Early Commando Shock Covers

My 1968 Fastback is missing the chrome covers on the rear shocks. I went digging through my boxes of spare British parts and found a set of chrome shock covers, top and bottoms. I'm pretty sure these are off original Girlings from something out of the 1960's. The top cover is 5 plus inches long. The lower cover is about 3 inches long. If they are installed as a pair, the long top cover rides over raised bosses on the short lower cover. This is to keep the chrome on the lower from getting chewed.

The Fastback only came with a cover on the top of the shock. The top cover I have is longer than in the factory photos of the bike, and it looks wrong. And the lower cover I have has these raised bosses that look kind of ugly, not to mention missing the chrome on the ends of the bosses.

So what came on the early Commandos? How long were the covers? Did they just use the short lower half on the top, in which case the raised bosses are visible? Or did Norton use a special cover: either a short top or a no boss lower?

Thanks for your thoughts,

Stephen Hill
Victoria,
1968 Fastback
1970 Mercury
1971 Roadster
1974 Interstate

I can't speak to the '68, but the '69 S came with a 3 5/8" top cover and chrome springs, but the covers were easily removable.

Dave
69S

Dan, thanks for your response. Does your top covers have four raised bumps around the lower edge? If so, this confirms for me that Norton used the lower half of a set of covers by itself as the top cover.

Stephen

Yes, there are four raised bumps evenly spaced around the open part of the cover. Looks like they would fit into something. I would do a picture, but I don't think it would show up very good. The raised bump is maybe 1/16".

Dave
69S

Thanks Dave,

That is definitely the lower cover. They were designed to be used with top covers that slid over the raised bumps to protect the chrome. In the case of the Fastback,Norton just used the bottom half as a top cover.

Stephen