Needed: Tool boxes for 1947 Model J

What's missing from this photo of Warren's 1947 Royal Enfield Model J? 
A second tool box should go in that triangular space behind the gearbox.

 Readers, can you help a British motorcycle enthusiast in search of some rare parts? 

He wrote this in an email to me: 

"I am restoring a 1947 Model J 500, Royal Enfield, but can't seem to find any of the correct kidney shape tool boxes. Hitchcocks Motorcycles said they do not have those; (they are) plentiful on line, but the '47s were mounted to tabs on the frame, later models were not. So, possibly you know someone who may have a set! My name is Warren Novak, and I live near Sebring, Florida." 

Warren sent along some photos of his surprisingly handsome Royal Enfield Model J. 

He further defined his hopes for it in a post to the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group:

"It was stored in a barn in North Carolina for many years. I am attempting to restore it but there are missing parts. I am hungry for information and parts for this motorcycle.  It is a matching numbers motorcycle and well worth the effort to restore. Any help is appreciated."

Please contact Warren Novak at wdgn396@gmail.com 

A closer look at the photo from above. Note the two brackets welded to the frame. They would hold the tool box Warren needs.

To me, he wrote, of the Model J tool boxes he needs:

"The mounting brackets are on the frame! That's the difference from the later models. Nobody can tell me if there are holes in the tool box for bolts to go into it, or are there threaded nuts or Rosans (fasteners) welded inside of the tool box to accept the bolts.

Image from YouTube shows the box Warren needs, held in place by two fasteners through frame brackets.

"I got it from out of an estate sale, where a fella bought several Enfields. I think he felt this one would require too much restoration work. I did get new small tool boxes from Hitchcocks, left hand and right hand, that attach to the handstays. It came with a new piston and rings, which have been installed.

"Need a correct muffler as well. Used is fine. Too expensive from Hitchcocks! Shipping, makes it too much. Could use a kickstand, side or rear.

"As far as I know the gas tank is original, as it wouldn't fit this bike otherwise! Fits the brackets, seat, and very tight tolerances!

"I like to restore old English motorcycles, especially those I rode during the 1960s. I enjoy the Dania Beach Vintage Motorcycle shows, and have won several First Place awards; most meaningful to me is Most Original English Motorcycle for my 1964 BSA Lightning."

Warren learned what he had was a Model J from Graham Scarth of the Royal Enfield Owners Club (UK), who has studied the factory records. Graham told him that it was delivered to the distributor, Whitehall, in New York in March, 1947.

He also learned it was rare. Until he sent the numbers and pictures to Graham there was doubt that his was "a real Model J 500."

More common in 1947 would have been the similar looking 350cc Model G, or, in later years, the 500cc Model J2 (the "2" meaning that, although still single-cylinder motorcycles, they had two exhaust ports and thus a showy muffler down each side).

In 2011, Graham wrote me that "in the immediate post war years, Royal Enfields for the U.S. all went to Whitehall in New York."

His "quick trawl of the database" then showed that 214 Model Js went to Whitehall in 1947. Not many. And who many of these would still exist to donate their toolboxes?

I've rarely seen one. In 2010 I noticed an ad for a battered Model J in Texas. And it had lost its toolboxes.

Warren told me that his research has found only one other 1947 Model J in the U.S., and two in Canada.

"I don't know any Enfield owners, and maybe if I knew a few, I could get more Information on sources of someone who might have an item that would fit my Enfield!" he wrote.

Drop him a line if you can help.

Idle 3 years, Royal Enfield starts first kick

 Royal Enfield enthusiast Dave, of the UK, has favored this blog with a number of his favorite projects. 

In 2016 he sent photos of a 1993 Royal Enfield Bullet purchased with a 700cc Royal Enfield twin-cylinder motor in it. 

In 2018 he shared his 1959 Royal Enfield Constellation, almost new when put away by the original owner, but descended into rust and cobwebs by the time he found it. Dave used the paint preserved under the tank to provide a perfect color match for his restoration. He nicknamed it "Poppy," after a pet cat.

Now he has sent a video of another reawakened Royal Enfield motorcycle running.

"I decided to fire up the 1999 Bullet 350 'Tasha' after three years' storage. Fresh fuel from the workshops' mobile tank link (like a medical drip type thing), five minutes battery charge and first kick she fired up perfectly. Not bad for points ignition I guess. Yes, this one is one of my dual sparkplug conversions running iridium plugs and yes I named another one after one of my cats!

 "Now it's time to get her out and put her back on the road for the summer. Oh, to add, an English summer is usually wet and windy."

Watch the video, and listen to it. There's something unusual about it.

"Such a great sound," I replied to Dave. "Why can't I hear the valves??? With my 1999 500 Bullet, at the distance shown in the video, at least half the sound would be clatter. And that's with a fairly unrestricted muffler. I don't think I've heard a Bullet that sounded better than Tasha."

As for English weather, I offered this consoling thought:

"English weather, I've read, can be unpleasant and I have lived in places (Chicago) where winters were long and dreary. But the upside is the joy of having a fine day in spring, the rare perfection that makes you glad you have a motorcycle.

"Ummm. Right?"

Rusted Royal Enfield reborn in restoration

Five years parked outdoors left this Royal Enfield rusty.

Remarkable photos of the "rebirth" of a rusty 1981 Royal Enfield Bullet 350 in India caught my attention on the Team-BHP website recently.

A contributor who signs himself H. Vishwanathan shared the story and pictures of the motorcycle, which is older than he is.

He was looking for a Royal Enfield Bullet in good condition when a friend told him he knew of a motorcycle that had been parked for five years after its owner gave it away and moved to Singapore. The writer took his mechanic along to see it.

"Sunday morning at around 10 a.m. we went to his place and we see the bike standing in the open fully rusted and in a very bad shape," he writes. But the mechanic saw value in the motorcycle and it was purchased.

Imagine this as the starting point of a restoration!

"Once we reached the mechanic's shop and unloaded the bike, there were some customers at the garage who had a look at the bike and asked me why had I picked up such an old and corroded bike. They were not sure if the bike could be restored back to its original beauty. This was the question in my mind too," the new owner admits.

You can read the full saga and see many more pictures on the Team-BHP website. In particular, check out the amazing "After" pictures of the motorcycle as restored.

Whether or not you like the style you have to admire the restoration.

I can't stop staring at the "Before" pictures of the motorcycle as found and wonder if I would have had such courage.

Memories led him to restore beloved Royal Enfield

Before and after pictures of the same Royal Enfield Bullet.

A Royal Enfield Bullet sat unused in India for 20 years, falling into sad condition, before its owner returned to India, had it restored and shipped it to his home in California.

It was all the memories associated with it that prevented Charles Fernandes from just selling the motorcycle at any point over the years.

"How do you sell memories?" he wrote. Here is his story:

"I bought this bike new in 1971, and by 1981 I had put in about 200,000 kilometers in south India. Then came marriage and a child, and my riding days were muted.

"I had kept the bike in good condition. The month after I got the bike, I took it to Seenappa, a very trusted mechanic in Mysore, a city 90 miles from Bangalore. He took the entire bike apart and put it back. He explained that they might not do a thorough job in the factory.

"He also gave it two overcoats of paint. It was at this time I made the only change to the bike: I painted part of the tank a metallic maroon. The rest of it, I tried to keep original.

On a trip to Nagarhole National Park south India in 1973,
Charles' Royal Enfield is at left. He is at far right.

"In 1990, I was accepted for a master’s program in zoology at the University of Wyoming. Many people wanted to buy my bike since I was leaving the country. This was the bike of my youth and an extension of my body. To everyone else, it was a bike to be sold and bought.

"But to me it was a trusted friend that had brought me home safe every time. When it was out of gas in the middle of nowhere, it accepted kerosene without a complaint. It would come home from a romp in the jungle and then have a flat (there would be a big acacia thorn in the tire).

"Close encounters with elephants, terrorists, did not matter. It always pulled through each time. I took my future wife on it on our dates, and when my son was born, I took my wife to the hospital in the middle of the night on it. Am I sentimental about this bike? Of course not!

"So I politely told the prospective buyers that they just did not have enough money to buy it

"Even at that time, I had decided if this bike became too old and unusable, I would just clean it up and keep it in my living room. But we left it back in my mother-in-law’s house 'til we could come back from the U.S. Life had other plans. I went for a second master's, got a job and moved to Redlands, Calif. in 1998.

Restoration used as many original parts as possible.

"The bike stood and slowly rusted away. It hurt to look at the pictures they sent me. There was no way of bringing it here. Involved too much of time, money and effort. So I pushed the thought away from my mind.

"In 2009, my wife and I saw a Royal Enfield parked outside Trader Joe’s grocery stores in town. We had never seen an Enfield here in 18 years. My wife was more excited than I was. We would have gone to all the stores to find out whose bike it was, but on our first inquiry at Trader Joe’s, we were told that it belonged to one of the employees, Steve Reagan.

"We met him and told him about our bike in India and we talked animatedly for half an hour. A few months later, I met Steve again in the store. He said 'I lost your phone number, but was hoping you would come in. I want to sell my Enfield, and I want to sell it only to you.'

Charles' 2002 Royal Enfield responded to his knowing touch.

"I became the owner of a 2002 500cc Enfield. Steve said the bike had starting problems, and the gears were hard to shift. Later on, I put my arms around the bike and gave it a hug, and did some minor adjustments. It started on the first kick, and no complaints from the gear shifter either. It had been about 17 years since I rode or took a wrench to a bike, but the Enfield set me right within a few minutes.

"While riding this bike, I began to think more and more of my Old Faithful (one of my friends had named it that). In 2010, there was the first ever alumni meeting of my college in Bangalore. I was not too keen at first, but my wife felt I should go. Then came the thought of 'What if I get my bike repaired when I am there?'

Charles watches his motorcycle being disassembled for restoration.

"We landed in Bangalore, met the mechanic. I asked him to salvage every nut and bolt that can be salvaged. (Later I got the horn switch and the choke lever from Hitchcocks).

"I watched the bike being dismantled and the parts put in piles to be sent to chroming, nickel plating, buffing and painting. He said it would be done in a month, but took three months. My wife stayed back 'til it was done. She was not going to leave her child there alone.

Parts put into containers for plating. 

"Finally the bike was ready. The next hurdle was to get the papers done from the RTO (Regional Transport Office, the equivalent of DMV there) and get police and customs clearance to ship it here. That is another story in itself.

"The bike was crated and put on a truck to Madras (the same place where some of its parts had arrived from England by ship, in the late '60s). Then on to a ship to Singapore, and picked up by another ship to Taiwan and to Long Beach, Calif. It arrived here in June of 2011.

Removed from its crate, the Royal Enfield Bullet is home at last.

"I run it on weekends at a leisurely pace on a two-lane canyon road that runs parallel to a railway line, and horse properties — the scene being right out of the British countryside of the '50s. One day, I told my son to look after it well when he inherits it. He said 'That bike is going to stay in the living room after you are gone.'"