68 Commando - air cleaner front plate and back plate

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Dmftoy1

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Starting restoration and wanted to double check the colors of the two plates that sandwich the air filter.

Is it accurate to say the plate closest to carbs was just raw aluminum and not polished, and the plate attached to battery tray was black? (Some distant owner spray painted everything black

Thanks in advance,
Dave
 
Do you mean this one?

68 Commando - air cleaner front plate and back plate


Front plate looks painted, is that your bike jimbo? Or what is Japaning?
 
Japaning is a coating that uses melted asphalt somehow. Came across it when I was restoring old electric fans, there are some people still using it to do restorations on the rare fans , but its a pretty nasty system
 
Now that I think of it, I remember it as an Oriental thick polished lacquering used mostly on furniture or small art pieces. Japanning. Wouldn't think it would be used on a M/C, but who knows. The paint on my 69 around the oil tank and tray was some of the hardest to get off paint I've ever seen. Acetone or lacquer thinner wouldn't even touch it. I don't have any MEK left, that may have attacked it.
 
Is it accurate to say the plate closest to carbs was just raw aluminum and not polished, and the plate attached to battery tray was black? (Some distant owner spray painted everything black
Click to expand...
First, the plate should be steel, not aluminum. As stated before, on the early ('68-'69) Fastback this plate was painted black (not "japanned"). On '69-'70 "S" and Roadster this was chrome. From '71-on they were painted silver.
 
Is it accurate to say the plate closest to carbs was just raw aluminum and not polished, and the plate attached to battery tray was black? (Some distant owner spray painted everything black
Click to expand...
First, the plate should be steel, not aluminum. As stated before, on the early ('68-'69) Fastback this plate was painted black (not "japanned"). On '69-'70 "S" and Roadster this was chrome. From '71-on they were painted silver.
 
You can look at mine and compare it to paint, it does not seem to be the same. It has the same feel and drips as a Japanning process would have. Is there anyone here on this forum that built Nortons at the factory in 1968 that would have the knowledge of what was used then?
 
Steel and painted.
Interestingly (well I thought so) I wikied "japanning", and apparently in the 19th century John Marston in Wolverhampton was a major player in the japanning trade. In the late 1800s he started making bicycles which gradually overtook the japanning side of his business, so that his factory was renamed "Sunbeam Cycle Works" and we all know what became of them.
Funny how things work out sometimes.
cheers
wakeup
 
I read somewhere that AMC at Plumstead dipped parts into a tank of black enamel paint & hung them up to drip dry. They learnt a lot about paint finishing from their takeover of Sunbeam in 1937. As Commandos were made at the AMC works until the autumn of 1969, maybe your air filter cover was painted this way.
I know Norton also used this method because my 1962 650ss (Bracebridge St.) had drip marks inside the primary chaincase from new.
Martyn.
 
Matchless said:
I read somewhere that AMC at Plumstead dipped parts into a tank of black enamel paint & hung them up to drip dry. They learnt a lot about paint finishing from their takeover of Sunbeam in 1937. As Commandos were made at the AMC works until the autumn of 1969, maybe your air filter cover was painted this way.
I know Norton also used this method because my 1962 650ss (Bracebridge St.) had drip marks inside the primary chaincase from new.
Martyn.
Click to expand...
Hi, Most of my 1968 black parts have the same finish (enamel with asphaltum? ), rear fender,headlight ears,chainguard,air filter plates,swingarm. I think you're right about the dipping .
 
+1 on dipping.....removed my 63 Atlas brake switch plate recently and found a hardened drip on lowest edge.
 
For the OP then, I guess you gotta get a big vat of black enamel(or whatever) and start dipping :shock: :mrgreen:
 
Thanks for all the input guys, I'll have to double check if the plate is AL or steel, was just guessing based on weight. :)

(The joys of trying to restore a bike that's been repainted at least once! :)
 
My 12 month 1969 Fastback front air filter cover is silver colour like the side cover/oil tank. Was this colour before I restored it.
Ian
 
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