[thedudeness]

My dad and I have been looking for an old bike to restore for some time now.  The initial budget was low so we have been limited to what we can get.  My neighbor had a bike I had been eying.  Once I saw they were moving I decided to ask if he wanted to sell it.  Long story short it's a 60 chief that we picket up for $500.  It's very very rough and will most likely take us a few years to bring back from the dead.  This is a project to bring back a piece of history not to make a profit.

Here's a few pics of what we have to start with.







I'm sure I'll be asking plenty of questions.  I have some motorcycle experience but not much and this is my first British bike.

[ERC]

Nice, you'll have a lot of fun messing with it. Good luck.   ERC

[thedudeness]

My dad and I started to make a list of everything we will need to restore the bike last night.  It looks like all that's good on it for restoration purposes is the motor (which will need a rebuild), frame, rear wheel, gas tank, and handlebars.  Everything else will need to be replaced.   
Now we are making a price sheet to see how much it will cost us to fix it up which leads me to my question for today.
What was the enfield version of the chief in 60?  What parts are a direct swap?  Also are there modern parts from enfield that will work on this bike?

[ERC]

I sent you some pictures of what one looks like to your email address.  ERC

[rotorwrench]

George has a point about getting her going first. I've had projects stall out just because a few original parts were missing. You have an advantage over the way we scrounged for parts before the computer age. I have seen front and rear fenders on E-pay before but you won't be the only one looking either. I've settled for making copies out of fiberglass until the originals could be located. The Royal Enfield Club of North America still has a few members who may have some Chief bits for sale or trade.

The Brockhouse RE Indians were all basically manufactured for the US market by Royal Enfield. They had different mud guards than the comparable UK counterparts namely the Super Meteor and the Constellation.  The Chief had its own style of headlight that was made here in the states by GE. The 16 inch wheels were a Chief item with only one exception which was the front wheel of the Indian /Pashly three wheeled Patrol Car. I'm sure that you could use available 16 inch rims and get some spokes from Buchanon's to make a usable copy or keep watching the old E-Pay.  speedometers were made by Stewart Warner but the drives were Smiths so that stuff is hard to get but not impossible to find or reproduce in some way. You have the correct tool box which is a hard to find item. Check RE-Indian.com too. Even though they are in Australia, they have some reproduced bits for the Chief and the price is reasonable.
Best of Luck with it and most of all, HAVE FUN.
Kerby

[bullethead63]

SO...it's been almost two years...any progress?