A delve into the Jim Stokes Workshop – a surgery for classic motors.
There can come a point with an old motorcycle when a box of spanners and a bit of patience don’t quite cut it. Those with a classic will know that feeling when it all becomes a bit too much… be it a worn crankshaft, a damaged thread, a cracked crankcase or a cylinder head that has seen better days.
That’s when things can get a bit more serious. And that is where the JSW Group, or Jim Stokes Workshops, in Waterlooville, Hampshire, comes in. And we have teamed up with them to showcase the skill and expertise that they have to keep our old motorcycles on the road.
Established more than 40 years ago, JSW grew from Jim Stokes’ apprenticeship and his involvement in managing a private historic competition car collection. It has since grown into a 55-strong operation offering a complete range of services for historic and classic vehicle owners, and they really do know how to look after an old piece of metal.
The reputation is particularly associated with pre-war Alfa Romeo, with JSW manufacturing complete 6C 1750 and 8C 2300 engines and gearboxes. But the workshops are rarely without a Bentley, Sunbeam, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Lancia, FIAT, Aston Martin, Maserati, Rolls-Royce or Abarth. Yes it is primarily a car operation, but the problems involved in keeping an old motorcycle alive aren’t all that different, and JSW are well adept with the machines and know-how when it comes to two-wheels.
JSW has four main divisions, including a fully equipped machine shop backed up by a design office. It means that those parts that no longer exist can be made in house, and for old bikes, that is a pretty useful facility. The four main divisions are:
Machine Shop, Design Office & Laser Welding – CNC machining, design, manufacture and reverse-engineering of components, including complete historic engines and gearboxes. Additionally the repair of otherwise scrap castings and components via laser welding is a godsend for those maintaining originality.
Coachwork & Fabrication – restoration and recreation of bodywork, chassis, fuel tanks, oil tanks and other fabricated components.
Restoration – the main historic vehicle restoration operation, bringing together the mechanical and engineering skills needed to restore complete vehicles.
Classics – covering post-war classics through to modern classic hot hatches and Japanese sports cars, from routine servicing through to full nut-and-bolt restorations.
One of the most interesting additions to JSW is the laser-welding capability that came with its acquisition of the assets of EMP Tooling, bringing members of the EMP team into the Waterlooville workshops.
EMP had built up a reputation for using laser welding to repair castings and components that might otherwise have been written off.
For anyone with a motorcycle, this is where it gets particularly interesting. A cracked cast iron cylinder head or crankcase isn’t exactly something you can pop onto eBay and replace. Laser welding can sometimes provide another option to get your bike back on the road. And this is how it works.
The process puts a very small amount of heat into a very localised area. That’s important because excessive heat can distort old components or create further problems. Laser welding means that components can potentially be repaired with very little distortion, opening up the possibility of saving parts that might previously have been considered beyond repair.
It’s not just about making a broken part usable again either. It can be used to build material back onto worn areas, giving engineers something to machine back to the correct specification. Cast iron can be repaired, along with aluminium alloys, magnesium and titanium. Material can also be built back up on things such as valve seats and then machined back to the required size. Crankshafts and other components that have already been reconditioned multiple times can potentially be repaired too.
In simple terms, it can mean saving an original part rather than throwing it away. If the crankcase has been with the bike since the 1920s – for example – replacing it with a reproduction might get the engine running, but you’ve lost something along the way. Being able to repair the original instead is obviously preferable where it can be done properly.
The work isn’t limited to historic vehicles either. Laser welding is also available for marine and aeronautical applications, and the parts that have been repaired have included everything from antique flintlock barrels and Samurai swords to components for the catering and print industries. Not quite the average day in the Girder Club workshop!
Anyone who has stripped an old motorcycle engine will know that “it just needs a bit of work” is often the beginning of the story rather than the end. JSW has a dedicated engine operation and extensive machining facilities. The work covers things such as cylinder heads and blocks, crankshaft grinding and balancing, con-rod honing, precision grinding, line honing and CNC machining. It also manufactures complete historic Alfa Romeo engines and gearboxes, so the capability to deal with complicated old machinery is well established.
JSW’s Coachwork & Fabrication division deals with another side of the same problem. The team restores and creates bodies for historic cars and has recreated completely lost bodywork from surprisingly little surviving information. It also fabricates and restores chassis, fuel tanks, oil tanks and other components, using traditional techniques alongside the company’s modern engineering capabilities. Again, much of this is car work, but anyone who has restored an early motorcycle will recognise the principle.
Not everything that passes through JSW is a pre-war competition car.
Its Classics division covers post-war classics right through to modern classic hot hatches and Japanese sports cars, offering everything from routine servicing and mechanical work through to complete nut-and-bolt restorations. It means the company isn’t simply geared towards one particular era of historic vehicle. The underlying idea remains the same – understanding the machine, working out what it needs and carrying out the work properly. And there’s an important point here. JSW are there to help with job not matter how small, or complex.
JSW isn’t just about restoring vehicles and putting them back in the garage. Motorsport is a big part of the business, with competition preparation and trackside support at events including the Goodwood Members’ Meeting, Revival and Festival of Speed, the Mille Miglia, Monaco Historic and Classic Le Mans, as well as Silverstone and test days around the UK. That’s probably no surprise when you consider where the company came from.
Historic competition cars have to work. They have to be driven hard, sometimes thousands of miles from home, and when something goes wrong there’s no use simply putting a cover over it. That practical experience is another part of what JSW brings to its restoration work.
A Motorcycle Connection
There is also a nice motorcycle connection with the laser-welding side of the business at JSW.
Alan Barker, laser-welding consultant and former partner at EMP, has been involved with motorcycles for most of his adult life, having picked up the bug from his motorcycle-mad father. So he understands why keeping an original component matters.
For those of us who spend our time messing around with old motorcycles, that’s an important point. If a part can be saved, repaired and put back into service, that’s usually a better outcome than throwing it away and starting again.
JSW isn’t a traditional motorcycle restoration business, and that’s probably what makes it interesting. Its name is closely associated with some very serious historic cars, but underneath all that, the problems are familiar… old engines wear out, crankshafts need measuring, bearings need replacing, threads get damaged, castings crack, and parts disappear. That’s where having a workshop with this sort of engineering capability becomes interesting for the vintage motorcycle world.
Ultimately, the job isn’t just to get an old bike running, it’s to keep the old thing itself alive. If you need that helping hand, pick up the phone to JSW and have a chat… here are the details for the workshop:
JSWL – Jim Stokes Workshops
Pipers Wood Industrial Park, Waterlooville, Hampshire PO7 7XU
an article by The Girder Club
— the home of vintage motorcycles, tall tales, and machines that refuse to behave —
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