Hello BSA Owners.
Anybody have a source for outer Plunger Covers in Stainless for either BSA B31-Sunbeam S7 Deluxe etc.
Have sourced the inner stainless covers 2 of for each plunger unit for the Sunbeam S7 Deluxe which is close to the B31.
The Outer Covers that i have sourced are all in mild steel - painted black.
As you know they wear and show on the chrome.
Scuffs are easy buffed away on the stainless.
Any of the suspension people do it like Hagon etc.

i was told that if you hear it clonking its working i found it hard to stop the casing getting scratched well greased seems to cut it down just wipe it after use

email (option): roger.back@node6.com

You ought to be glad that there are signs of wear. Good equipment well used is treat. You just have to change your outlook, which is cheaper and ultimately a lot easier than trying to keep everything pristine.

Let it wear. Let it rust a little. Let it scuff. Let it flake. Let a little raw steel show through. Let it run down naturally. The bikes that always look the best are high mileage machines that have worn in "all the right places" and earned their right to the road.

email (option): dannydefazio@sumpmagazine.com

I'm with Graemy on this one...If something is going rusty it indicates a failure in the protection applied to it. My M21 had just about everything in stainless that could be and everything else either powder coated or sprayed and laquered. What was plated was cleaned frequently and protected during winter use with a coat of oil.(as was the whole bike). I sold it last year after covering over 30 thousand miles and it still cleaned up a treat...luverly!!...Ian

email (option): julie@wright52.plus.com

Hello,

Reason for the question is the plunger units i have are minced totally chewed up by previous owners and rusted worn out on the covers inner and outer.
Its a total strip down on both units refurbished job.
Just was asking a question for source?
If the units didn't look so bad and were just aged and worn i would leave it alone.
Somebody's been there before with either screw drivers or grips and distorted both inner and outer shrouds.
BSA/Sunbeam Stewart Engineering
I have stainless inners looking for either Stainless Outers or Chrome.
I can source new painted mild Steel outers last resort.
Then Chrome them.

Or.

Looks like i will have to make them myself

Can you make them up just slightly oversize and incorporate either an O ring in the bottom of them, or a thin nylon lining to prevent them from scuffing? At the end of the day, they are just a piece of tube with a washer welded on the top, so shouldn't be too hard to make or get made, it may pay you to go round to a car exhaust supplier to see if you can get any offcuts of the correct diameter

email (option): davmax@ntlworld.com

I would try all the usual outlets for bike stainless...such as Barleycorn Engineering. However, I suspect that outers will not be available in stainless. Plunger BSAs generally don't have a huge following and the Gold Star dealers seem to think the only one ever made was the DBD34...and for Sunbeams there really is only Stewart Engineering.
I think making them will probably be the answer..and a modification along the lines of Daves' suggestion would be well worth consideration. All the plunger BSAs I have owned suffered from that scuffing problem with the standard covers fitted....except for the last plunger I had. I fitted spacers instead of springs to that one...it handled better as a rigid bike and never scuffed the covers!...Ian

email (option): julie@wright52.plus.com

Well I like rust - not that I'm suggesting that good machinery should be neglected. Not at all. But rust goes with the territory. I've got a lot of stainless on one of my Triumphs (the previous owner spent hundreds on the stuff). But stainless never develops a patina like burnished copper or aged brass. It's a "dead" metal, albeit a practical one. And practicality isn't everything.

I know there was a little controversy regarding stainless exhausts, which I wouldn't mind so much - but only because it gets the finish people want at a realistic cost and (apparently) looks fairly good. That said, I'm sticking with mild steel on my M20.

I like the idea that every mile on the road leaves its mark.

Old guitars with worn paint, rusty pick-up trucks, sun bleached timber, faded denim, and old leather. Bring it on.

email (option): dannydefazio@sumpmagazine.com

Ian your dead right,there passed there best and when i refurbish them i want them right and maintenance free hence stainless option.

Cheers Dave for the positive reply.
I have offcuts of exhaust stainless tubing will fettle something together weld a flange etc.
Like the idea or the O-Ring or plastic/nylon spacer keep them central.
Be stripping them out shortly so see what the bushings are like etc on the Sunbeam.

Cheers for that Dave.

If you look closely at the crappy pic, you will notice there are 4 locating indents that protrude and help centralize the fork cover over the inside oil seal holder on this matchless example. An ingenious idea, which stops the covers from cockeying!

I'm with Danny on the patina issue. I appreciate the evidence of honest use, more so as I age into my 60's. At first I thought it may have been laziness but now I recognize it as a true virtue. I built a Star Twin for my daughter, a rough barn-find that had been customized long ago for a woman named Trudy, her name in chrome letters across the back of the seat. Replacing the dangerously degraded rims and exhaust with suitably used items was far more trouble than than buying new but much more rewarding.

I see the WM20 crowd torn between the rough and the bright. In this plastic-obsessed twenty first century there is no question on which side I fall.

Jeff

email (option): jjbandoo@aol.com

For sure it will be a never ending debate about the relative virtues of the way a machine is presented. When I first rebuilt my M20 with all the dull chrome and Cadmium plating and all the correct parts it was the only one around. These days that style is a bit more common, partially because the bikes have accrued a value that warrants the extra spending and generally because the average owners knowledge base is now much wider...but patina will always be with us as well!!...Ian

email (option): julie@wright52.plus.com

i am for the patinated look as if its being used and not straight from the factory i brought a b31 that looks in good condition but while rebuilding the engine over the last year or so( honest ian i am getting there) i have found lots of the nuts/bolts are metric i dont know whether any body would know unless they dismantled it before buying

email (option): roger.back@node6.com