My 1959 Norton Dominator 99 (600cc).
I can talk a long time about how some things are "just right" and to me a Wide Line framed Norton Dominator looks "just right". The way that the bend in the down pipes mimic the bend in the frame above the oil tank. The way the bottom edge of the exhaust system follows the bottom frame rails and and the general flow from the seat through the tank. It looks like a perfectly designed bike to me. To use another phrase "it pleases my eyes".
I have wanted one of these bikes for many years and about 10 years ago I managed to pick up some Dominator parts to put away for a rainy day. Last year I managed to pick up a basket case 59 Dominator (pretty empty basket though). Over the winter I've collected even more parts for the rebuild and now its time to start to put things back together.
I've decided to post the pictures of the rebuild on this site so everyone can check on my progress. Hopefully this will speed me up a bit.
The crank was reground at a local company. I split the crank and cleaned out the sludge trap and rebuilt the crank. I cleaned up the con rods with a polishing mop and refitted them with new big end shells and nuts.
I had the crank cases bead blasted at a local company but I wasn't happy with the finish as it was too matt. So I sent them off to be vapour blasted. The finish is now just what I was looking for and they look like new castings.
I've fitted new main bearings but I've gone for ball and roller bearings as fitted as standard. I know some people prefer to fit superblends but I cant see too much wrong with the standard layout if the bearings are good quality and the bike isn't going to be raced.
As you can see I've splashed out on some genuine Norton parts.
Well, setbacks happen in in most major rebuilds but I didn't expect to be supplied with an incorrect main bearing. So much for my comment about fitting the standard ones. After finding out about the mistake I had to strip the engine down and remove the incorrect roller bearing. After a couple of hours of heating and tapping I decided to have it removed by the old method. My Father in law welded a piece of flat bar across the outer race and gave a good rest for a drift and big hammer.
I've built up the rest of the engine and fitted some engine plates from our scrap bin while the others are being painted red. I think the engine is looking good now so its time to move onto the chassis.
Since I stopped working for Durham University and started working for myself Ive found that its very difficult to find any time to work on my own projects. I have painted a lot of bikes in my time, including my metal flake commando. But this one was going to take a long time and a lot of space. I put the whole lot into our Ford Galaxy and drove it over Ireland to paint it.
A combination of the hottest day of the year drying the paint as it left the gun and also a lot of red bike and not a lot of time resulted in a paint job that I wasn't at all happy with.
Time to call in the professionals and concentrate on what I do best, which unfortunately / fortunately is not painting.
I wanted a good paint job but didn't want it to look too good as, firstly I was
on a budget and secondly I didn't have time to restore it to concourse standard
so I decided to have it painted but not polished. The paintwork was done (very
well) by Steve at Rainbow Rides and I've started to assemble the bike now.
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Almost there !
