Matchless Manuals

These couple of manuals were really helpful for learning about the bike and the restoration process. Below each image there's a link to download the manual. You can find them on the side bar too.

1946 Matchless Maintenance Manual and Instruction Book

1939-55 Matchless Maintenance Manual

Some random pics of the restoring process

I took some pics in the process to remember where to put back each small piece like this.

Forks before painting

One of the seat spirngs already primed

Some kind of repair in the fork/brake area

Clutch basket, discs, springs, etc

Oil tank before painting

Original Ammeter, it's working but needed some fixing

The forks. They were a pain in the ass to assemble without the right tools.

Rear wheel and next to it the air compressor I used to do the paint job

Battery box

 I bought the bike with a modern battery, not the original Lucas one. So I had to look for at least a dummy box to put the new battery inside. I found this old battery that looks a lot like the Lucas box and then removed the inner parts. It looks like it was 3 cells inside.

Saddle ready!

Lycette original frame saddle

 I took the frame of the saddle to a shoe maker. He gave me a piece of leather and I aged it to look worn and old. I found some metal clips that looks like the original ones. The result is a real leather restored saddle, a lot better than the ugly one that came with the motorcycle when I got it.

Assembling start

 Assembling the motorcycle was a time cosnuming job, specially if you forget where the nuts and bolts where originally placed! I already knew I was gonna have this problem so I took my time.

I painted the cylinder engine with high temperature paint.

Engine in place

Still a lot of work left

Even in the above picture the motorcycle looks assembled there's a lot of work to be done. The clutch adjustement took me a lot of work. Also a lot of nuts and cables were damaged in the process and need to be replaced by new ones.

Almost done

New hand grips arrived

Handgrips reproductions

I got in the mail this throttle and grips reproductions. I expected the quality to be better, but they're ok.

Matchless Chromed Badge

Original Matchless Badges

 The chromed badges turned out beautiful, I couldn't resist and placed them on the tank.

This is the mudguard number plate, I still don't know if adding the license plate numbers or some other stuff like the model of the bike and year.

Painting

Paint, Primer and a piece of cardboard with the color.

Matchless G3L parts

 I hanged most of the pieces for painting. It looks like a torture device!

Fuel Tank with primer

More Matchless parts already painted

The Matchless in bits and pieces

The fuel tank painted "army green"

Military mudguards painted green.

More painted pieces, seat springs, frame plate, etc.

New mudguards!

The new mudguards arrived! These are the military model ones. Of course they are reproductions, but very well made and heavy.

Military Style mudguards

The old rear mudguard, too damaged to be repaired by me.

These brushes were very handy to clean and polish the parts.

Primary chain case cover polished and ready to be primed.

Cleaning More Than Half a Century of Dirt and Grease!

 I had to use Kerosene to clean the parts! This process was the most time consuming

Pieces of the motorcycle in kerosene

Nitril gloves are necessary to handle the kerosene

Headlamp polished and ready to be primed

More and more bits of the motorcycle.