Gas Tank Side Meshes

The Singer Le Mans followed the Nine Sports’ very successful entry to market with about as much racing imagery as Singer motors could throw at it. With its upswept cowl, twin mounted spares, rear mounted gas tank and quick release petrol filler cap, it was the image of Le Mans.

One of the details that stood out and really defined the car was the petrol tank side mesh. It’s one of those tasty and delicate features that you simply don’t see on any post war machinery.

These meshes are invariably in need of chroming and repair of course. Bringing the frame back to life is easy. They are pretty solid and up for the chroming process. However, the filaments in the mesh are a little more delicate and are usually broken or missing. If only broken, it is possible to solder them together relatively seamlessly. However, for a perfect job, a new mesh is essential.

Brass mesh is available from various sources. Dave Hardwick, of course, is one of them. In fact, he used to offer the whole unit ready for chroming, but found it could not be produced at a cost that was feasible for enthusiasts. After putting mine together, I understand why. It’s about a three-hour job per side to secure the mesh.

Time aside, the task is pretty simple. I traced a form for each frame on a board and drove screws in at each curve to act as a retainer for forming the outer wire that the mesh wraps around. I initially tried to use a coat hanger as the wire form, but found it was just a little too thick, so I dropped to a smaller gauge of wire.


Once the wire was formed in the correct shape (making sure there was enough room within the frame for the wire wrapping and chrome plating), I unscrewed the screws, lifted the wire and placed the brass mesh on the board. I overlaid the forming wire and screwed both the wire and the mesh tightly to the board so neither would move as I wrapped the filaments.


Wrapping was bloody tedious, a job I understand that was relegated to the women at the Singer factory. Originally, about half the filaments were wrapped around the wire, which is why they broke or came loose. I wrapped all of them, which took me about three hours of blinding, finger numbing and backbreaking tedium. The end product of course was worth every minute of it.