Terrot MT1 Motorcycle restoration project

[RichardBTek]

Great thread. Looking forward to seeing the engine in bits.

[911hillclimber]

Thanks, but not sure I am looking forward to the engine in nerds!
Not much compression....

[911hillclimber]

Some difficult and important family stuff now settled I hope, so have got round to some trivia.
The Bike.

The plan is to get the freshly blasted parts out of the computer room here to the garage for etch primer and some black top coat.
Starting with the parts that will catch a lot of road grit etc and these will be painted Hammerite Smooth black, a glossy finish and comes in a rattle-can with good fine spray nozzles.

This process in these conditions are quite simple but protracted as the garage is not heated. Temp today was 10 deg C and looking like rain...
Firstly, cover everything valuable with covers, inc the garage floor!
So, clean the part of dust, some panel wipe, heat with a hot air gun and paint the tech primer. Wait 30 mins or much longer to dry.
Warm the part with the gun, spray the first coat of black on, wait 20 mins, warm, spray and wait 20 mins, warm, spray and leave it!

This makes for a long time for the parts to get done....but works.

Took he handle bars etc to Castle Chrome today and that little pile should be done 3 weeks after Xmas. £100 this time, the Honda was £500 and the Lambretta was £450!

I'm thinking of painting the mud guards and tank etc a dark royal blue instead of gloss black just to lighten the bike up a bit.

[smallspeed]

Finish looks great
Still really tempted by a terrot some time although not finished the BMW yet and already amassing parts for the 356

[911hillclimber]

Tooooo many projects!

The enginerring of the Terrot is surprisingly high level for what must have been an economy bike.

[smallspeed]

yeah it was kind of a "get the peasants to market" thing right? a bit like the VW beetle but quite a bit before and in a more French way (ie on a bike )

[911hillclimber]

Indeed, Terrot were France's oldest bike company, starting about 1880.
Their motorbikes were big bruisers, very detailed etc and in line with the British bikes.
The 2 stroke line goes back a long way too, mainly 125 cc so the 100 cc was the going to work bike in a poor post war France.
I like this slant on the economic design ,you can see where the engineers have cut back as close as they dare and poor manufacturing process control, such as brazing.

These 2 wheel projects are a great alternative to my normal car stuff.

[911hillclimber]

Painting all the bits takes ages, and the weather is not helping, but getting there.



Mudguards are still work in progress, but are in fantastic condition with zero rust. So different to the terrible guards on my '75 CB 175 Honda.
Going through the etch and primer stage now, but hope to be in colour inside of this week.
This then will lead to the blacking of the nuts and bolts all of which will be the originals.
I usually throw the old stuff away and use new, but they are certainly made to a different (meatier) size to todays fasteners.





I'm getting the chain guard and engine cover 'straight' but they are very thin and have a lot of surface marks so much more to do yet.

[911hillclimber]

The weather has been a bit tricky, but managed to make some progress over the last few days.

Although there are a few small 'dents' in the mudguards, I decided to etch and filler-prime and then colour the parts in a dark blue, a RAL colour all applied by aerosol.





The tank was sanded down as paint stripper would not touch the black French paint which might be different to the rest of the paint as it is fuel-proof (?).
Really tough to get off and revealed a million dents to be smooth-out. These are from the pressing of the tank sheet steel, so a lot of prepping is needed before paint.
Not sure if I should keep the tank black or continue the same blue as the mudguards (probably the way I will go).





Rebuilt the small front drum brake backing plate in readiness to have new brake linings front and rear bonded onto the original shoes. The existing ones I think are the 1950 originals which can be broken off to pieces, might have asbestos in them....
Villiers Services who are local can deal with that lot I hope on Monday.

This will allow the wheels to be freshly laced and the tyres etc built up.
It will be time then to start the bike build ready to take the engine yet to be opened up.

[smallspeed]

Awesome colour
Could the tank paint be lead based? I assume you haven't sprouted another arm since removing it or anything..

[911hillclimber]

Could be some epoxy base, but the bike is 1950 and sold as a cheap bike, absolutely nothing fancy.
Fingers sure hurt after th hour it took to clear it off....
The blue is very different in natural daylight. Pics were taken today under tube lights on a dull wet afternoon.
Against the blackI think it will lift the bike visually.
It was all black when new, so a bit boring.

[smallspeed]

Stole your trick of using a paint striper gun to heat panels before paint last weekend - will post some pics in my BMW thread when I get them downloaded, worked a treat!

[Ashley James]

I'd guess that the bike would originally have been stove enamelled.

[911hillclimber]

possibly, my '74 Honda's frame was painted in bomb proof black where all other paint 'fell-off' in comparison.
Took it to a pro blaster who said it was very tough to get off, took 2 x longer to remove than he thought.

The rest of the bike was blasted by Central Wheel Services at their new 'bike-only' blasting and painting booth and the other parts came back really clean and no blasting distortion/damage.
I think they used soda. No sand residue anywhere.

Hope to get the tank etch primed and the first primer-filler coats on in the next few days.
Fed-up with painting already!

[smallspeed]

Swap you for wiring