Have you ever had one of those projects where it seems fated not to go right ? Well my 550 rebuild is starting to make me think it's one of those.................................
I delivered the engine cases and Harris exhaust, for cleaning & painting to the same company I used for the 750 engine in my P&M (which I was very happy with). That was a couple of weeks before Christmas and I only got them back last week
As if that wasn't bad enough, when I unwrapped and loosely assembled the engine cases up, it resembled a patchwork quilt
All the engine should be a satin black with gloss outer covers, but the head/ barrels were gloss, the 2 crankcase halves were different shades of satin, there was far too much paint on the rocker cover and missing patches elsewhere - all in all a really bad job. Needless to say, I got my money back, plus the cases being cleaned back to metal again for free. I'm getting tired of this now - companies taking months to do stuff and then it comes back not as it should
I was farming out the work to try and save time and complete the rebuild quicker, but that hasn't worked, so I'm going to do what I should have done at the start and do it myself. Might not be as good as a "professional", but it can't be any worse
Anyway, here's a few pics of the the engine as I received it from the "professionals" - they don't really show the full horror,s as pictures cannot show everything you see with the eye
"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" - Steve McQueen