mm sealed ball bearings, four very expensive 'rose-joints' and loadsa handmade phosphor bronze bushes. Getting the correct trail on them was a complete bastard. Nutty Norman got the tubes for both the fork legs and the chassis from 'A mate on the oil rigs', and pretty hefty stuff it is, too. The yokes and bottom rockers were carved from inch plate. Boy, my profile-burner was working overtime. So was Matt who had to make every part for them. If he got stuck, I would say 'stupid fucker', forgetting the design was in my head, not on paper. Every single part had to be polished prior to welding, too, which is where having Bill and his polishing business in the same unit helped somewhat Even the front hub had to be handmade and an old four-pot caliper and disc lying on a shelf and being of unknown origin, was pressed into service. The caliper is 'fully floating' and uses two 25mm bearings and two 'rose joints'.
The completed, but unplated, front-end was fitted one evening, four more Harley shocks fitted to the rear axle and when the lads came in the next morning, they gasped and said, 'Fucking hell!' It looked awesome. As though it was doing 100mph standing still and that was before work on the airfoil and back end started. But I wasn't happy with it. For a start, I knew the front end wasn't spot-on, being 1/16" out of line. Nobody else could see it, it wouldn't remotely affect the handling, but i KNEW. So out came the gas axe, the whole front was cut-off and realigned and now I was happy ... almost. I had set the rear suspension so the driveshafts ran dead straight, as they were now only nine inches long, but if I ran them at a slight angle, I could get the whole frame one inch lower, so you guessed, out came the gas axe again, all the shock mounts were cut off, remade one inch further up and welded back on. It had the exact stance I had first dreamt of.
Now, all the work up to having a rolling chassis took abut two months. If you've ever built anything, you'll know that getting it up on wheels is the easiest part. The detailing was going to take as long again. The wing/fuel tank, wheelie bars, battery boxes, auxiliary tank, airscoop and dozens of other parts were all made by your truly from stainless steel, as well as that totally unsilenced exhaust system. Bear in mind all this was done in the evenings and at weekends. I did, in fact, work on it both Saturday and Sunday (although Saturdays are really supposed to be work days). Everything was finally completed, but I wasn't happy with the side profile of the rear wing. Yep, onto the scrap pile went £75 worth of 16 gauge stainless sheet and a new one was rolled up. I was finally happy with everything on it, so it was stripped for paint and chrome.
To give you an indication of just how much polishing there was. Bill was on it for over three weeks, 10-15 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. Everything that could be polished or plated was stripped off, including the WHOLE Jaguar rear axle and ALL the fuel injection. The cam covers and a few other parts are 24 carat gold plated and were then covered with a coat of clear polyester powder. The chassis was sent to the blasters prior to being powder-coated. Actually most people think it's painted in Candy Apple. To achieve that finish, my mate Eddy managed to get hold of a sample of a new translucent metallic powder costing a cool £50 a litre. First, the chassis was etch-primed, then coated silver and put in the oven. The moment it was up to heat, out it came and the red was applied. Back in the oven, a quick bake and out again for a final coat of clear polyester powder before final baking. The time in the oven is critical even when applying one coat. How Eddy managed to do this one, I'll never know. When I went to collect it, I was stunned. It looked like it had been dipped in glass. Then a whole vanload of chrome came back and it was time to reassemble.
The reassembly took forever, working evenings and weekends. I suppose it would have totalled over two weeks full-time work and was not without its problems. The engine was back in (you have to take the distributor out, so it's tight) and I came to fit the cam covers. The right hand one went on. just. The left hand one wouldn't, no way. as a breather pipe at the back was fouling. 1 thought about cutting it off, but in the end, had to pull out the engine and gearbox (which have to go in as an assembly). Then came the nightmare of assembling the Jag axle, which had been fully stripped for plating. Have you ever worked on one? They're full of needle roller bearings, spacers and seals. In the end, it was together and in, but there was a hell of a lot of play in the trunnions, 'cause I had missed two internal spacers, so out it came again. That really pissed me off. What pissed me off even more was that the next day, my mate turned up with an MoT-failed 3.4 Jaguar. When 1 looked underneath it, there was a lovely finned ally cover and a limited-slip diff. The Jag was jacked up and relieved of its axle and the trike one also came out again. Luckily, all we had to do was change the diff and get the cover polished. Whilst it was out again, I decided it would be a good idea to fit a new oil seal, so I ripped out the perfectly good one and ordered a replacement from a Jag specialist. It was the wrong one. Being seriously pissed off by now, 1 phoned them. There's four different ones, they told me. Send the lot, I says, quoting my credit card number. They arrived the next day, along with a payment slip for £64. 1 didn't give a shit. At least I could finally get it on wheels.
The last part to be made was the dash. The scrap Jag donated a full set of instruments and the dash was cut out of stainless. The wood effect you'll see in the next issue really is wood, as the stainless was veneered in Canadian burr walnut. Everything was on it now, except the braided stainless hoses. There was, however, a slight problem. I had totally run out of money. I had even spent three month's mortgage on it and solicitors' letters had started to arrive threatening repossession. So close, yet so far. But all was not lost. I wrote a real cheeky letter to Goodridge UK, in Exeter, I phoned them and asked the receptionist the name of the Gaffer there and addressed it to him personally, enclosing some photos. The letter went something like this: Dear Sir, I'm building this amazing trike. You can tell me to fuck off if you want, but if you want your sticker on the back, gimme some hoses. 1 was amazed to receive a letter back saying, 'Bring it to the factory'.
The next Sunday, I was on my way to Devon, with the trike on my trailer. It was about then that I realised I'd built a pretty good trike. The reactions of the passers-by were amazing. After a pleasant night in the back of the van, I was outside Goodridge's factory at opening time. Now, Goodridge don't have a fitting shop, they're just a distribution centre. Benches were moved out of the way and the trike was wheeled in. I never expected such a warm welcome. They had just got back from piping up Richard Nobles Thrust 2 and now they let loose on my trike. So as not to take the piss, I had already piped up what I could with copper pipes. They were immediately replaced with shiny stainless. Shaun and Ben took one look at the two oil coolers I had fitted under the wing and shook their heads disapprovingly. They fetched someone from the office. 'Tut, tut... we can't have our hoses on them, get two new ones from the store.' I don't want to take the piss,' I said. 'You're not', Shaun replied. 'In that case, can 1 have an aircraft filler?' I asked, somewhat sheepishly. 'Would you like a locking one, sir?' replied Shaun.

Words & Pics: CHRIS IRELAND
NEXT MONTH: Steve rewires it, 1 ride it

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