classic motorcycle forum

What year are these.
And who were the maker, BSA was gone by then ?
Looks Italian ?

http://www.oldtimer.lu/photosmv/mv_EJv9IM.JPG

Seek, and ye shall find out these things.
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/nvtrangerbsajunior/index_files/Page500.htm
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/nvtrangerbsajunior/index_files/Page467.htm

No mention of spares though, good luck !

If you have ever been to a gathering of military vehicles, you will appreciate  that that "service green" colour covers about every shade of green in the rainbow.!! 

WW1 military paint was generally darker more glossy shades of green, rather than the WW2 type 'flat' type green chalkboard paint..

Best if you can find a sample somewhere on your bike to match it from ?  In a frame tube end, or under the magneto, etc ??
Or find someone with a similar bike, and get a match from them - then you will have 2 bikes in the same shade.

My garage door once came in an 'olive bronze' shade - I went down to the hardware store and bought a can of paint in that colour, and it was quite a good match for a 16h Norton (WW2 era, obviously). Someone has compiled a chart of all the greens they have found on 16h Nortons - even out of the factory they could vary day to day, depending on who mixed the paint and what they had in stock.  WW1 era may not be any different ?

So, can you find a sample to match from on YOUR bike ?

P.S. Can you find a good pic of your model back in its day ?  A good b&w pic will at least show if it was a lighter or darker green, and probably give an indication of how glossy it was ?

The crank would be at -0.030 ?
It MUST be dismantled and the sludge trap cleaned out - or engine failure from blocked oilways is always possible.
Don't clean it out, and then grind/polish the journals !!

What do the valves look like ?
Make sure the shop doing this has done Norton guides before, or they will almost certainly screw it up.
Hard to tell what those seats look like.
You need a VERY experienced shop to get those right.
And unless absolutely worn out, best left alone. ?

P.S. Can cylinders be resleeved once they are bored to +0.060 ??

Have no experience whatsover with water based enamels.
A 3 sentence summary of whats what with painting them could be useful.
Or even if they are toxic....

Don't let that 'machinist' do ANYTHING to that head until you have at least 10 opinions on it.
More Norton parts have been ruined by folks with good intentions than than than....

Painting is like everything - more opinions than you can count.
A dozen folks would have at least 2 dozen ways to paint the same type of paint !
Let alone the myriads of different paint versions these days.
And as my painting teacher said, good painting is 99% preparation, and then just wave the spraygun at it.

How to spray these new waterbased enamels would be of some interest though.

P.S. If your cylinder is well worn, the base spiggott is where you look to determine if it can be used, or needs sleeving.

Cheers.

Guess we will never know!

You have hit all the nails on the head !
So we do know.

One not mentioned though was AUTOMATION. All the car makers of the time were switching from near individually hand made cars to mass production = production lines. The Mini was quoted as ending more than a few motorcycle factories economic dreams.  Only Nortons (was it, with the Commando ?) actually got to this line of thinking (pardon the pun) = a production line, rather than bikes built on benches.

Oddly these days, hand-made is back, its come full circle ? . Harleys can be had wth as many individual specified options as ypu can imagine - a modern day Brough Superior, in the showrooms . And Aston Martin and Morgan pride themselves on their hand-built quality. At a price, at a price.....

What a marvellous engine that JAP4 looks to be.
Just what Nortons were dreaming of, as someone said.
Shame nothing came of it ?

JAP v-twins were about gone by then.
Postwar, the new design 1000cc ohv wasn't taken up by anyone.
Only a few speedway merchants still used the v-twin racing engines....