MONITOR ‘BALL HOPPER’ HIT N MISS ENGINE

Part 11 - Finishing

by Jason Ballamy

So with all the machining done its time to start the finishing touches. First up is to go through all the parts and clean off any remaining casting flaws which are mostly where the two parts of the casting boxes may have been a little out of line and also I like to run over the cast surfaces with a grinding stone in the Dremel to knock off any small lumps.  This was followed by a wipe down with thinners and then body filler applied where needed. The main areas to blend in were where I had to turn a surface around the cylinder for the steady to run on and also re-profile the corners of the crankcase side holes. Then a good rubdown. I'm not aiming for a dead smooth finish as I want the parts to still look like they are castings.

Following another wipe over with thinners I sprayed on some high build primer (etch on the bronze castings) which tends to show any blemishes that can be attended to. Being a light colour it showed up quite a few pin holes that were not obvious to the eye, compare this shot of the bearing caps to the painted one and the one that has been second filled behind it.
Once all the blemishes were sorted and the primer touched up it was on with a coat of red. You can see that the machined mating surfaces have been masked and holes plugged with whatever seemed to fit.
Once the paint had been allowed to harden for a few days it was out with the paint brushes and ruling pen to add a few pinstripes and pick out the "Monitor" logo on the fuel tank. I used a gold acrylic for this as the pigment is quite fine and diluted it slightly with an airbrush extender medium as this works better than water. The acrylic is also not affected by the fuel proof clear coat that went on next.
It was then assembled on the base. I went with an ignition from S/S which easily fitted inside together with a battery box for 4 AA size batteries. The wires that are visible were done in old style cotton covered wire complete with a flat spark plug clip not an unsightly steel braided wire and big metal cap.
And thats about it, so a few pics of the finished engine.
It took about 1/2hr of adjustments until it would run consistently, mainly to the needle which needed far less of an opening than the build notes suggested. It now just needs a couple of turns with a finger over the intake to suck up some fuel when starting from cold and then starts on the first wind of the starting handle.

First video is of it inside, the flywheel looks white as I had some masking tape on it to save marking the paint with the starter handle. The metallic clicking that you can hear is the governor weight hitting the latch each time it goes round not something to worry about.


Part 1  part 2  part 3 Part 4  Part 5  Part 6  Part 7  Part 8  Part 9  Part 10  Part 11

 




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