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Workshop Articles

1 - Restoring RMA Cilles : 2 Building a 2.5 litre Special : 3 Add in flashing in : 4 Replacing Hot Spot Tubes : 5 Building a 9hp Special : 6 Building the Whyte Special : 7 Five Speed Gearbox Conversion

Restoring the timber cilles of a 1950 RMA

Gerry McGonigal's 2.5 litre Special coming together nicely..

The body takes shape..

Building the Front Wings

And on to the back wings

Some picturess of the back wing now almost completed. Wings constructed of 20 gauge mild steel in eight pieces not counting the inner mounting flange which was made up previously when constructing the rod
framework skeletal form of the wing; as the wing starts to form up in the solid as it were I gradually cut away the framework, the panel work then starts to provide some rigidity. I would have preferred to have less pieces to weld up but found the steel fairly difficult to bend to my will over the curve of the wing form. The quarter inch rod has remained at the inner junction of wing top surface to inner mounting flange where it lends strength and gives a nice solid backing when welding up along the edge. It has also been retained as the wired edge all round the outer extremity of the wing. This is a bit more hefty than the usual wired edge found on 30's and 40's wings but seems to work ok without making the edge look too heavy. The inspiration for the wing shape has been taken from the original post war Healeys (which I hope helps to retain some Riley DNA) and also vaguely the shape of some Allard back wings of the period. Although fairly time
consuming in the making this back wing has certainly come together much quicker than the front where I have to admit I did drive up the "wrang dreell" a few times before a satisfactory result was obtained . One of the most difficult features to create was the helmet crease along the length of the centreline and it took a lot of fiddling to get two straight and neatly fitting edges and then to regulate the mig down low enough to avoid burn through as much as possible. After the outside weld the wing is inverted and a second weld run along the inside line to provide a better depth of metal before grinding and linishing. This is the stage I am at as indicated in the pictures, dressing in the wired edge and welding up wee bits here and there before the big grinding session.

Want to find out more. Email Gerry here.

Riley Merlin restoration needs flashing indicators but keeps the trafficator arms.


Need 1 x 3pin flasher unit, 2 x standard 12V relays, 4 x 21W indicator lamps plus one warning light (not shown here)	Use the trafficator feeds to power the relay coils. The indicators are switched from the L output of the flasher unit via the relay switches	The flasher unit is powered (pin B) from the fused supply to the trafficator switch or any other ignition live connection	The dashboard warning light is powered from the 'P' pin of the flasher unit	Hazard warning lights can be added by picking up the 'B' connection and providing an alternative route to the indicators via a double pole switch