Many months ago I had acquired a wooden trolley frame that I had varnished and fitted the axle and wheels to. This was stored away awaiting the restoration to reach a stage where I could mount the crankcase on the trolley. As I had more or less reached that point, I got the trolley frame out only to find that the timbers had warped and it would be no good for the job! 😦

So rather than go to the expense of buying another frame, I thought I’d have a go at making one myself. I got an 8′ length of 3″ x 2″ from the local hardware store and set about making a basic frame.

I cut two identical outer pieces and then joined these together with four smaller pieces of wood. I used some threaded bar as dowels to hold it all together, as you can see above.

Once assembled it doesn’t look too bad. As I pointed out yesterday, I’m not a painter and neither am I a carpenter! It has one or two gaps, scrapes, knots etc, but I’m quite pleased with it.

I decided that it would be a good idea to fit the wheels and the handles as well, just to see how it all worked, and to work out the location for mounting the crankcase.

I now need to dismantle the trolley again in order to rub down, stain and varnish the wood, paint the handles and give the wheels another coat of paint. The pictures above give you an idea of how it will eventually look. Once the trolley is finished, I can mount the crankcase and start to refit the other components and cylinder head. I know it’s October now, but could there be a possibility of a Christmas day crank up?

Now that would be good!