Rebirth of a Lightweight Panther. . 7, The Tinware

The mudguards as found were in a fairly poor condition with a few dents and some major splits and holes in the blades. The stays were generally rusty and bent or missing altogether so I junked most of those. I had no toolbox, chain guard.or headlamp.

Rear mudguard and seat frames.

Front mudguard.

I welded the splits and holes in the mudguard blades and made new straps to be bolted inside the guards to carry the stays. Lots of filler and rubbing down was followed by a coat of rust converter paint and several coats of primer. I am too impatient or inadequately skilled to achieve that factory-fresh finish but as long as the final result looks a bit shiny I can ignore the many imperfections. I prefer trying out these things such as welding and paint spraying myself rather than paying professional help although this approach often results in indifferent results. In the end I can live with it.

The stays were made from 1/2 inch diameter tube with the ends crushed cold in a vice using a shaped steel block to give the curved transition from tube to flat. The mudguard blades were set the correct distance from the wheel spindles to find the correct lengths for the stays. They were painted using the Teckaloid I used on the frame. The two saddles were taken apart but I found I had a better pillion seat on the shelf, identical to that on this bike but in better condition and with a good cover. The driver's seat was treated to a new cover.

Shaped block for forming stays.

I had made a rear chain guard and the battery carrier earlier in the restoration although the latter had to be modified as I had made it too wide. I cleaned up and sprayed a headlamp that I found amongst my junk but I later realised there was nowhere to fit an ignition switch. This machine has coil ignition. I found another headlamp shell which had openings for an ammeter, light switch and an ignition switch complete with key that I found in a box. Not original but hopefully functional. Spares Guru Ian Fox gave me a rusty tool box so everything was coming together.

With everything primed and cut back the tinware components were sprayed with several coats of black cellulose which was cut back and polished. It is at that stage that all the defects show up.

Front mudguard and headlamp.

Rear mudguard and toolbox.

The fuel tank needs work and will be attacked another day.

My thanks to Old Foxy.

Rebirth of a Lightweight Panther. 6. The Wheels.

Wheels are a problem in that I don't have any! A front hub came with the Game Changer and this looked usable with a 6 inch brake complete with oily shoes. It is fitted with cup and cone bearings although the spindle is missiing.

Front |Hub

          I found a spindle with cones in my piles of bits although the cones are chipped and useless. Examining the hub it was clear that the cups were a tight fit in the hub shell so I knocked them out to leave two bearing recesses 42mm in diameter, just the size for 6302 bearings. I had a pair on the shelf complete with seals. These have an internal diameter of 15mm and a thickness of 13mm, so are ideal, especially as they fit the spindle in hand. I altered the spindle to space the bearings as per the hub and made up nuts and spacers in stainless to suit.

          I also had a couple of rims laying about and selected one that appeared to have some chrome left on it. I then needed to determine what spokes were required for this hub/rim assembly so I turned to the internet where there are many programs for calculating spoke lengths. These are aimed at cyclists but I found a couple for motorcycles and surely a wheel is a wheel! Several of the programs gave very similar answers so I ordered the spokes on that basis from Central Wheel Company who were very helpful. I then decided to polish up the chrome using 0000 grade wire wool and Coca Cola as recommended on Youtube. This works well and soon I could see the logo Dunlop, and the size, WM3 - 18. What! 18 inch, I need 19! I paused the spoke order, found another rim, rather more rusty this time, recalculated and reordered. I cleaned up the rim, painted and lined it,painted the hub and brake plate and sat back to await the spokes. 

         Sadly, though not for me, the spoke makers failed to heed my instruction to stop and a package of spokes duly arrived. The Company were very understanding and sent me a second set, these to my new dimensions, with no charge.

          With the correct (?) set of spokes I laced the hub to the rim. something didn't seem right so I took it all apart and turned the rim over. Things went much better then although some spokes seemed to be a bit too long. I retrieved  some from the first package and found they fitted well. So by using spokes from both packages I achieved a very smart and fairly round wheel with the rim nicely centred in the forks. I then relined the brake shoes and assembled the hub and brake.

Front wheel in position.

         I had no back wheel until Jerry Fox responded to my appeal on Facebook. Duly collected the wheel was complete with brake, spindle and nuts but was rather rusty. I offered it up to the frame and it was clear that the rim was about 17mm off-centre when the sprocket was lined up with the gearbox sprocket. I took lots of measurements and removed several spokes as patterns then cut the rest out. In order to shift the rim over toward the brake I took a couple of millimetres off the spokes on the brake side and added the same to those on the other side. With my spoke order in I cleaned and painted the rim, hub and brake plate. The built wheel looks good, the rim is dead centre and the chainline correct. Just need a rim tape, tube, tyre and some spacers to complete the rear wheel. The hub has an internal speedo drive gear and I have the external angle drive finish it off.

Rear wheel completed.

My thanks to Richard Hoyland at Central Wheel Components and Jerry Fox..

Now I need to have a look at the pile of rusty tinware.

Rebirth of a Lightweight Panther. 5. A bit more history

I had a call from Mike who had sold me the Game Changer via Ebay to say he had received some photos of the bike from the previous owner in Ireland. These show the bike as it was about 40 years ago, even then bit of a wreck. On the front mudguard is written "Joe McKeown", presumably the previous owner. The photos are interesting in that they show what can happen to a machine as it lays around. Mr McKeown may have called it "The Princess" but it seems to have been singularly unloved.

Following publication of this post, POC member Tony McStraw in Ireland contacted me as follows.

"Hi Laurence, I became very interested in your blog when I noticed the County Antrim registration on this bike, and then I saw Joe mentioned. I knew Joe very well, he lived about 3 miles from me. Sadly Joe passed away about ten years ago; he was in his 80s and still riding many bikes, including a custom trike. I spent a lot of time with him. He had a large collection of bikes and I am sure I have stood beside your Panther. The funny thing is I noticed a Northern Ireland registration on a M60/70 on Ebay last year, surely that's not yours? The reason I am curious it that the 1947 range was for export only to earn some foreign exchange after the war so how come it had a Northern Ireland registration as that is part of the UK. That's not me being nosey just obsessed with Panthers, especially Irish ones. I came across a 1947 Model 60 first registered in county Clare, that is now safe and well in Co Mayo. Any UK Club Panthers I come across have been reimported."

Tony also sent me a link regarding Joe from Northern Ireland News.com dated 28th January 2013.

"The Man who worked tirelessly for the motorcycle world and charity groups.

Joe McKeown

It was the most appropriate tribute that could possibly have been paid to Joe McKeown as 40 motorcyclists, including two police outriders, accompanied his cortege to his final resting place. For Joe (84) was Mr Motorcycle Personified, a lifelong member and office bearer in many clubs, Chairman of Club 30, a founder member of the Clady Club and the Ulster Grand Prix Supporters Club and the starter of the Tandragee 100 event. In his 'home club, the North Armagh Motorcycle Club, he held just about every committee role since the 1960s until his death.

Joe was responsible for starting classic racing in Ireland and introducing the first classic race at the Tandragee 100. In October past he was honoured as President of the Irish Racing Association. Not only did he enjoy watching and administering motor cycle racing but, in conjunction with his genius in all things electrical and mechanical Joe McKeown loved to collect and restore old vintage machines over the years which he kept at his home in Bleary. Perhaps his most unusual purchase was a mini trike on which he roared around the roads when the weather permitted. But there was much more to Joe than motorcycling. He worked hard for charities and when he was 80 he did a tandem parachute jump to raise £15,000 for the Banbridge Portadown Alzeimer's Society Group whjch he helped set up, a cause he adopted when his wife Ena took ill as a result of the condition which ultimately claimed her life. He was also involved for many years with the legendary Josie and Walter Kerr of Northern Ireland Kidney Research Fund and a great supporter of their annual Waringstown Cavalcade which raised thousands of pounds for the charity. Indeed Joe had the magical touch for raising funds for just about  everything including motorcycle organisations and it was very difficult to get past him without having a ballot ticket for some worthy cause.

Joe McKeown was born in Moyallon on January 28, 1929, his father being a land steward there for the famous Richardson family. The McKeowns moved to Ballygowan in County Down for a number of years and then returned to their home area, settling at Clare Road, Waringstown. He was one of a family of four. Joe started his valuable service to the community as an officer with the Waringstown Company of the Boys Brigade. He attended Lurgan Tech and showed an immediate aptitude for all things electrical and mechanical, obtaining top grades for woodwork, technical drawing and engineering. He served his apprenticeship at Harland and Wolff, the Belfast shipbuilders, and then worked as an electician with Alfred Briggs furniture factory in Lurgan. He then spent a year with an electrical firm in Glasgow and then worked with the Ulster firm of Reyrolle as a charge hand. They supplied major power stations like Ballylumford, Coolkeeragh and Tandragee. His last job was with the electrical maintenance department at Belfast International Airport where he remained until he retired in 1993. Most of all he adored his family, and his devotion to wife Ena, to whom he was married for 60 years, was shown in his role for |Alzeimers from which she died some years ago. He was also a loving father to their four daughters. 

In December 2011 Joe was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and fought the illness bravely through a series of chemotherapy treatments and was given the all clear in July. Sadly he passed away on Monday of last week as a result of pneumonia following a short spell at Craigavon Area Hospital. His great lifelong friend Paddy Hoey paid a tribute at the funeral service in Knocknamuckley Parish Church. He said "The one word to describe Joe was service He served the many interests in which he was involved with enthusiasm, diligence and commitment. If he was on your side he went all the way with you, even if he crossed swords with you it was quickly forgotten." After recounting Joe's many interests, Paddy recalled that a realignment of the Tandfragee 100 curse necessitated a remeasure. "But rather than do it on foot, Joe persuaded the owner of an A35 to drive slowly round the circuit, sitting backwards in the boot, legs dangling and pulling a measuring wheel. He recalled the circuit was five miles 333 yards exactly!" The hearse was in the form of a motor tricycle and the service was performed by two minsters one of whom says the prayers each year prior to the Tandragee 100."

The parts that have disappeared between the photos being taken and my purchase of the remains are as follows:-

The rear lifting loop, rear mudguard stays, rear footrests, battery carrier, saddle downtubes, rear wheel, front wheel rim and spokes, exhaust pipe and the centre stand. Most of this can be fabricated fairly easily, the main problem is the back wheel.

Interesting to see it before it was robbed of parts. For comparison with the wreck I purchased go to my second post.

My thanks to Mike Bagshall. 

Now to continue returning it to its former glory as shown in this photo sent by Tony McStraw

Posted on a local Portadown Days Gone By site by Jim McCullagh. 

Rebirth of a Lightweight Panther. 4. The Forks

     The forks for the 1947 Model 70 are lightweight Dowty Oleomatic forks. These use air as the suspension medium with oil damping. Each leg contains a moving cup seal mounted on a piston, three square section static seals and a rubber buffer. The piston slides up and down a guide tube compressing the air in the upper tube. The two legs are connected by a copper tube so that pressure in both is equal. These forks are alleged to give a very smooth and comfortable ride but are prone to air leakage especially when of considerable age. Any damage to the internal surface of the upper tube where the seal bears means that air retention is impossible and the only answer is to fit springs. P&M did this for the Australian market and had so many warranty claims that they were only fitted for 1947 and 1948.

       Photo left. Lightweight Dowty fork internals. Left; inner sliding tube with axle cap, centre; filler plug with static seal and outer tube, centre right, top to bottom; internal fitting and tube with static seal and balance pipe, circlip, seal retaining ring, seal, piston, buffer, washer, Simmonds nut, right; scraper locating ring, scraper ring, tapered shroud. Not shown, the inflation valve.

       The lightweight forks differ from the heavyweight Dowtys, apart from having smaller diameter tubes, in that the lightweight piston forms the upper bearing. On the heavyweight forks a resin-bonded fibre split bush is fitted to the piston as the upper bearing.

          All the parts for the Heavyweight forks are shown in my Cycle Parts Manual.

         Below. Seal set, left to right, filler cap static seal, top fitting static seal, piston seal, piston static seal, rubber cushion, scraper locating ring, scraper ring.

      I have two sets of lightweight Panther Dowtys, one that came with the Game Changer, and the other I bought via an ad on the POC forum. Both sets had damaged inflation valves so I cut off the outer part from the brass hex and silver soldered in a valve body from on old inner tube. Blowing the forks up revealed both were leaking badly. I disassembled both sets, fitted new seals and found both were too worn to retain air so I decided to go for springs, first stripping the remains of the paint and repainting. Dismantling requires a special tool, home made in this case, in order to unscrew the piston from the lower tube. The two sets of forks differ. In one the piston has slots in the top, in the other a pair of holes for a pin spanner.   

Double ended fork tool for slotted or pin type pistons.

          P&M produced a spring set for these forks comprising two upper bobbins which screw onto the tubes on the top fitting, a pair of bobbins for the bottom of the springs, and a pair of springs. The POC now produce a similar set made to original P&M drawings. 

Spring bobbins, left; upper, right; lower

          The POC also have seal sets for these forks if you want to us them on air as designed. Springs from the late Panther fork can be used; they need to be cut down and are a snug fit inside the bottom tubes on the lightweight fork. Often when springs are fitted the forks are extended too far. The ride height under air is shown by small dots on each of the lower tubes; these should align with the bottom of the tapered shroud with the bike off the stand and the rider seated. Achieving this when springs are fitted is a bit tricky and cannot be checked when, as in this case, you have no wheels.

      I tested a spring from a heavyweight Panther fork using the trusty bathroom scales and found it to have a rate of about 50 lbs per inch. Sitting on my rigid Model 75 with the front wheel on the scales gave an indicated 200 lbs so the forks needed to be set unloaded with the dot two inches below the bottom of the shroud. 2 inches by 50 by two legs = 200lbs. These springs will give a pretty stiff ride but I have them in the Model 75 and they seem fine. I found that with the springs cut down to 16 inches overall length and the upper bobbins at the top of the thread I achieved close to the 2 inch target. Whether this works in practise only time will tell.

      The forks also need the Oleo bit to provide some damping. The specification suggests filling the forks completely with 30 grade oil with the bottom of the shroud one inch above the axle fitting, then allowing the fork to close completely (with the air valve removed). Whereupon excess oil will spill from the valve orifice. You cannot of course do this with springs in place of air. I filled one fork leg in the recommended manner using diesel as it is easier to pour out than oil. I measured the volume at 230cc. To allow for the volume of the spring I did it again with the spring in place, filling to the same level as before giving 160cc. 

     I fitted new races to the headstock of the frame and the top and bottom yokes then assembled the steering using 3/16 inch ball bearings. After fitting the fork top fitting and balance pipe the legs were offered up in turn and the pistons screwed into the top of the lower tubes. Finally the outer tubes were passed though the bottom yoke and up over the static seal on the top fitting. This can be tight so was aided with a sash cramp between the bottom of the outer tube (shroud removed) and the filler plug. Previously I had drilled and tapped the top fitting on each leg for a small screw which prevents the outer tube sliding down when the clamping action of the bottom yoke is inadequate. This was a problem on my Model 75. This drilling must not penetrate right through if air is to be retained. Finally I put 160cc of 30 grade oil through the top fitting and into each leg. This all took much longer than it takes to write.

Completed Dowty forks.

Rebirth of a Lightweight Panther. 3. The Game Changer

      A post appeared on the Ebay advertising the remains of a 250 Panther but I missed it until notified by Grahame Sherborne. Close inspection of the photos suggested it was a post-war Model 70 with Dowty forks so I passed a tense week as I watched the auction bids slowly rise. No way could I miss this and I duly won it, picking it up from Oxfordshire. Thanks to Mike Bagshall.

Back home I picked through the pile of expensive rusty bits to find that I had most of a frame, (excluding the pair of saddle down tubes), most of an engine, most of a gearbox, a set of Dowty forks, a saddle, and a front hub without a spindle or bearings. The vendor told me he had brought the bike back from Northern Ireland and it does indeed have an Irish registration number, GZ8428 was registered in Belfast. Ginger (POC registrar) imparted the happy news that the bike was indeed a ‘virgin’ with frame and engine numbers matching the factory data book, having left the Cleckheaton factory together on Tuesday June 17th 1947. The engine number 47DSD338, tells me it is a 1947 Model 70 (D) with new-type timing gears (S) indicates 805 20pa gears and Dowty forks (the second D.) and build number Z1419, so it was built by Mr.Blackburn, (Z). The frame number is 20292, 661 frames earlier than the one sent over by Bruce. Coincidentally my house is number 292! The gearbox is also dated 1947 so the whole (?) machine appears to be right. Production data in the POC Library shows that during 1947 the factory produced 411 Heavyweights, 433 Model 60s and 653 Model 70s, 1497 bikes in total.

It is worth noting again that the frame number on these machines is to be found on the lug under the saddle and is a five digit number. There are numerous other numbers on the frame as each lug carries a casting number, usually proud as cast in the mould, sometimes stamped in place. These are usually only three digits long.

As it arrived.

The rest of it.

Engine (Commision) Number

Gearbox Number

Frame Number

                                        

Lug number cast into headstock web.

The Bottom End.

     I pulled it apart and found that everything was just loosely assembled, presumably for the sale. There were no balls in the headstock but two of the races were in place but upside down, and the headlamp appears to be wrong but there is a good basis there. Now I have to build two bikes but I shall concentrate on one for now using the best parts from both although I must keep the 1947 frame and engine together as they left the factory. The gearbox from the engine/gearbox assembly that started this off is complete and also dated 1947 so I shall use that. I will examine the two sets of Dowty forks and see which one is the best.

      Comparing the two front frames side by side reveals that they are identical; so much for the thought that Bruce's frame was from a Stroud as suggested in the last post.

        I couldn't resist looking at the engines and the first job was to remove the sprocket centre from the crankshaft. These are notoriously difficult to get off and a normal two or three-legged puller wouldn't look at it. Indeed someone had obviously tried this on the engine shown above as parts of the centre was broken away. I set- to to make a puller then half way through that man Rex walked in carrying a split puller just made for the job. A few minutes, some heat and a sideways wack against an anvil had then off both engines. Concentrating on the 1947 engine above I removed the timing cover complete with the camshaft to find that the crank pinion was missing. It looks like one from a Heavyweight will fit and I have several of those but are the tooth forms the same? 

           The standard pressure angle for the teeth of spur gears was 14.5 degrees until the early 1940s. My copy of the Mechanical World Year Book 1942 states that "the standard pressure angle is 20 degrees although gears with a pressure angle of 14.5 degrees (the original standard) are not uncommon." Certainly later Panther timing gears are stamped 805 20PA (805 is a steel alloy specification), these in the Model 70 are not so stamped. The S of the engine number suggests 20PA gears are fitted. Gears of differing pressure angle should not be run together as they will rapidly wear but it is very difficult to tell them apart.

             Another point to watch out for on crankshaft gears is that one from a Model 65 or 75 will fit a Heavyweight engine but they have one tooth more, 25 instead of 24. The engine will only fire every 50 revolutions of the crankshaft!

             I separated the crankcase and withdrew the flywheels, the big end feels ok but needs to be washed out. Now comes the messy job of cleaning the parts.

With the frame stripped into its component parts I removed the crud and paint using a 3Ms disc in the electric drill. The metal was treated with Kurust then given two coats of red primer followed by two coats of  black coach paint. This was slow to dry due to the low temperature but once I fired up the heating it hardened to a smooth gloss. I then bolted the frame together using new stainless steel studs and the pair of saddle stays I had made for the other frame.

 

Frame in coach paint

I shall now turn to the Dowty forks and perhaps the engine.

Rebirth of a Lightweight Panther: 2. First Steps

In early  November 2020 I lifted the rather heavy engine/gearbox assembly down from the shelf for a closer look, guiltily noting it had sat on the shelf for years with no spark plug. With the very rusty primary chain removed it turned over very sweetly. So what is it? 

The Engine number 8D247A is stamped just below the cylinder on the drive side. The "engine number" is the Commission Number used by the licensing authorities for tax purposes.  It was the key number for the bike that was replaced by the VIN for modern vehicles.  The Commission Number was added to the cases at the time that the bike was built. The suffix letter could then be added for changes to other fittings (like rear suspension) as the build year progressed.  Typically for P&M some engines, in fact complete bikes, left the factory and were sold with the same Commission Number.  There were no computers to check for duplicates back then, everything was recorded in hand-written ledgers. The engine (commission) number here, 8D247A, reveals it is a 1948 Model 70 (D) 350cc, the 247th built to the first specification (A).

Engine (Commission) number (315 is a casting mark.)

The build number is stamped on the rear of the timing case and was specific to each engine erector. It was a sequential number, with a letter code, identifying the fitter.  Some of the codes were re-used, especially after the war, which does complicate things.  Generally engine erectors worked on one series of engines, either Heavyweight or Lightweight, but if they built both types during their time at the factory they would continue to stamp the finished engines sequentially.  These numbers were added at the time of the engine build not the assembly of the bike.  The numbers were issued by the shop foreman chronologically as engines were completed to enable traceability to every engine erector in case of future problems. In this case the build number is B2200 which shows it was built by Mr.B Browne in Cleckheaton (ref.Barry Jones’ excellent Panther history). The P&M data books show it left the factory on Tuesday February 3rd 1948. (Thanks to Ginger, registrarpoc21@yahoo.com or pocregistrar@pantherownersclub.com for dating information and Ian Fox for telling me the derivation of the numbers).

Build Number

The gearbox is a four-speed Burman dated 1947.

Gearbos, 4-speed Burman

Gearbox number

The dynamo is a Miller three brush with built-in cut-out. 

Miller 3-brush dynamo, cut-out left.

This along with the main engine plates, the clutch and inner chaincase was all I had. Could I really convert this into a complete bike? 

Clutch and engine sprocket parts.

Basically the 350cc Model 70 is a slightly beefed up and improved pre-war Red Panther, as is its stablemate the 250cc Model 60. Planned during 1939/40 production was postponed by the war, starting in 1946 when the machines were fitted with girder forks. These were replaced by Dowty Oleomatic units for 1947 and 1948 when the model ceased production in favour of the completely new Models 65 and 75 with their vertical engines.

P&M Catalogue photo.

1947 Model 60 (Photo Jacques Ivens, Brussels.)

I wondered what else I could find for this model in my stash of parts which resides on a mezzanine floor in my garage. (That sounds rather grand but it is actually a crawl space over my workshop accessed with difficulty by a ladder and inhabited by a jumble of biscuit tins of unsorted bits, tyres, mudguards and sundry rubbish collected over the years.) Other than the M75 and the Red Panther shown in the last post I had built another M75 from a couple of wrecks Brian and I had bought years ago from a chap who had lots of rusty bikes stored in a row of gazebos. In addition we had bought a dismantled M70 for the POC which I roughly assembled and sold to Rollo Turner who has rebuilt it.

M75 Wrecks used for parts

Another Model 75

M70 Kit of parts

       So there should be some bits hiding in the attic. I found a pair of front engine plates, both parts of one footrest, the bottom forging of the front frame, some steering head races and a fuel tank. Still rather a lot is missing so I put the word out on the POC Facebook page and the POC forum.

Fuel Tank.

What a great club. Bruce Sharman in Australia offered me a front frame for the cost of the postage, Tom Norman offered a set of Dowty forks. Petsch in Germany sent me a top yoke and a front mudguard stay bottom fitting as a surprise!

The frame duly arrived. it has the number 20953 on the lug under the saddle. It left the factory on Friday January 2nd 1948 so is just a month older than my engine. Ginger tells me the original engine with this frame had the build number X2096, 104 engines earlier than the one I have. The prefix X was used for the Experimental Department who built the Stroud competition machines so the frame may have a different steering head angle than production machines.  

Frame number under the saddle

     Bruce had said the frame was in poor condition and even offered to cut it to make packing easier but it looked fine to me. (I know the Aussies build beautiful bikes and are very fussy!) It had clearly been retubed with sleeves into the forgings but was solidly brazed so was clearly usable. I had been unable to find the two saddle tubes I was sure I had somewhere but Fred Baggs provided a drawing and I bought some seamless tube locally, sleeved the ends and pressed them flat in the vice at red heat using a block shaped to form the curve. They came out ok so I turned up some studs in stainless steel and built up the front diamond frame. It was then apparent that the frame was slightly out of line at the back but with a lot of heat it was tweaked straight. Then in walked Rex Norton, ace welder, with a rear frame and four tins of beer. What a great chap.

The frame he brought is pattern-made for a rigid heavyweight and is over-long. However the lower forgings fit the M70 engine plates and the tubes could easily be cut down to fit. This with a couple of minor bits would form a complete frame. I contacted Max Priestley, holder of the POC stock of P&M factory drawings, and soon had drawings for the rear frames of both the Model 60 and the Model 70. (These drawings are dated July 1939.) For Max’s contact details see Sloper magazine. The POC holds a lot of P&M factory drawings but these have to be used with care as many do not correspond to the items actually fitted to the bikes. I checked the drawn dimensions against my Red Panther and they seem to match. The Model 60 and 70 rear frames are dimensionally identical but differ at the bottom fixing to the engine plates. With the M60 the tubular chainstays have been pressed flat and drilled for the fixing bolts, with the M70 a forged lug similar to that fitted to the post-war rigid heavyweights was brazed to the chainstay tube.

Trial assembly; Aussie front frame, new saddle stays,
new stand, pattern rear frame and engine.

Rear frame drawing, timing side.

I still had the factory drawing of a battery carrier which I had used to make one for the Red Panther so I set-to with some steel sheet, shears and a brazing torch and made another one. I also welded up (Rex would say not), a centre stand from metal cut from a piece of box section with an angle grinder. I also made the missing inner footrest. 

Battery Bracket drawing.

  

New battery bracket

    This of course took several weeks during which time someone pointed out that a set of Dowtys was being advertised on the POC forum. I quickly grabbed these. They are a good buy having been stored for 40 years after removal from a Panther. They don’t hold air at the moment but the bushes feel really good and the hard chrome of the sliders is perfect.

Lightweight Dowty Forks

 Then came the game changer!

 

My thanks to reach this stage go to Bruce Sharman, Tom Norman, Fred Baggs, Ralf Petscheleit, Paul Laming, Rex Norton, Ginger Ratcliffe, Ian Fox and Max Priestley.