Month: May 2012

We’re continuing to work on our customer’s 1969 Triumph Bonneville.

As we’ve mentioned previously, this bike started as a fine build from a reputable shop.  We’ve been helping to make this bike an even more correct and perfect restoration by applying the correct paint scheme, among other things.

We’ve gone through the bike twice, and swapped out incorrect bolts, nuts, fasteners and other small parts.  Pictured below are a few of the parts we’ve removed and replaced recently, including the crossover pipe and clamps.

The original ’69 Bonneville crossover pipe clamp was a double clamp measuring about 3″ long, and included two bolts on each clamp.  You can see examples of this original clamp on one of our core bikes in the photo below.

Later in 1969 and into 1970, these double clamps were replaced with single clamps.  While high-quality single clamps are readily available, the double clamps simply don’t exist.  We’ve never seen a good-quality reproduction, as those which are available are just not correct – and it shows.

We love our customers, and love helping them make their bike as perfect as possible.  In this case, we were able to find a single set of NOS clamps.  After taking some time to clean the dried masking tape off of them, and shining them up, we installed them on this bike, helping bring this restoration up to snuff.

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One of our customers whose bike is featured here on our website wanted to find out whether his paint job was correct for his particular machine.

In 1969, Triumph featured three different paint schemes on the Bonneville during it’s production run from August of 1968 through July of 1969.  The first featured of an Olympic Flame tank with a 3-inch Silver Sheen stripe down the top-center, much like that of the 1968 Bonneville.  Soon thereafter, the factory moved to a scheme which featured a swept-back scallop coming off the top of the tank badge.  Finally, in later 1969, the factory added a lower wing off the bottom of the tank badge.

Our customer’s bike has both the top scallop and the lower wing as featured on late-1969 Bonnevilles.

We examined two 1969 Bonneville cores in our warehouse (either of which, incidentally, we’d be happy to restore for you) and noted that each bike features the single scallop paint scheme. We then took note of the serial numbers on each bike.

The first VIN begins with “AC” which denotes that it was produced in January of 1969.  The second begins with “GC” which denotes a production date of June of 1969.  As our customer’s bike has a serial number which begins with “AC” and falls between those on our two bikes, we believe the bike came from the factory with only the single top-center scallop.

So, we’re looking forward to getting it right on this bike by furnishing it with a brand new, and factory-correct, Don Hutchinson paint job.

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