Saroléa 450 mono cylinder 1950.

[Philippe]

Hi guys

last year my friend Bart bought an old bike, a military version of the belgian made Sarolea Estafette.
He asked me if I would repaint it and I couldn't resist the challenge.
The bike is more or less complete and runs and rides.
It's insured, immatriculated as an oldtimer and he already used it on the road.
A few weeks ago he brought it over to my place.
So today, I started the dismantling of the old lady.
It's quite a different thing to do, and it's so complicated to take it apart.
We'll manage it (I do hope so).
A few pictures. Enjoy them.

The bike before the work started.

The current status.

A box of parts.
Perhaps more tomorrow.
GrtZ
Philippe

[chrisNI]

Looks good Philippe interested to see progress.

[KeithZ1R]

Thats a lovely thing Phillippe looks suspiciously like a BSA M20 . good luck with your efforts , however with your skills and attention to detail its in good hands

[Philippe]

Hi men

thanks for the replies!
I was wrong about the 450 cc it's 400cc ! I'm not familiar at all with that sort of bikes.
But it was a promise to repaint her so I always keep my promises.
The bike is completely taken apart now except for the engine and the gear box. Those two will only be cleaned and painted.
It took me about half a day to take the front fork out...what a complicated system they used in the old days.
It's impossible to take one tube out without removing the bolt all the way down the leg so the piston and the attached spring comes out. The top bolt of the tube is bigger than the hole in the upper triple tree and the spring and piston must be taken out first. The top bolt is firmly attached to the spring and can't be removed from it...
As far as the rear shock absorbers are concerned I had to ask for help on how to remove them from the frame.
I received a copy of a few pages from an old workshop manual in which the procedure is described.
It turned out that I had to remove a central tube out of the shock in order to remove the whole thing.
In the manual it's described that you have to take it out from above...that worked perhaps when it was new but after 70 years...
Anyway, the bike is taken apart, the stripping of the old layers of paint can begin.
My friend Bart wants it resprayed in Nato green (RAL 6014), 50% gloss. An order for that paint and hardener will be made at my usual paint supplier !
I discovered that all the bolts and nuts were zingued in a dark green colour so I'll have to make a trip to Brussels once they're all sorted out.
I'll have to replace some damaged bolts and nuts but first I must find decent replacements.
When I told Bart that it was a very complicated bike he replied to me that he had heard that before from others who were in the restoration of old military vehicles. I found out that you have to think twice before bolting a part on the frame ...you must use the correct order of things or you risk to undo the work because it's in the way to put another part on.
We'll see how it evolves.
More to come soon !
GrtZ
Philippe

[Philippe]

Hello men

another day went by, some more work done.
The frame is 99,5 % free of paint,

several frame parts are stripped,

a few stripped frame parts

the exhaust is painted,

a few parts which needed welding are OK.

A lot more of frame parts must be stripped but I have the time to do it.
More news soon.
GrtZ
Philippe

[Philippe]

Hello guys

despite the rain of today I managed to strip the paint off from a lot of parts.
My wife came up with the idea of using a big umbrella to work under.

The thing did what it's supposed to do, it prevented me and the parts to get wet.
This is the result of a few days work.

Hopefully the weather is better tomorrow to continue stripping paint.

I noticed that the original paint is very hard. Even after two days soaking in thinner it doesn't come off, it's as hard as a rock.
Who knows what kind of paint they used in the fifties...
GrtZ
Philippe

[deka]

Top Work Philipe as always and watching this with interest

[Philippe]

Hi men

the old paint is stripped from a lot of parts and yesterday I decided to take the wheels apart.
I started with the front wheel.
All the old nipples came off without breaking any spokes.
I was surprised to see that a lot of spokes came through the nipples... how on earth wasn't the inner tube punctured when riding the bike? I also noticed that a lot of spokes were bent...
Today it turned out that all the spokes have the wrong lenght! They're either too long or too short... so how the technician managed to mount them I don't know. The only explanation I can come up with is that he mounted them in the wrong way in order to make the wheel turn around. The rim can't be placed in the centre of the hub so the wheel isn't stable. The bike runs only 70 Km/hour but that's fast enough to get seriously injured when all of a sudden the wheel collapses.
I'll have to find a solution to make the bike safe and I contacted a specialist in Holland. Let's hope he can help me with the correct spokes.
The rear wheel has a thick layer of silicones on top of the nipples in the rim...I guess it'll be the same thing as the front wheel.
The question will be answered tomorrow as I plan to disassemble the rear wheel.
The lesson of today: in Belgium there are or were also "French mechanics". Let's hope there are no more bad surprises.
GrtZ
Philippe

[moizeau]

Until I saw your last comment 'French mechanics' I was going to ask if it was ever imported? Presumably French speaking part of Belgium.
Good luck

[Philippe]

Hi guys

the rear wheel turned out to be better than the front wheel but no original spokes.
The paint is stripped from the hub and from the rim. I'll wait to strip the paint off from the spokes .
In the mean time the man from Holland assured me he can provide me the correct spokes and nipples for the front and the rear wheel.
And Pete, as far as the mechanic is concerned: the Saroléa was bought in the French speaking part of Belgium, near the French border so that might explain a lot .
Today I received also news from my paint supplier: the paint will be available next monday. If the temperature is not too low, I can start the spraywork and after that the assembly. I hope I can remember where comes which part
In the mean time I'll continue with stripping paint off from the other parts.
GrtZ
Philippe

[Philippe]

Gentlemen

yesterday the paint was available! This morning I started with degreasing several parts and to provide them with hooks, wires, etc . in order to let them dry after painting.
It took me several hours but by noon this was the result:

the smaller parts

The paint is NATO green (Ral 6014), a dark green paint. The colour turned out to be like the original paint.
More parts are stripped and others still need stripping.
Tomorrow I'll spray some more parts.

I need to work fast because the temperature is dropping and I need at least 15°C for the paint to dry in a decent way.
Perhaps more news soon.
GrtZ
Philippe

[Philippe]

Hi guys

it's been a few days since my last post but here I am back with some news.

I managed to paint most of the parts, OMG I never realised that there were so much parts that needed painting.
It took me five paint sessions to get the job done so far.
I have to wait for a new tin of paint because I only bought 1 liter...that's not enough for the huge amount of parts.

I had to build a construction in the garden to paint the frame because the Gpz750 is still standing in my workshop.
But I managed it.

I also started to assemble little things such as the seat.

Today I started with the assembly of the bike ... or should I say the puzzle.
Since I didn't took enough pictures during the disassembly I have to dryfit the parts first.
It'll take a long time before the whole bike is finished but I hope the result will be worth looking at.

The front fork, the rear shock absorbers and the main stand are mounted.

The spokes and nipples for the wheels are on their way to me and as soon as those arrive I'll get the airbrush out and start paining them... 80 spokes and 80 nipples, wish me luck and a lot of courage.

When the new paint arrives I'll start painting the bigger body parts such as the mudguards, fuel tank and luggage carriers.
More news within a few days!
GrtZ
Philippe

[DavidZ1R]

Great work again, can't see you getting many NOS parts for that old timer.

[Philippe]

Hi guys

@ David Z1R: thanks for the compliments! No NOS parts available, I have to do it with whatever I have, good or bad.

Today I made progress in putting the Saroléa puzzle back together.
I was able to mount the gear box in the frame but had to dismount the main stand because the bolt of the main stand goes through a part of the gearbox. What a construction .

Anyway, more progress was made: the tool box and battery box were mounted, the engine protection plate, side stand and the seat found their place on the frame.

This afternoon the weather was fine, no rain, high temperature so the engine was cleaned, derusted, taped off and painted.

I received news about the spokes and the nipples: they'll be here probably by monday. Let's go for it!

Perhaps more news within a few days.
GrtZ
Philippe

[Philippe]

Hi men

more news about the Saroléa !
The engine was cleaned, painted and I mounted it in the frame on saturday.
On sunday, I had a closer look at the bike and I noticed that I couldn't reach the bolt to change the position of the gearbox once the protection of the primary chain was on...
I had a closer look in the parts manual and discovered that a thick plate with a rectangular hole in it, destined to receive the bolt of the gearbox, was pointed as belonging to the LEFT hand side of the frame... it had to be on the RIGHT hand side.
I think that the man who made the parts manual back in the fifties did that on a monday after a heavy weekend...
I had to dismantle half of the bike in order to change the two plates from left to right and vice versa.
But OK, a few hours and a lot of curses later, the plates were on the correct side and the assembly could continue.
Once again I found out that I should have taken more pictures before dismantling the bike. I'm learning from my mistakes, oh yes I am !
This is how the bike looks now

On monday the parcel with the spokes arrived !
I did a test mount of the front wheel... it didn't work, the spokes were not of the correct lenght. I had ordered the spokes of the lenght mentioned in the parts manual... once again NOT correct. The spokes are too long.
I'll see what I can do.
The rear wheel turned out to be correct allthough the spokes were bend on one side, they didn't ran straight from the hub to the rim.
When I asked the seller of the spokes if that was normal he said that it was always the case and that he gave the spokes a knock with a rubber hammer near the hub in order to bend the spokes so that they would run straight to the rim...OK he's a professional but I don't like that kind of work. Anyway I'm going to do it.

This is how the rear wheel looks like now.
Tomorrow is the big day, the wheel will be adjusted and we'll see what the hammer can do...
GrtZ
Philippe