Manky's new Reliant trike.

[tazet]

  Now there is an idea. No I'm not that cruel. I actually enjoy working on engines. Always wanted to be a mechanic. 

[Manky Monkey]

Nipped over to Newbury after work today & collected the rear wheels from the powder coaters, (A & C Shotblasting). After 4 1/2 years use on my last trike, the 5 spoke alloys were looking a little tired. They've been done in the shiniest silver they had in stock. It's not as reflective as chrome, but matches the polished ally front wheel pretty well, which is the idea. Saddlebags has machined a slot into each spoke to mimic the ones on the Comstar front wheel.
Then I nipped round the corner to the local tyre depot & had my old tyres re-fitted. They're too old to pass the MSVA, but had hardly any wear. so I'll use Ska Man's wheels for the test, then fit these afterwards.
Wheels, 20 quid each to shotblast & re-coat.
Tyres, 5 quid each to remove from the rims & a fiver each to re-fit & balance.
I've also finished welding a couple of tabs on the back axle & been through the making of a new steering stem with Saddlebags. So much to do. 

[BikerGran]

Wheels look excellent!  Wish I could find somewhere local to do Doris's wheels at that price!

[Manky Monkey]

The guys at A & C, (Albie & Craig, strangely enough. Father & son. Scottish, but nice blokes anyway), seem to charge whatever they feel like at the time. Cash in hand. Wheels are always between 20 & 30 quid each to blast & coat. They had an advert in Back Street Heroes, alongside Flap's trike article. Don't know if that's brought them in any extra work, but they've had 3 enquiries about having trike frames built!
If you can do without Doris for a few days, bring the wheels up & I'll take them in for you Bobbi.

[Manky Monkey]

No real progress on the trike today. Fell asleep when I got home from work this afternoon -a common occurence among Posties apparently, so only had a few hours this evening. De-gunged the axle ready for painting then found I haven't got any stainless bolts to fit anything together, so will be running about tomorrow morning, looking for a tool shop that's open at weekends to buy enough to fit the axle into the frame at least.
I've also ordered a full engine gasket set. The engine mounting plates, sump & clutch arm are all being powder-coated in gloss black at the moment.
It'll be great to see this thing on it's 3 wheels at long last.

[Manky Monkey]

No discernable pogress again today. Managed to find a tool shop & buy most of the stainless bolts I need to fit the axle. The welds on the various lugs I'd welded to it needed filing down though, so Tazet helped me with that this afternoon. Then Flap & I slapped a coat of thick gloss black chassis paint on -on the axle, not ourselves. It'll need a second coat though, so I'll do that first thing tomorrow morning before we head for the Southampton MAG show. That means it won't be dry enough to fit until Monday when I get home from work.
We spent a pleasant afternoon tinkering with various trikes in the sunshine at Ska Man's garage. Flap. Ska Man & Simon will be riding down to Southampton in the morning with Tazet & I in the van bringing up the rear.
Got home this evening to find the Postie had delivered the gasket set I'd ordered yesterday afternoon from Michaels of Selby, Yorkshire. Damn fine service. I recommend them if you need Reliant spares.
So full steam ahead with the build on Monday.

[BikerGran]

If you can do without Doris for a few days, bring the wheels up & I'll take them in for you Bobbi.

Can't really be without her but might get hold of some even mankier (oops!) wheels to use in the meantime...

[Manky Monkey]

Just give me a shout when you have Bobbi. I can nip down in the van & pick them up from you. Steels or alloys?

[Dave_postie]

i know you like green mr manky, but painting your axle in coloured co ordinated gloves to match your frame is going a bit to far me boy. and flappy looks like he s pointing out the bits you ve missed, hee hee.

[Manky Monkey]

I was actually painting the bits he'd missed.

[Dave_postie]

but where s his paintbrush, it not in the picture,

[Manky Monkey]

Tis. It's hidden behind the axle. Honest.

[tazet]

Flap did have a paint brush too and god knows how they managed to get paint on the axle. Kids   

[Manky Monkey]

The axle's had two coats of paint now, but it's rubbish. We've used Frost's chassis paint before & it was lovely -really thick & smooth. This is much thinner & runs all over the place. Still tacky too. I'll have to give it a week or so to fully harden then gently go over it with some very fine wet & dry to take the runs & bubbles out, then buff it up with some black, coloured T Cut. Failing that, I'll mask up the frame & re-paint the axle with something else. Looks fine in the piccies but the camera's definitely lying.
Fitted the axle oil seals today, then slipped the driveshafts back in with their new bearings. We recently had a problem with Simon's trike leaking oil from the axle tubes. Turned out he had the wrong bearings. Reliant ones come in both Metric & Imperial sizes. Sorted now.
Put the new caliper mounting brackets on, then Nige pointed out I'd fitted them back to front. Bugger. Took them off again, flipped 'em over, then fitted the new 1200 Vauxhall Nova discs. 14 quid a pair, brand new.

[Manky Monkey]

These are the driveshafts from my old trike -Ska Man's one in it's previous guise. I kept them cos I'd swapped the wheel studs for beefier half inch jobbies, courtesy of SpeedShack in London, (check the Links for Commercial Purposes bit of the forum for thier address). I'd also drilled & tapped disc locating holes into the face of the hubs.
Flap's pinched one of my caliper hanging brackets while I've been off the road so now I've got to get another pair powder-coated up.