Bringing back a Bantam
My name’s Andy McKay, I’m 27. I have just finished restoring my father’s BSA Bantam.
I’m a graphic designer and tinker with cars but this was my first bike resto. It’s a 1954 plunger frame D1 I believe. My grandpa (93) bought it for my dad (67) in 1971 when he was around 15. Dad painted it iridescent orange and purple in the ‘70s as they were the ‘in’ colours back then. When my old man grew up and moved from the little country town they lived in and into the city to work, it was just left there sitting in the horse stable.
My grandpa decided to do it up and restore it to original. He painted it, got the chrome re-done and rode it around himself for a little bit before it ended up sitting for 30 or so years. I got it to my place a couple months ago and decided to restore it to its former glory.
I stripped it down, cleaned everything up, got the layers of black, orange and purple paint sandblasted off. Got the chrome blasted as well. My best mate Jacko and I did a fair bit of panel beating and body work to get the 67 year old tin straight again. Then Jacko painted it all. All the chrome is actually powder-coated. We couldn’t find anywhere that would chrome the muffler due to the belief that the baffle inside would contaminate the tanks. This was done at BSP Powdercoating in Tullamarine, Melbourne and I think it has come up really nice. The timeframe was to get it all finished by Christmas. My grandpa has cancer and isn’t doing too well, so we wanted to get it done for him to see. He was so happy with the outcome and it was really nice for him and my dad see it all finished. I would like to thank Jacko for the paint, Harvey Stevenson for the pin-striping, and Scott, Tim, Shane and Ashleigh for all their help. Andy McKay