hi chaps, i just collected my new matchless G3L project and a have a couple of queries, the frame number is 58795 which dates it around 1943, my bike has the same rear wheel mounts (or rear frame section) as the one in the pic ive posted witch is a one two prototypes dated 1941 and also mine has the rare rear ribbed short mudguard, i know the fork yoke was different on the older models but i dont know the difference, has someone got a pic so i can check mine with it? mine seems to be fitted with the later smooth front mudguard and front stand, it also has alloy solid levers (possibly bowden)?, i can se what looks like army green under the black paint and there is also what looks like army rusty brown colour, mine also has the drilled holes round the rear sprocket.
apart from the later war parts fitted to mine, my bike seems to be the same as in the pic but my number dates it 1943??
barry


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email (option): mrsbfuller@hotmail.co.uk

Possibly you have an early rear frame attached to a later front section. The very early frames where a bit crude around the rear axle location. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

hi ron, yeh thats what i was thinking

email (option): mrsbfuller@hotmail.co.uk

Hi Barry,
The early rear frame had a sandwiched sheet steel assembly for the bit around the rear wheel mounting. This was a poor design which was only only used for the first contract befor being replaced by a proper casting. As Ron says it looks like you have an early rear end set up. By 1943 the non ribbed longer rear guards were being used.
Cheers, Mick.

email (option): mick@motorbikemike.org.uk

hears a couple of pics of the bike. it seems there some sort of army brown type of paint all over (under the black and grey primer) but most parts (not the rear end) seems to be of olive drab or khaki green, after giving the bike a good jet wash every thing seems to be in very good shape. nice clutch/brake levers but can any one make out what they are and they both seem to be the same side??
now i need work out weather to restore this bike as an early one (maybe in brown) or to just go with the post war in olive drab as it is a 1943 bike.


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email (option): mrsbfuller@hotmail.co.uk

Is this the barn find one that was on ebay? I was going to have a pop at it myself, but forgot all about it. It looks like a nice solid starting point for a straight forward restoration, keep us posted as you carry on with it.

Look up underneath the lower fork yoke and you should see the casting number. They are either 41/ G3L or 42/ G3L. Cheers, John

hope fully the chap might have all the engine as he said the was lots of boxes of bits but he just needs a bit of time to go through it all, fingers crossed but i wont hold my breath, so if any one has an engine/gearbox and related parts let me know.
john i will check those numbers.
im dying to start work on it but ive got this b****y 16H i cant get parts for in my way..
barry

email (option): mrsbfuller@hotmail.co.uk

from the look of it the colour is the last thing you need to worry about.

Olive drab is not a British army colour.

lots on here about paint colours.

The number on the skip indicates you are in the uxbridge area?

I am not a million miles away from you down the A4 I might be able to find you enough engine and gearbox bits to get you started.

save me putting them on ebay.

email (option): deadsheds@yahoo.com

Barry, the top Yoke of you bike is not from the first contract, so presume only the rear end was first contract.

Cheers,

Lex

email (option): welbike@welbike.net

Ken. British Olive Drab was adopted in time for the invasion to sort of bring us in line with US colours. The modern colour code is BS 298. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

I learn something everyday.

So what you are saying is that my taking my bike apart to paint it British army green, instead of the Jeep paint it has worn for the last 30years was pointless?

bugger.

email (option): deadsheds@yahoo.com

Don't beat yourself up Ken. Paint colours we could debate till the cows come home. The paint colour directives were given at certain dates but with manufacturer shade variations and using stocks of old paint and mixing new paint with old......anything could be possible. In a nut shell though. Until the out break of war, Gloss Brunswick Green. Start of war was mat Khaki Green, 1942/43 Service or Earth Brown, followed by Olive Drab in 1944. There was also Dark Earth and Black for cammo purposes, which didn't usually apply to motorcycles........Then there was the Caunter Scheme Nuff Said. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

I was a bit tongue in cheek Ron, I have had much delight ribbing people inthe past on the subject.

I always say built from NOS bits my bike is dead right but all wrong, apart fromthe Jeep paint, there were 6 different shades of green all over it, to say nothing of the brown on the oil seal holders; all out of surplus stock.


scene
anzio beachhead QM stores.

DR I need a mudguard for my bike.

QM here Private grab this one.

DR Oh thats no good its the wrong colour and not original for the contract.

QM

No need to worry son, your bikes just taken a whack from an 88.

email (option): deadsheds@yahoo.com

i decided to start work on the G3L.
what was left of the bike its all going smoothly.
all the black paint came off so easy with nitromors and a very hot pressure washer. i was amazed to find to find some nice dull army paint underneath. everything apart from the front mudguard and front stand, handle bars and headlight is a light brown coulour but the are some areas which looks like khaki or olive green.
ive already started to primer parts and plus i got my paint through today.


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note! the slots on the front tank mounts, iv never seen this on the last two bikes ive done?

also i was gona order some tyres, i was gona try thees 260928452528 (ebay)
i know the G3Ls used 3.25 tyres front and rear, the last couple of bikes i done in the past i fitted 3.25 front and 3.50 rear, now i was debating weather to fit 3.50 front and rear, what do you think??
barry

email (option): mrsbfuller@hotmail.co.uk

slots are a botch.

do you have the fittings for oil tank and batt carrier on that down tube?

can't see any,

front down tube under the bottom bifurcation usually has an extension rudimentry sump shild

email (option): deadsheds@yahoo.com

yes ken both of the stud fittings are there, the pics just a bit fuzzy.
barry

email (option): mrsbfuller@hotmail.co.uk

Be careful with them, they are fixed not unscrewable.

email (option): deadsheds@yahoo.com

Direct fire from 88s wasn't the problem at Anzio, Ken. The Germans had surveyed the coastline and were deadly bloody accurate with their mortar fire. They knew every wadi junction.

You're absolutely right that vehicles fitted with new parts must have been a mixture of colours as the war went on, especially as the parts were not catalogued or stocked by colour / shade. Even by the 1990s, Ducati couldn't manage to build a bike with all the panels in the same shade of red.

Ron, just out of interest, Norton production records show 'Green' being replaced by 'Dull Green' during October 1938 with 'Khaki' not appearing until June 1939. Period photos do seem to show a dull bronze green on some early 1939 vehicles.

Eyewitness reports and the production dates involved suggest that the majority of the British and Canadian-built vehicles taken to France in June 1944 must have been SCC No.2 Brown.

i started putting the bike together this morning, befor i go on holiday. im happy with it so far but it just needs something to fill hole with now. until i get some parts for this one i might just start working on the other G3L..

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thanks barry

email (option): mrsbfuller@hotmail.co.uk

I hope you dismantled those forks before you painted it all?

all striped and cleaned, the sliders looked good and the seals are ok, the springs look as new. all assembled and fitted to the frame and painted...

email (option): mrsbfuller@hotmail.co.uk

Lex, can you send or post a picture of the fork yoke from the earliest teledraulic contracts? i have an early G3L and have been collecting parts for it for years but i am not sure about the top yoke. the bottom yoke looks as if it was cut from a normal flat sheet of steel and not forged.

i have a parts list of and early G3L, looking down from above, as part of the casting theres two extra metal bits if you like, in a V shape from the speedo mounts to the main locking bolt, later ones are smooth. im sure thats the one
thanks barry

email (option): mrsbfuller@hotmail.co.uk

Here's a scan from the P/L, contract C1050, so not the earliest, but illustration is same as C9506.





Thought I took a picture of an early top yoke in Normandy last year, but cannot find it.

Clive, can you post/send a picture of the bottom one???

Barry, your front frame has a threaded hole for the steering damper, isn't that a postwar feature??

Cheers,

Lex

email (option): welbike(at)welbike.net

yes Lex, i will try to asap

sorry lex threaded hole??? do you mean the lug on the very top of the down tube on the underside?
theres no threaded hole
barry

email (option): mrsbfuller@hotmail.co.uk

One reason the top yoke was strengthened was the early ones cracked; rivet counting ok if you want to break your neck I suppose.

Barry, its raining and todays outside stuff is cancelled so I will be digging in the dark bits of the shed for what you want.

get your wallet out.

Ken I'm just about to go away for this week will be back Friday, so let me know what's what. Ps my wallet is always out with 5 kids, it spends more time empty. Thanks barry

Five?

FIVE of the toxic little sods?

I wonder you have any time for bikes.

a pm coming your way, as you foumd out no rush

email (option): welbike(at)welbike.net

Barry, can you tell me the details of the paint you got for the G3L.
It looks just right. Make and colour name/no would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Paul

email (option): paul@holmesfamily.ws

paul can you pm me on the email below

barry

email (option): mrsbfuller@hotmail.co.uk