17. BSA A10 Renovation Rear Guard Action

After a very long wait, the custom made stainless steel rear mudguard brackets have finally arrived and they fit perfectly. All I need to do is get them on the buffing wheel and polish them to a mirror finish and then bolt them on to the hockey sticks.

At last I can try the new stainless mudguard in place and to my surprise it does not need cutting at all as its length is perfect. However with the mudguard drilled and fitted to the new brackets there was one small problem. Whilst the mudguard is pressed thinner at the front, to pass between the legs of the rear swinging arm, the designers have failed to account for the two gussets on the swinging arm where the arms meet the cross tube. These gussets prevent the mudguard fitting snugly into the swinging arm and also hold the two "U" brackets, that bolt the mudguard to the frame at the front, too far away from the mudguard. The answer was to mark the mudguard where it touches the swinging arm gussets and allow for the up/down movement of the arm. I then took the mudguard back to my friend who cut out the two marked areas and welded fillet plates in place. One more check in the frame and it now fitted perfectly. So back onto the buffing wheel to re polish the mudguard  and then it was time to bolt the mudguard in place.


I made some small aluminium spacers to fit between the "U" brackets and the mudguard and some black flexible plastic gaskets to fit between the "U" brackets and the frame. Then on with the brackets with nice stainless bolts and dome nuts and the fit was excellent.

I had already decided that I did not want to re-fit the old BSA A10 number plate and rear light to the new rear mudguard and was looking through a vehicle wiring and accessories catalogue, when I came across
the perfect answer. A beautiful replica rear light with a shaped chrome housing and would you believe it, the firm was only 4 miles away? So I got into the car and went to have a look. The light was even better than I expected and although it was a bit expensive, I couldn't resist it. Of course that also meant that I needed a new number plate. So onto the Internet to order a pressed aluminium black and silver plate.

Fitting the rear light turned out to be a longer job than expected as, not only did I have to drill the rear mudguard, but one of the fixings had to be vertically down on a sloping surface and once drilled, I then had to make a sloping spacer to allow it to bolt securely onto the mudguard without distorting it.

Even the bolts needed to secure the rear light had to be countersunk to fit the housing and they were not supplied with it. So I set about turning some countersunk Allen key stainless steel bolts on the lathe. All very time consuming, but at this stage there was no point in bodging the job.

With the rear light in place it was time for the number plate and what a disappointment! I was expecting one like I had fitted on my scooter. A black plate with polished aluminium digits showing through. When I got it, it was painted black and then the digits had been painted silver on top of the black. This certainly was not good enough, so I decided to polish the digits on the buffing wheel to a mirror finish, which of course destroyed the black paint as well, and then mask off the polished digits and respray the plate black again. It worked and with the aid of two more spacers to stop the plate rattling against the mudguard, the plate was bolted in place.

One finishing touch left was the rear reflector below the plate and the job was done.

Next step; the dynamo.

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 Copyright K. Hopcroft  13.12.12 All rights reserved
 You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My Other Blogs:

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http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/1961-aerial-golden-arrow-restoration.html

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http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html?view=timeslide

1971 VW Karman Ghia Convertible Car:
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html