Coventry-Victor restoration

Following a couple of E-bay purchases, I thought I'd get on with an easy one, partly because it was sitting on the floor of the workshop and rather in the way and partly because I fancy running my mass driver with a neat MA2 flat twin.

The poor thing was a real mess cosmetically, but quite sound mechanically upon closer investigation. Really, it was just a matter of wire brushing off the three or more layers of crappy paint - splodge brown, late British Army field green and bright yellow rig paint. Arrrgh ..... It took an evening and was not too arduous or messy.

These C-V flat twins are cowled, unlike their Norman T300 competition. There was no cowling with this one and I'm going to try it without as the engine will be running light most of the time and the stubby fan blades produce quite a blast. I have another original C-V MA2 engine that I exhibited on several occasions last year and if I run it all day, the crankcase is barely warm. It is obviously overcooled for light duties and it's lighter without, to say nothing of the fact that I think the little air-cooled engine looks better in its naked state.

As the mass driver is already satin black, I decided I'd refinish the C-V in that colour and found a tin of aerosol Hammerite smooth satin black at B&Q. The one tin was more than sufficient to do the engine and this finish has the advantage of not being petrol soluble. Odd bits and pieces I resprayed with car cellulose, several coats over grey primer. Where there was brass, I satin polished it and just cleaned the carburettor internally and externally, leaving it bare zinc as its God intended.

Cosmetically, the paint will have cost no more than a tenner and as I am aiming at a clean-but-not-conkers finish, it will more than suffice.

Thus heartened, I now turn to making a frame on which to mount both engine and mass driver. I've decided to use some 3" channel section aluminium which are rather narrow for trailer ramps, but ideal for this enterprise, being light, strong, clean and big enough to raise the engine off the ground. The flywheel fan blades are larger in radius than the crankshaft centreline to crankcase base measurement, so I'll need to look at that first.

That's it so far. If you should be interested, you can look at the before-and-after pictures at

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Most are on page five, but some on page four.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

Reply to
Kim Siddorn
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Kim, What did you mean by the statement..."Where there was brass, I satin polished it...." please?

Regards, Ian.

Reply to
Ian

Satin polishing brass? Wire brushed it with a soft brass-bristled cup brush. It removes the paint and leaves the metal bare but not garishly bright - like this picture ...

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Regards,

Kim Siddorn

If you think no one cares, try stopping a Direct Debit!

Reply to
Kim Siddorn

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