Hi,
I've been trawling the forum for the last week gleaning information from previous posts and still have a lot more to read through.
Tomorrow I will be picking up my 1940 WM20.
The rumour is it was originally from the RAAF Base Pearce in Western Australia, whether that is true or not I don't know.

I have been previously restoring a BSA C15, but that is now 2 or 3 months from being complete, so I have been looking for my next project and last weekend I finally found what I have always wanted for a price within my budget.

At some point someone started to restore it, but never finished.
Here are a few photos I took last weekend when I went to see it







Sorry not the best quality as they were taken on my phone.
Whether the colour it is now is the colour it was originally painted I do not know at the moment as it has been repainted in the past.
It does come with the clutch cover, parts of the clutch, foot rests and a few other parts, but is also missing a few parts like the battery box, ammeter, speedo etc.

I won't be starting working on this until my c15 is finished but I will be continuing to trawl this forum, and I'm sure once I start I will be asking lots of questions.

Just thought I would post hello and let you all know I'm out here reading all your posts and thanking you in advance for the information I am getting from it.

Thanks,
Tony

Hi Tony
Great looking bike! Wish I could find one as complete as that. It looks almost completed bar the missing items you mentioned. Good Luck with it!!

Hi Tony,

I know you will find a warm welcome on this forum. The bike has the usual mix of parts which army biokes had after having been rebuilt by the REME workshops. As fas as I can see you have an early headlamp (8"), an early rear frame and a mid war petrol tank without the cut away for the air filter on top of the tank. Apart from the parts you mention it seems prety much complete.

I do hope you have the levers with the bike because the original types might be hard to find and expensive. The battery box can be found NOS on Ebay.
The ammeter and speedo can be found but will be expensive.

Best regards,
Leon

email (option): leonhop3@planet.nl

tony could I mention you check the rear stand it looks like it is going to far forward and could be putting a strain on the lugs

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

Hi Tony..A nice place to start for sure. I'm about to put my 'desert' M20 back into European theatre colours..Something to consider perhaps if you plan to use it a lot...That Desert colour is a sod to look after, showing every greasy paw print, scuff and oil leak...Ian

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

Hi Tony, Do you live in Perth Western Australia? If so I have a mate of mine that owns a WDM20, His bike is in one piece and running. Give me a email and I can give you his phonenumber. Regards,
Dave

email (option): jeepfinger@blueyonder.co.uk

Thanks everyone for the welcome and to answer some of the questions.

Yes it does have atleast one leaver sitting in the box of parts, will find if the rest are there when I pick it up in 2 hours.
There is no spring on the rear stand at the moment which could be why it is at an odd angle, in the second photo you can see a bit of rope holding it in place.

Dave is your friend's name Micahel, as I bumped into him when looking to buy the bike and also on Wednesday night at the Vintage Motorcycle Club of Western Australia and he tells me he has one running and another mostly finished.

At the moment I think if possible I will be leaving it in desert colours simply so I don't overstretch my budget which I have already learnt from my C15 works out to be around 3 to 4 times what you planned on spending.

Hi Tony .




No, his name is Norm Chester and lives in Walliston, he is 80 years old but still rides his bike on the runs etc that are organised by the Vintage bike club, he is also in the Military Vechicle section of the car club.I also know that Barry Ford and Wayne Henderson own WDM 20's. Tony, like I said if you want his number,email me, think that I may be ringing him today, I live in the UK. Regards, Dave.

email (option): jeepfinger@blueyonder.co.uk

Thanks for the email Dave.

The bike is safely home, although the last few meters wheeling it down my driveway with no brakes was interesting...

A few more photos.

Bike safely in the carport with the unattached parts laid out in front of it.


Front mudguard bracket looks like it is home made from some bent pipe and the front stand has been broken and bodged up at some point.


Going by the frame and engine number I think it is 1942, if anyone has any more info on it that would be great.




Lots of broken fins on the head.


I'm guessing in the space filled by a few washers is where the speedo gearbox should be.


All the nuts and bolts are loose, so it was obviously just put back together at some point to be sold.

Hi Tony,

Nice project !! and good to have 2 of those nice 8 inch headlamps. The numbers looks original to me.

If you look at this thread you will find a factory(?) picture of a 1942 M20 posted by Henk very close to yours (and mine)

http://pub37.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=3155626639&frmid=16&msgid=1232502&cmd=show

Don't scrap the front stand as the partial thicker tube on the right side of the front stand is not a repair but original WD. The clutch parts are mostly from the 6 spring civilian version instead of the single spring WD type. But think it won't be hard to find an original clutch for it.

Good luck with it Michiel / Netherlands

Thanks,
Glad the front stand is original, any reason why they made one side different to the other?

Tony, if you send me an email to the email address above I can send you some photos that might be of interest to you. I have a WM20 from the same contract so have collected a few odds and ends of information.

The other front guard bracket looks like the original shape as well but hard to tell from the photo.

I'm in Melbourne BTW.

email (option): rays54@hotmail.com

Hi Ray,
Email sent.
Here is a better photo of the two brackets
As it was unpainted and looked pretty crude I took it as a home made job.

when I brought mine and had help loading it onto the back of my delivery lorry up a plank as you say tony I have fun rolling it down the plank with the help of my sister I have grey hair now

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

Know that feeling, it took nearly 5 minutes just getting it off the trailer with my wife and then I needed a minutes rest before attempting my driveway.
After getting it to my carport I had to go have a nap.

I've still yet to get it to my workshop as that has a short gravel slope and before I attempt that I want to have the rear breaks working because if I can't stop it it will go over a retaining wall with a meter drop.

All part of the fun....

Hi Tony, nice ride. Mine is from the same contract number 11101

C4636976
Frame number WM 205338
I call her Idris, we've travelled about a bit, Normandy and a few other things, and a film. rode her once or twice last year and just wheeled her out of hybernation last weekend, plently of fettling jobs to be getting on with, but nothing major, gear changes can be a little interesting at times..

I'm in the UK, know no history about mine par that it was probably sold off in Wales, or at least its registration came from Wales. I live in the UK ina small town called Leighton Buzzard, roughly 45 miles North of London. Funnily enough my childrens cousins live in Perth WA. The fuels tanks are just the right shape to give them both a very confortable rie up and down the local lane here;-)

I think there is another 11101 in the US, def a pic of a close C number, in the owners section.

email (option): kit247@hotmail.com

Hi Folks
My M20 is also from Contract C11101 Frame & engine No WM20 54567. Currently started restoration (magneto failed some years ago) and have confirmed the C number ended in 6155 also has parts of the BSA transfer showing on tank (found by sanding down the paint on the tank) so this should confirm the calculated C 4636155. It looks like Henks photos and he confirmed the bike left the factory on 13/2/1942 from the ledger. It has the ribbed front mudguard and flat rear mudguard. There was an original clutch lever on the bike with separate decompression, choke and mag levers that all appear original. Tank is the same as yours and so is the headlamp with 4 position switch (I need a switch knob with the correct offset). I also found the NZ Army number under the paint on the front mudguard (NZ.16097) and 3 different NZ registration plate numbers(from the 1950s and 60s) (All NZ motor vehicle registration records appear to have been thrown out when the records were computerised!). I dont have any history of the bike except that I have owned it for 47 years and it was rideable (with bent front forks) when I purchased it. The original paint is quite a lot greener than the mix for Khaki green No 3 on the web site.
Regards
Doug W

email (option): watsond@xnet.co.nz

I borrowed a copy of the M20 owners handbook from the VMCCWA library last week and have been thumbing through it since then.
The front cover is pretty dirty so I didn't notice until now that in small print it has 'Contract 11101' printed on it.
Here I was worried it might be a later manual than my bike and it was actually published for the contract my bike was made on, very pleased.

So is it fair to say that owners manuals that don't have a contract number on them were for civilian bikes and all owners manuals that came with WM20s will have a contract number on them?

It's probably true to say that all documentation issued with vehicles originally carried a contract number and references (sometimes printed and sometimes stamped)and there is some evidence with updated literature carrying stamps to suggest that replacement documents were also so marked, however, some surviving examples aren't but of course we can't know if they were ever actually issued or simply disposed of post-war, unissued.

It's nice to have a set of documents bearing the correct contract number but the Instruction books, especially, changed little (and the parts books didn't keep up with mid-contract modifications).