1940 Serviglide

[Ricks]

Tom, is the repro cap nickel or chrome. The $60 one on eBay says it’s chromed, but the is a $69 one that says nickel.

[kartjockey]

Sorry for that!  My Ebay purchases show I bought the $69.95 one.  Nickel.  Shows one left!

[Ricks]

Thanks Tom, I just bought his last one!

[kartjockey]

Apologize for the hiatus fellas!   But I am back at it.  Laid down the paint this past weekend.   I will be painting the fender braces and the wheel pulley black.  Everything else had silver paint way down underneath!  Seeing the old silver paint helped to validate the 1940 brochures suggestion that these bikes were silver.

[kartjockey]

more

[Ricks]

Tom, is that a downdraft booth at work? I’d love to have access to one, but I just use my lowly garage. 

[kartjockey]

This is the rack that came with this bike.  After sandblasting the brazing came shining through.  Notice the comparison photo of the eyelet hole versus the springer eyelet.  it appears simplex broadened its use.  it is exciting because it validates this rack to the time period and helps prove it is a simplex original.

Comments??

[Ricks]

Definitely looks Simplex original. I wonder if the flat bars on top were for a companion seat? Also interesting that some is brazed and some is welded.

[pd]

Tom ,
Nice job on the paint . I'm envious of the booth . I just wait for a calm day .

The flat pieces atop the rack look out of place to me . Like maybe they were added after the factory .
They just don't look Simplex simple . Like Rick suggests , maybe they're for a buddy seat . I'd think that the rack would be strong enough without them , but , could be the intended passenger wasn't exactly a lightweight .

Pete .

[Bob53]

That's a lot of pretty silver paint. I'm sure it will really POP when it's all back together. Looking good! Bob

[kartjockey]

I really had to think about what I wanted to do with the luggage rack for this bike.  The cross bars seemed so abstract that I wondered if someone had added them.  But since they were brazed I decided to go with the fact that they were original.  And if not well then they are still authentic to the bike.  So I repaired what was there with braze of course!  Then put it under a coat of primer and satin black enamel.

[kartjockey]

I made a stand to assemble the Serviglide on.  Not rocket science but stable and it works.  There are some holes in the motor plate that have me curious.  There is an elongated hole by the exhaust hole and then two more by the kickstand.  I could reason the elongated hole is for some kind of hole to help mount a two-piece exhaust tube.  ONLY speculation! A certain amount of speculation will be fitted into this ride as I don't have a great deal of info on it. The other two holes I have no idea.  Let's hear some thoughts! 

[pd]

Hmm ... Would the throttle cable possibly have been routed through that elongated hole ?

Pete .

[Bob53]

Usually an elongated hole is for some kind of adjustment. This is really looking sharp. We knew you could do it.

[Ricks]

Tom, what kind of primer did you use?