I would not think that mating numbers were stamped on cases until they were machined together after pairing off together as mains and cylinder bores and surfaces would have definitely be done together then matching numbers stamp on. All openings were sealed off with covers then submersed into a tank of water and pressure tested with air. Leaking ones put to one side and perfect ones built up as Rapide's. As after the first few were built and returning from road testing dripping oil that was a lot of work so pressure testing was essential before assembly. Mr Vincent told me that there was an abundance of porous cases and had to use them so developing a system of submersing them in shellac in a vat and extracting the air, releasing the "vacuum" the porosity was sealed, rinsed off etching primer of chromate and stove enamel black, made it go 15 MPH faster with ribbed drums 1/16" bigger carbs, selected components and an impressive speedometer.
Typical manufacturer, get a poor product tittivated up and sell it for more. The cost difference was very little and the profit margin even less. Although have never seen failed crankcases as they were so immensely strong, after the die castings were introduced on the "D's" the cases were not painted but the last few "C" B.S. had black cases.
After the 1969 dinner dance when PCV, & HRD first met there were in attendance a couple of Vincent dealers one being my local friend Pat Wilson who was the Wilson of Lawton & Wilson of Southampton. On the Sunday morning at breakfast Pat invited PCV to breakfast then offered to run him home to London treating us both to lunch at Kettener's at the west end returning PCV to No7, Queue Bridge apartments. Every time leaving the banana boat in Southampton I hired a car to get home via No7, Queue Bridge and took Mr Vincent a stem of bananas & a Large bottle Whisky but he kept the whole bottle but only cut a few hands of bananas off the stem. It all stopped in 1972 when I had called and no one was in so left the Whisky behind the milk bottles, just about to leave and an ambulance arrived and PCV was struggling with a stick trying to walk (this was his first stroke). I've got something to show you Marcus, so I picked him up in my arms and carried him up three flights of steps Elfreda going on before to open the door. `````what he had to show me was three connecting rods made from titanium with forked ends, but when placed together in a certain way the piston eyes were all in the same plain. These items were for his rotary engine with a cylinder block rotating one way and the crankshaft the other with the inlet & exhaust ports being the same size as the bores, two stroke cycle, blowered on start up and turbocharged when producing power.
Made into banks that could be clutched in or out of drive for ships engines onto a common propeller shaft. Burning heavy fuel oil. He always spoke to me with such enthusiasm into my world of ships engines but the reliance of oil film sealing on the peripheral of the cylinder bock inside of the stationary block was a weak point.
Like I said he had suffered a stroke but it did not stop him from talking but his speech was very slurred and dribbling all the time, Elfreda was trying to put a meal on the table so I took over the handkerchief duty of wiping his mouth but she made it clear that she did not wont me to call again as I think it was an embarrassment to to her so never went back again although now I think he would have appreciated it.
Meeting Dee V.D. on the steps of Barcelona town hall in 1989 at the FIM Rally I said her father all ways took the whole bottle of whisky but only a few hands of bananas, she stood back and pointed a figer at me and said so your the bananaman, and thats how I got it. She was only little then.
Alyson
