Starting the Royal Enfield Restoration

As some of you know..I swapped for this 1961 Royal Enfield/Indian motor cycle in 1971. Then went on the road for the next 40 yrs while it resided in my Dads garage. He got it running about 20 yrs ago, but it was a bit too much for him to mess with (he had my 1940 vintage BSA M20 to putter around on). I got this bike out to California with the kind assistance of my sister Lori and Leigh Knudsen of MarMachine in

2008...started it up and then a month or two later..had my infamous heart surgery etc etc. So Ive had this scooter for 40 yrs..and have never ridden it.

So with the economy in the toilet..Ive got some time on my hands to finally do something with the old girl.

First photo album above is of the bike exactly as I got it..and the second one is the start of the tear down and beginning of the restoration.

For those of you who might not know about British bikes...prior to about

1970...the English used nuts and bolts with heads and threads quite different than SAE or Metric... 55 degree threads and head sizes all their own....so I first had to get a set of Whitworth (their screwy nuts and bolt sizes) tools, which I did from a lad in the UK via Ebay and a set of manuals and parts listings from another lad in England.... and then clean out the back 40 enough to set up a work area. I wasnt going to do this on my big welding table..no indeedy! So yesterday I started taking the bits and pieces off the bike, and numbering and labeling them in bins and boxes..and tonight I pulled the engine and opened it up. Well part of it. Im very surprised that its in such good shape internally. Carboned up, oil nasty as can be...at least 40 yrs old...stinky...but the bits and pieces appear to be in good mechanical shape with little wear.

I dont know what the original owner(s) did in the 10 yrs before I got it and when it was imported into the US..but they apparently didnt have a very good source of Whitworth nuts and bolts..because so far..about

1/3 of the hardware Ive removed...is SAE...regular sized nuts and bolts. And they were a bit "iffy" about making adaptions when something minor would fall off...sigh. So its gonna be a bike thats gonna require two sets of tools mixed together. SAE and Whitworth. Fortunately..I have a modest machine shop at home..and can make a lot of my own fasteners and other bits and pieces in Whitworth sizes on the lathes. Plus heat treating equipment to make them properly.

More pictures will follow as I strip and sand blast then repaint the frame, clean up all the aluminum bits, redo the front forks etc etc and then do the engine. Its my fall project...way too much time on my hands..damnit. Anyways..Ill post occasionally as the project continues.

Gunner