All that nice paint
Remember (ages ago) when I mentioned that I should have looked closer before I sandblasted and painted the head? Well this is where I found out. Have a look at the photo on the left. Somehow I hadn't noticed the twelve broken fins on the head. They look really tacky and would spoil the restoration. Let's fix them. First we need to - you guessed it - take the head off and sandblast away all that nice new paint.

Making the fins.
Under the guidance of a friend, Bruce, I learned how to do this repair. Note this is a cast iron head and the job should be done only if you are an expert (like Bruce). Using a donor barrel - an old cracked Bantam barrel - we cut the cast iron fins into exact shapes to fit the missing pieces on my head. This is time consuming and detailed work. It must be exact.

Welding the fins
Bruce then carefully welded each fin to its place on the head. The amount of heat used here is critical - too much and the head will warp.

Almost finished
The head with all the new fins brazed on. I have sandblasted the head again and started work with the dremel (see the front fins) smoothing down the weld. When I finish the weld is flush with the fins and I paint the head again with high temperature enamel. Note that we were able to copy the fin profiles from another head so the repaired fins are an accurate shape.