Ok then about this Ariel Huntmaster, I was approached a while ago by a chap who said “I hear you restore bikes?” to which I replied “maybe why, what is it?” he said “It’s a 1958 Ariel Huntmaster” with this my ears pricked up as I have rebuilt a lot of bikes in my time but never an Ariel. So after looking at some rather distressing pictures of the Ariel on his mobile phone I arranged to go and have a closer look and asses the extent of the job.
So I travelled the short distance to his house and there was the Ariel in all it’s rusty grandeur. After a sharp intake of breath I picked myself up off the floor of his garage and composed myself. I thought to myself this will take a bit more planning. So after much head scratching and flat tyre kicking I agreed to bring the old girl back to life for him, this is not going to be easy and probably not cheap! My brief is to try and keep the style of the bike more or less the same as it is now. This Ariel Huntmaster will be stripped down to bare bones and rebuilt to a road worthy condition with improvements.
So I arranged to go back in a few days and collect the bike which I did. When I got it to my workshop the first thing I did was to give all the nuts and bolts a liberal coating of PlusGas to help free everything off. That done my next job was to dust off my old whitworth spanners and make a start.
I now have the bike in a thousand bits and I am currently prepping everything for paint / plating etc. Firstly the frame is in a terrible state and will need a lot of time and welding. Stay Tuned.