Project 1946 Douglas T35 350cc

bought a 1946 douglas 350 t35 few months back , older resto , running but needs a bit of work and new rings as well but over all not to much , been amazing for such a rare bike enough parts have come out of the woodwork almost got a 2nd one as well , first a mate of a mate came up to me at a bike do and asked if I wanted any parts for the t35 ,grabed them , a motor /gearbox / fork shroud / 1/2 the frame and of all things a ww2 generator (or part of ) ,it used and had the same motor... then gumtree scored me both guards /tank seat /battery box / hlight and a few other things , all in good order for $450 .. then out of the blue rest of a frame / seat /wheels/ complete front end / tousion bar rear suspension and a few more things , the rest should be able to get repo out of india , all the hard to find bits are there now...the t35 was made between 1946 to 49 , mine.. top speed of 70-75 mph BUT the 1949 model could do 100 mph.. fastest production 350 in the world at the time .. used for rd racing /trials / speedway / etc .. anyway thought you all would like to see one as not that many around

 

not much to write about with the complete one as very simple motor so the rings wont be a big deal , but the parts one more so but will be a long time build , will be a couple of months before starting , pulling down the mini leading front link and the toursion bar rear suspension is goin to be intresting , will also be doing some reading up to see the difference between my 70mph motor and the 100 mph motor as could be a nice upgrade , also on the running one will be replacing the carbs with modern jap one for reliability and performance

 

only 2234 built , where did you find that? yep definitely not many in aust let alone nth qld… bloke who I bought the tank and guards etc did the unthinkable and turned his into a bobber , peanut tank , stainless guards etc etc ...1 good thing was he did a amazing job on it though in some circles would be considered a death wish.. funnily enough he was a older bloke who did it

 

ah... had read the wiki before but must have passed over the nums … funny thing is have had a piaggio mp3 for yrs whos parent company now is vespa , wasn't till after buying the douglas that found out piaggio had douglas making their scooters in England in the 50s … piaggio never did well due to the fact douglas fairly well ripped them off while trying to keep douglas afloat .. theres a letter from piaggio that's fairly harsh in what they thought .. douglas was bought by Westinghouse in the mid 50s but stopped making bikes , one good thing about my roller is the frame been replaced with a later one , the 1946 frames were very prone to cracking from vibration , and the parts bike frame is a 1949 model

 

by the way heres a photo of a ducati 250 1966 model i sold a few yrs ago , the bloke who I sold it to spent a fortune on a ground up restoration (pity havnt got a finished photo of it) these duc 250 were winning most of the world racing 250cc titles in their day