It seems like it's taken forever to build my 1942 Indian for the salt. I built everything myself apart from one thing I didn't have the equipment to do, the crank & deck the cases. All it needed was assembly & the main bearing outers grinding to size, so I trusted it to a machine shop who, after 3 months hadn't done it, so I went to fetch the cases back only to find he'd farmed them out to someone else. I finally got them back, the decking was good but he hadn't done it. I finally found someone to assemble the crank, & those couple of jobs took 6 months. No wonder I do everything I can myself.
Indian Parts Europe (IPE) in Denmark, on the other hand, were superb with all the correct parts arriving promptly, so there are a few good companies out there!
So, at last, it's finished....I think. There's always something needs doing, & building an Indian in the UK isn't easy. I don't think there's one part on the engine & gearbox that's not been modified or updated. All that's left to do is to test it on the road & dyno.
Another job that took hours was organising getting it to Bonneville. I'm sharing a container with 5 more bikes coming over from the UK, including Oz, Briz & Beerbellykelly. The BBC's coming to film us, my flight's paid for, the bikes being delivered to the shipping agent on June 23rd, I've joined the BNI & paid my entry fee & made the shipping pallet.
After over 2 years of work it's finally going to happen, I'm starting to feel a bit excited!