Vincent part numbers

greg brillus

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Hi there all, It amazes me how many genuine Vincent parts had part numbers stamped into them...Just preparing some parts for replating and noticed that even the fuel "T" piece had the part number A50AS stamped on the inner side of the "T" ...same as the footrest pivot bolts..FT84, the alloy battery hold down thumb wheel..FT130..and so on. Where did they ever find the time to stamp them all, and why did they actually do it.....when you consider most other manufacturers even to this day do not do this....Did any other manufacturers do the same thing around that era, or was this something, again unique to a high end bike such as the Vincent...? Your thoughts....anyone..Cheers...Greg.
 

b'knighted

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Today someone pointed out to me the part number on the head of a tank bolt, something I had never noticed before. I was impressed when I found my matching number stamped inside my dynamo cover.
 

johnmead

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It may have been to make the manufacturing of the motorcycles easier and more accurate. There was almost no one working for Vincent during WWII and to start production of the post war models they had to hire and train a lot of inexperienced people.

John Mead
 

Garth Robinson

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I was cataloguing my investment portfolio of rare and valuable Vincent spares and I came across what is now listed as a PD17 AS .This unique collectable is marked as PD17,the two pins are each stamped PD18.Glad I've got it and not Kurtis!In a couple of days it will be doing what it was made for,driving a dynamo.It must have been very labour intensive stamping all these small bits,no wonder the bikes were expensive.I guess it makes it even harder for our current crop of number stampers to create an "original" bike.
 

TouringGodet

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Great, now some will go around stamping part numbers on obscure parts that the factory never stamped, and they will say the factory did.
 

chankly bore

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Yeah, I've got Girdraulic spindles with part numbers, as well as one rear brake rod wing nut. Now, I know the answer to this one, and so does Glenn Bewley, but what does the "5" signify on the aforementioned H35/1AS wingnut? Part no. stamping seems less common on post 1951 machines as far as I can tell. The factory was not above using different size hexes on some in-house parts as well!
 

Jim Richardson

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I wonder if number stamping was a throwback to war work, when most parts would have had pt numbers added.
When I was an apprentice at an MOD establishment in the 70's, we had to vibro etch pt numbers, drawing issue numbers and inspector numbers on the end of small 1.5"dia rocket motor casings, as a left hander my hand writing isn't the best with a pen.
 

vibrac

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I bough a cheap engraver off of flebay its invaluable for marking parts Lh RH etc
When you get off the Vincent build and on another make it can be months before you find the part for a bike and then have to remember how it went together.
 

greg brillus

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VOC Member
Thanks for the replies guys, well i know that a lot of aircraft parts have their part numbers on them. Particularly the bolts and so on used in British aircraft....I wonder if the Vincent factory felt the need to do the same...Did they make parts during the war for aviation...maybe they liked this added professional touch.....Greg.
 
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