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