BSA Folding Bicycle

[rob love]

I recently received the remnants of one of these bicycles from off a farmer's scrap pile. I am going to take a shot at restoring it, although looking at the prices anything "BSA airborne paratrooper" fetch on ebay has me wondering if I should even try.

I spent the morning stripping the bike down to the frame. Still have to remove the crank yet. It appears some water had collected in the rear frame and cracked the two tubes for about 1/2" I will have to weld them back and straighten them. Otherwise, the frame is in pretty nice condition. With a bit of heat, I managed to get the seat post out, the front handle bars out, the pedal pins freed up, and the rear brake assemble and lever off, both hinge wingnuts loose, all without damaging anything.

Parts I will have to find include: BSA marked seat (I may just go with a modern Brooks seat in the meantime), front brake and lever, wheels and tires. I will also buy a set of the repro grips and decals.

Anyway, for those who may have gone through this before, here are a couple questions for you:

I note that there seems to be black paint under some areas of the green. Were the complete bikes black, then over painted with the olive drab? Or just the frame and the pedal cranks?

Are the bearing cups on the front forks a standard item between bicycles, or unique to the BSA?