A slight bit of a breather here.

Due to the left side footrest being slightly bent, I decided to remove it in order to straighten it out. This looked fairly straight forward as the right one was a simple thing to remove.

But nooooooooo.....

Whereas the right side was simply undo a RIGHT HANDED thread nut, pull the hanger bit off and remove the bolt from the frame lug, the left side had to be a little more complex.

Seems that some not so bright spark decided that this had to be designed to be as complicated as possible.

In order to get at this a little easier, I found it necessary to disconnect the rear brake rod from the rear brake so the brake pedal drops down out of the way.

Then the nut that keeps everything tight and in place is a LEFT HAND type which came off OK. However the fun part is about to start.

It seems thaat not only did some eejit decide to use Satans invention with the left hand thread, they also made it so that the footrest itself is "locked" in place on a splined stud with a "locking plate" or a washer with serrations on the inside that lock the footrest into place to stop it from rotating.

Perhaps this was an early attempt at adjustable footrest circa 1968, but it still is diabolical. In order to get this little monster of a washer off, wedges inserted between the footrest and the washer must be used.

As I have no actually wedges, long common screwdrivers had to be employed. I tapped one in from one side and then from the other side in order to keep everything as even a possible and to prevent any type of binding.

After a few minutes of tapping on each side, lo and behold, the locking plate came off as well as the footrest itself. Next the stud is unscrewed from the frame lug...left handed as well!

Due to some unintentional damage to the threads of this stud, it has to be replaced, hence the work stoppage for right now.

A couple of days ago I had to order the double threaded splined stud from British Cycle Supply in Canada. They also have an office in New Jersey.

For the low price of $27.05 I got a new stud on order. hard to believe that a stud that is about 1 1/4" long at the most can cost so much. But I guess when it's threaded at both ends and with a splined portion in the middle, if ya want it ya have to pay the price.

So right now I'm having to wait on it to come in before putting it into place.

The footrest hanger I keep wondering about, heat it up and straighten it or leave it alone. I'll figure it out when the time comes.

Update
The stud came in a few days ago along with a mighty fine looking t-shirt that I ordered with it. In the shed for a few minutes while doing the laundry and screw the stud into place as well as making sure the other bits go on with no aggro. Results in a few minutes......

Results are....everything went together as required and I decided to put the footrest hanger back on as is wihtout trying to straighten it out. As they appear to be "adjustable", I decided to lave them alone and adjust them to me and. That way I still keep it's previous character and can ride it without too much bother as far a settings.