As the frame and all other parts have been so well painted it is necessary to use a separate ground wire for the electrical system. Originally Yamaha relied on the unpainted inside and underside of the parts…… So an extra wire was soldered to the rear light/brake light and flashers. Shrink tubing covers the whole and the small metal tags in the frame were covered with a piece of vinyl tubing. Now it lasts for at least another 50 years!

The ground wire has an eyelet on the other side where it is fastened to one of the screws that keep the regulator in place.

The tail light is also ready to take the simple tube bulbs. It is impossible to fit a normal bulb as there is no space under the very flat lens.

The flasher also received an extra ground wire, shrink tubing and a very small rubber eyelet makes a good fitting too.

The ignition coil is re-fitted and has a neat plug lead bracket (I forgot to have this zinc plated!). That can be done later.

The solo seat is nicely recovered. The steel base was structurally okay so this was not too difficult. My Yamaha MF1 had no Yamaha lettering on the seat, so I keep it like that.

The engine was loosely bolted together and put in place, just to see how everything fits.

Pattern leg shields were fabricated in fibreglass and fit quite well. They are of course much stiffer than the original plastic ones, but nobody can and will see that.

The 2 leg shields are attached to an aluminium bracket which is bolted to the frame right under the headstock. This is also a cast copy of an original.

Here you see how the leg shields are attached. The bolts at the top also hold the aluminium bracket as well; the lower bolts and washers are screwed directly into the frame.

From the rear the Yamaha MF1 is already going to look like a proper small motorcycle.

At the rear the leg shields are bolted to the frame with a small bracket. I made samples from thin aluminium first. The brackets will be made later from 1 mm steel, laser cut and a 6 mm nut welded onto them. This is the r.h. bracket.

With all the preparation work I also have to make gaskets. Good gasket paper is available (I use 1 mm thick, similar to the old Japanese gaskets). Starting with the cylinder base gasket I first punched the stud holes into the paper, and then attached the paper to the crankcase. With a small rounded hammer you can quite easily hammer the inside of the gasket first.

After this is done you can use a small rounded file to “correct” the inside dimensions of the gasket.

The inside of the gasket looks quite acceptable now.

The outside of the gasket can be treated the same way, with the small hammer. Once the circumference is “hammered” out you can of course “scissor” the part a little more precisely.

The first one takes very long time to finish but after that “serial production” speeds things up. In the same way I made 4 base gaskets and 2 side cover gaskets as well as 2 for the carburettor.

As the sub assemblies are now coming up soon I turned back to the electrical parts. In order to confirm everything I connected all parts on front. As the frame is lying upside down on the workbench it is very easy now to check everything before installing all items later. The wires of the handlebar lever assemblies, the horn, ignition switch, headlamp socket were all connected with the wiring harness/loom and are okay. Also here I made a ground wire for the headlight as the inside of the headlamp nacelle is so beautifully painted now.