James ML restoration
 

Hello to all!

First post here, figured I would post up my progress on the restoration & conversion of a 1948 James ML (Military lightweight). This is my first historic vehicle and restoration project so pretty excited to progress forward.

I picked it up September 2018 as a non runner, it needed a fuel line, clutch cable, fuel tank cleaning to get it going again. This took about a week.

My plan from there once I was confident the bike worked was to take it down to the last bolt, strip, paint, and reassembled to represent a James ML deployed in the Normandy campaign.

Currently the bike is in pieces, mostly stripped of paint, waiting for warm weather to return for painting. Aside from that there are just a few more parts I need to find or fabricate.

A few parts I have yet to source are as follows; if anybody has any leads or one for sale please let me know.
-Centre stand (plan to scratch build)
-decals
-war dept. folding footpegs; currently have the fixed postwar type
-war dept. rotating handlbar mount; I have the later postwar conventional two-point mounting.
-Lucas DU42 with blackout filter; I have a version that lacks the DU42's bulge that mounts the switch and ammeter [the ammeter is not used on the ML and the void is capped]. My plan is to have the headlight run off modern electronics thus getting away from the unreliable
-decompression valve
-War dept. Tailight

Thanks for looking!

More pics in high res: https://imgur.com/gallery/FkZ4Fx8

Hi,
Though they are a long way from you I can recommend heritage Motor Works in the UK. www.heritagemotorworks.co.uk They are traditional skilled metal workers who have worked on many WWII military vehicles and specialise in repro parts for the James ML. I have had a repro headlamp blackout mask from them which was indistinguishable from an original. As they will have original patterns they might be an option for the lightweight parts if you cannot find any originals.

Good project. Not too big one man can't work on it alone. Not heavy armour pieces. Not a fuel guzzling V8. And! Not so unusual that other builders in other communities can't jump in to offer knowledgeable help.

Your comment elsewhere about the base paint being red is interesting. Care to share that with MLU.

Thanks for the lead, I will have to look into heritage motor works for parts...

There are additional pics on the imgur link on my original post. One, which Terry is referring to, shows the original badge decal and burgundy paint. I used a chemical paint stripper which kind of made the paint come off layer by layer. Beneath the chipping black there was the original burgundy.

here is the link again to the imgur galley - https://imgur.com/gallery/FkZ4Fx8