Saving Old Seagulls

There is a British Seagull ON on ebay that currently is at somewhere around £127.00 & still has 9 days to go.
There are some pretty good pictures of it & it all looks fairly right, apart from having the wrong fuel tap, the wrong fuel pipe, the wrong air intake & the fuel cap is badly damaged.
There looks to be some salt water corrosion on the transom bracket so the bidder who asked if the block had any signs of cracks was on the right track.
The paint on the block looks in too good a condition for 70 years old so it does make you wonder what the freshish paint is hiding.
I now see that all the bidder details are hidden.

I've now had a look at the extra page of pictures & that paint does not look freshish! Sorry seller.

It looks an honest motor! the only obvious defect is a broken cylinder head fin, not an uncommon thing on the finned Marston/Seagull cylinders.

This could take pride of place on someones Seagull rack after a complete strip down, chrome plating, painting & sensible polishing.

If the Ebay winner cares to contact me I might be able to point him in the right direction for a remanfactured air intake, pics of the correct fuel pipe & if we're really lucky, sometime next year a new set of water slide tank tranfers.

Don't worry the bidding is already too strong for me £127.00 with 7.5 days to go.

Charles UK

Sounds good then! Huh...Yes, you have to look very carefully at ebay, as not all is at it seems. Have you seen the seagull with the very weird fuel tank on ebay at the moment?

Strange tank is home made I think. More interesting is the crankcase arrangement - sort of shroud round it, which I associate with SIBa starters...

Now there's a long range tank!
Isn't the shroud thing part of the Seagull recoil starter kit for a 40+,
wasn't it a sort of support for the magneto base plate so that it could take the recoil starter that was fastened to it.

There are a few 102s around at the moment - on eBay there's a reasonable looking AC as well as the ON, there's a 102 with an interesting tank on Boats and Outboards, and one or two others around as well.

This past few weeks has seen quite a number of interesting Seagulls coming up, it's good to see them coming out of hiding.

I just bought my first Seagull on ebay, an SJPL. I know it is risky to buy sight-unseen, but the price was right. $105 + $67 shipping. I have already bought a repair manual and the “Classic Seagullâ€

Ask John what he feels is best,

I have not seen the second edition the 1st had far too many errors for my blessing.

I felt the Clymer very good for a "workshop manual" & I think I've spelt that wrong, & can't find my copy to correct the spelling.

You should be able to find a secondhand copy in the States, around where you are.

Good Luck.

Charles UK.
Correct spelling for Clymer’s Publications - Service, Repair Handbook -2 to 6 HP Models - ISBN 0-89287-153-9. If you luck out and hit a used book store here in the US with one on the shelves – you might get/hit a deal. Check out Powell’s Books, Used books.com, Amazon.com for a better deal than EBay. I’ve seen them go on EBay for over $35.00 US + shipping to the tune of $15 US. I found mine in a used book store for $5 US before the Gulls hit the upturn price wise. I can’t wait to see the picture’s of age appropriate models for the upcoming/in the works Seagull Calendar. Was it CharlesSp that gets the Marston or pre-war models? His daughter won’t have to move out if that is the case. She could be a big help in soothing shattered nerves.
Blessings,
D.

No I get the post war ones - meaning up to 1960. Charles UK's entirely unfair allocation of women was doubtless based on some strange need to deal with the newer Seagulls, which have little merit for the serious student of engineering history. I shall be speaking to him over the next couple of days about his rearrangement of what I thought was a brillinat idea.

Yes,
I can see your point. Since CharlesUK owns a 1930’s Marston Twin. You would think he would be more interested in twin things of that era of engineering. I too find it a little disturbing that he would choose the newer models. I fear his con rod problems with these models may prove to be a point you could press in getting a fair resolution to this issue. Best of luck in your obtaining an equitable respite from the illustrious other Charles.
D.