to a chav, '91 Yamaha SR125 (stripped and rebuilt) sold to an Australian, '88 Honda H100S (crap) bought by 3 retards

[Tristan.]

Day six (again)Adam's sent me the photos for the morning (and most of the afternoon ) of saturday, when I was asleep, so this is like a flashback, only not.

Anyway, the frame at the start of the day:
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/112507135335.jpg
the rest of the bike:
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/112507135313.jpg
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/112507133033.jpg
Comparison between Elsie the H and Alice, my NSR:
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/112507135405.jpg
Also gives a good shot of our shed, with custom built bike ramp.

And Adam apparently has OCD, and polished a cooling fin on the head, now we have to do the rest of the engine like this:
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/112407213021.jpg

Finally, Im sure the question on the tip of your tongues is "what do you guys look like, well it probabky isnt, but I took some funny photos of people so I want to post them.
Matt, plugged into his laptop
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/PIC_0032-1.jpg
Adam, looking perfectly normal:
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/PIC_0033-2.jpg
Me, acting normally.
https://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/tristanthe/111707203445.jpg

[Fawbish]

acting normally and that....like dark alleyways do ya?


its looking good lads, wish i had the space/time to do something like this.

Frame looks fairly alright already.


And if youre gonna get it to that standard....dear lord I feel sorry for your fingers
____________________
"Oh....it looks like Average Joe's is forfeiting the match!" - "Yeah, its a risky strategy but lets see if it pays off for 'em Cotton."

[Jamie S]

Looking good lads , now you have got it all stripped down Its all up hill now ,It's great when you start rebuilding a bike and you get to see it looking all shiny and new again.
If a part won't cooperate/won't go back or you can't remember were it goes ,LEAVE it , go spend 10 mins on something else (Go get a cup of tea ect) and come back to it, I find this helps , and, can often mean that you don't lose your rag with it and end up braking something.
Another thing I like to use when I work on bikes is a small £5 magnetic parts try like this: https://www.axminster.co.uk/images/products/MTRAY_l.jpg
First of all It's a hand place to keep spanners with in easy reach, but it also means you can work in awkward places and still be able to get to the bolts needed to rebuild the part. (say under the frame for example)
Keep up the good work guys.

[Fawbish]

Tristan the , Spearson , Endless, Nameless , (and the dog)



Whats happening with it lads? Any updates?
____________________
"Oh....it looks like Average Joe's is forfeiting the match!" - "Yeah, its a risky strategy but lets see if it pays off for 'em Cotton."

[syl]

[Fawbish]

Does biker count as a minority?
____________________
"Oh....it looks like Average Joe's is forfeiting the match!" - "Yeah, its a risky strategy but lets see if it pays off for 'em Cotton."

[Endless Nameless]

We're all straight (actually, not sure about Tristan!) white males I'm afraid. I'm technically Catholic but only on paper. I suppose Tristan could go in with his lid on (tinted visor!)
I think he's gonna go shout at his local halfords when he goes back home for Christmas.

Lack of progress can be attributed to a few things: The weather down here has been absolutely horrible, making working out in the garden a definite no, and for that matter for the other 2 even walking over here a bit of a chore! We've also got a hell of a lot of uni work on atm, and we've all run outta money!

The frame is going up to Gloucestershire over Christmas so me and Adam can strip the paint and he can respray it. When we get our student loans through for next term the engine is our first priority, then well be after replacements for the unsalvageable bits (seat, rear mudguard, brake lever) and ordering some new replacement bits such as brakes.

There will also be an (on the road) cg to play with shortly. That'll be my bike so it probably wont be staying standard!
____________________
A2 passed 22/07/08; restriction up 22/07/10 (just so I don't forget)
'79 Suzuki GS550E. Yes, that's a GS550, not a GS500.
Supersports "In a video editing competition I'd kick your sorry ass"

[Fawbish]

Ah fair play mate. I look forward to when you start making progress again
____________________
"Oh....it looks like Average Joe's is forfeiting the match!" - "Yeah, its a risky strategy but lets see if it pays off for 'em Cotton."

[Tristan.]

If people are checking in ot this I suppose it's only polite to do some work, I'll organise a date at some point today,

I quite want to get my teeth into a wheel, when something big like that looks shiney you really feel like the projects moving. The engine would be fun too, though the plan is to grab a drill over Christmas and use that, so it'd be a waste of effort.

I think on sunday, while I pick up Matts CG from Yeoville (95 miles of backroads on a 26 year old bike.) Matt and Adam are spending a romantic day in. Just them the frame and a bottle of nitromors, one thing'll probably lead to another and there'll be friction and lubricants all over the shop!

Anyway, we have a week and a half before we go home for christmas, hopefully before then we can get the majority of the small bits cleaned up, so come spring we'll have a nice frame, and we can concentrate on the engine.

Thanks a lot for all the comments so far! It makes this feel a lot less like work.

Jamie: Some sound advice ta. I have a bunch of little magnets in my toolbox as it happens, handy things it means that after a few weeks anything I put in there becomes a bit magnetic, and they can also hold things to things, such as over holes in engines where you dont want stuff to fall in.

Fawbish: Cheers for following this, and have you never walked round in full gear and a black visor late at night? You should try it.

dmahon: Cheers for that, the first time we went in, two of the till people just looked confused by me saying it had a lifetime guarantee, but one lass said it didn't cover ratchets, which I wasn't expecting. Had originally planned to be going in all angry like, and had the "ask for manager, get name and head office details, make note of writing it down" planned but it's different on the day. I like the idea of going in when it's busy though I think I'll take a closer look at their guarantee and see how clearly they make out the ratchet clause. I specifically checked when I bought them though "do these have a lifetime guarantee?" and the till chap just said yes, which I'll say in my letter.

So yeah, cheers youve pursuaded me not to take this £7.50 lying down.

Though I supose I could just break the other end and get a replacement