1940 Serviglide

[kartjockey]

Out with the old and in with the new!   Original seat board was 19/32" thick.  I found this size at home improvement stores but only in 4 X 8 sheets so ran some plywood  I already had through my planer.  Equal amounts off of each side.  No one would know but me but that's one too many!  Then applied some black MinWax stain sealer on it to protect the wood from the elements. Still really haven't found the desired cushion for it.  Like Goldilocks.  Too soft or too hard. 

[Ricks]

Nice work as always!  Only 5 months to Portland.

[pd]

Maybe a combination of a little too soft and a little too hard ?

Pete .

[kartjockey]

Moving forward on the Serviglide.  Took a bunch of parts to a zinc chromate shop in Flint today.  Some for the Serviglide and lots of other various parts for Simplexes.  And some for a 1960 chain drive tricycle.  $100 minimum so collected any parts I thought I may want done one day.

Cleaned up the axles and brake drums. Uncovered more brass!  That is one custom grease fitting!!   Axles are sort of unique as they have flats on them that need to be lined up to fit into the frame slots.  It seems like I read a brochure where Simplex was boasting 7/16" 'stronger' axles so maybe old dropouts were still for a 3/8" axle.  Otherwise, not really sure what the point of them would be.  Any thoughts?

Brake shoe surfaces look great and I just spun them in the lathe to sand the surface clean. 

[pd]

Tom ,

I think you're likely are right . They upgraded axles , but had old dropouts to use up .
But , it wouldn't be that hard to resize dropouts , either . so

Pete .

[kartjockey]

Backing plates .  First two pics are of the front and last two pics are of the rear.  These are 4" dia. by 3/4" wide.

Rodney had bonded linings on to the shoes several years back and posted about it on this site.  They certainly look like they will stay.  I did buy lining material so we shall see as I begin to clean these. 

[pd]

Those linings look pretty good to me .
I'm guessing the bonding agent has had enough time to properly cure . LOL

Pete .

[kartjockey]

Ordered some engine parts from Wayne. I asked him about the flats on the axles.  he recalled all of them being like that up until 1042 or so.  I need to find the literature where i read about the 3/8" axles.

[kartjockey]

Since working on the Serviglide I have been able to reflect on some of the receipts the owner had while running this bike.  Many of the receipts just have part numbers on them.  One is for a condenser and points. Some receipts show where he made 4 payments on a windshield. But then I noticed one for a crank pulley. No way of knowing for sure but perhaps it was changed and updated to the one piece pulley or maybe it is the style it original came with.   

Looks like Joe Filip was Messenger #279 and got a salary advance!

Plus it looks like the Serviglide was in a wreck.  Oh no!

One thing is for sure.... this bike was well ridden!

[kartjockey]

I was able to pick up my parts at the zinc platers this past week.  I met a great guy there that has worked there since 1975.

Parts for the Serviglide and other simplex parts plus parts for the 1960 Tricycle.

[kartjockey]

After reviewing brochures and manuals it appears the reflectors on these early bikes were faceted.  I have found these in a plastic lens and now have ended up with several of them.  Since finding those I have found these but in glass.  Much more brilliant and maybe more period correct.

So far quite costly and I need a couple more.  But that is the price we pay for fame!

[pd]

Glass reflectors ... Ain't nothin' like the real thing , baby .

Pete .

[kartjockey]

I cleaned up the backing plates recently.  Any stories I have heard about Simplex purchasing parts to assemble their bikes with in the early days are being validated.  British parts specifically.  Also proven with the goose neck as it has a 3/8-20 thread pitch.

   Rick has identical ones for his 1939.  Both of our rear backing plates have had the slot altered by hand.  Even though one end was squared up a bit with a file I can see the radius of that end and tend to believe it was the other end at the tip that was lengthened. After holding it in place on the frame it became evident that this would be necessary  to achieve enough belt adjustment towards the rear of the drop outs.

[kartjockey]

Sandblasted the tank. Definitely more silver paint to confirm the color of the bike.  Adjusted the mounting straps some as the fill spout was wearing a bit against the cross brace right behind the seat. 

[kartjockey]

So my cylinder had a couple of broken fins.  Ugh!  Bob Kerr says,  "well just fix'em"  He sent some pics of fins he had repaired. He had stacked braze over and over to rebuild the fins.  Then sanded them straight.  On one fin I tried this method.  Actually went quickly and once I got going with the torch it went well.  On the other fin I used a piece of 10ga. steel.  It was tricky to get the brazing tip down in the bottom of the fins but it did work out.  After the torch work I contoured the fins to match the others.