Telephone call received today, frame and other parts ready for collection, superb turn round by the staff at the powder coaters. Brother called and parts collected in his estate car, more room and less chance of scratching it than in the Reliant.

The main problems I am having at the moment are the sourcing of parts, whilst the majority are readily available through your local Honda dealer, I am trying to get what I require from 'obselete' stock piles both here and in the USA, with some success. The biggest problem has been the stainless Allen bolts for the engine casings and sundry other fastenings. "It's the 'Holiday season' don't you know?", is the answer I usually get during my enquirys, the only problem with what has been done is the rest of the sidecar looks a bit tatty now but will have to wait until funds permit, maybe over the winter recess.

My brother has been busy painting the panels of the bike, black with gold coach lines, very swish, will be getting those back later, he collected the fairing today so that has saved some pennies on paying a proffesional refinisher to do the job.

Following long deliberation I decided that the whole plot would be spoilt with the poor state of paintwork on the sidecar and chassis, so with this in mind the whole lot was stripped and the metal parts taken to my friendly powder coaterson the Tuesday morning, with the remarks "Sidecar chassis's are only painted when there is an 'F' in the month". I then dug out my trusty old spray gun, that was last used some 7/8 years ago, it was stripped checked and rebuilt having only requiring a slight clean, dusty from lack of use, now can I remember how to use it, which way do I adjust the spray pattern? which way to meter the air flow? test spray on garage doors, add to all the different colour strips already there, sorted. I will only be using cellulose due to the constraints of using 2 pack in an uncontrolled environment.

This will be painted in Black with Gold coach lining around the top/bottom seam, new logo's have been ordered from Watsonian at very cheap price's, somewhat surprising, and are eagerley awaited, it looks like the 'Gold Wing Treffen' at the bank holiday weekend is now not an option for the outfit and looks like I will go on the solo if I go at all.

This coming week will be a bit of a "can I do anything" as I have been seconded to look after one of my Grandson's for the week whilst my daughter is sunning herself in Corfu, allright for some! Terry is only 5 1/2 and very much into my bikes in fact the 1100 Interstate is 'HIS' and I have to ask to use it, so will have to try to build the engine whilst he is otherwise occupied, don't want any distractions.

The day has been spent trying to solve the problem of paint reaction on the front of the sidecar body, this has been repaired by a previous owner, very badly I might add, god knows what paint/materials were used? The body to the rear of the windscreen is perfect no problems with paint reaction, the struggle continues, at least the engine is in the frame, albiet loosley, so some progress has been made.

The bike is now complete, problems were encountered with the electrics, no spark, this was traced to lack of earth to the contact breaker assembly, due to the powder coating on the contact base, there is also a small leak from the water pump, the bearings in the pump have been replaced, the water seal looked ok, will see if it rectifys itself when it has settled down. The water pump on a Gold Wing is a 'non-servicable item', I have rebuilt them in the past using the seal of a CX water pump which is the same item. The engine has now been run to operating temperature and all OK, now awaits sidecar shassis and fairing etc to be fitted.
The sidecar problems with paint reaction have been sorted, the previous repairer used synthetic paint, (Knacker Laquer), which will give a good finish but with severe problems when any touching up is needed later. The body has just had one proving coat on at the moment, it now has to be flatted out and any imperfections sorted out, I only wish it was'nt so warm the garage has got up to some 102 degrees, won't be too fussy as fibreglass has inbuilt imperfections and to eliminate them all would take too much time.

Following the initial problems with paint reaction on the sidecar I thought all problems with paint were behind us. However my brother had bought all the bodywork panels and fairing back and the shine of the laquer was not as glossy as the 2 pack I had used so a quick flash coat was called for. This was duly applied and allowed to dry, it was noticed during the drying process that the same paint reaction was occuring on some of the panels, lots of blue air leaving the garage!!!! The fairing was'nt to badly affected, the lowers no reaction at all, we still can't understand the reason why. With the time to the 'Treffen' rapidly disappearing and the whole plot so near to being finished, I decided that I would just make all the panels presentable, and do them properly at a later date.

The whole plot must be finished today to enable a reasonable road test on Thursday, and also the weekends equipment will need to be sorted and loaded ready for the early start that my friends had planned on Friday. No problems were encountered all day, sidecar installed in chassis rewired, working around the flatting and painting of the panels, not to fussy with them, chips were delivered by my daughter and consumed with some rapidity, the garage was vacated at around 11.30 pm with all complete and the road test being looked forward to.

With the bike finished and a quick check that all items are fitted correctly and the road test route communicated to my son-in-law, who was waiting for the telephone call, after a run of some 25 miles and returning home without any problems found and no telephone calls made, it was decided to load up with all the required items for a long camping weekend, and completion of the last four RBR landmarks in Wales, Dryslwn Castle on the way, the Celtic Cross on the Saturday and on the way home, return by way of Aberystwyth, a long way round yes but it enables me to do the Smallest? commercial brewery and Rhayader clock tower, having visited both of these with my brother whilst on the Welsh National, but wouldn't take a picture as was'nt on the outfit.

Well after a gentle run down to Carmarthen the lazy way, M5, M50 and A40, due to the fact my friends trailers suspension self destructed as he was going up th drive from his garage, so his wife was pushed into driving the car down to carry a family of 4's paraphanalia for the weekend, as his daughter has now reached the 'teenager' slot, will not be seen at the night disco with the same clothes on 2 nights running. The original plan was to leave Birmingham at 9 am but we finally got away at 10.30 so was later than planned at the 'Treffen' site.

Well after a good weekend at the 'Treffen' plans a now being made to go to Scotland at the end of the week, all RBR Landmarks in Wales are now complete and only 2 more to do, Sale Hall dovecote, where this saga all started and the Anderton boat lift, so objective will be acheived on both counts.
This has turned out to be a very expensive year with the original plan to sell this outfit and recoup the original cost, plus a modest profit, and retain a van load of 'Gold Wing' spares to keep my others on the road for a good while to come. This has not worked out as I planned it, now who was the wag that challenged me to do an 'All-rounder' on the outfit? overall I have quite enjoyed it, never having to worry about it falling over whilst going up a cart track, or when on soft ground 'will I be able to park here?' but on the down side, traffic jams catch you, so much more planning of routes is required to make decent time, overall I have grown quite fond of the rubbish bin on the side, you don't have to worry about luggage for a weeks break, or where you are going to put it, you can even sleep in it at a push!!.
All I can add is for the benefit of other entrants that have had problems over the year, don't despair perservere and it will all come right in the end.