Sometimes only a large hammer can solve a problem

I've started to assemble body parts to the chassis.  Its all rather exciting..... and at the same time, terribly disappointing and frustrating.  Nothing seems to fit as I imagine it should!
I've never seen, let alone worked on, another Manurhin so I have no idea as to how well this bike was put together in the first place.  And on top of that I've had to source parts from various far-flung places that may or may not have been designed to fit together anyway.  And so there is a fair amount of 'fitting and fettling' that needs to be done in the assembly process.  Despite everything being powder-coated... (yes yes, I can hear the 'proper' engineers among us muttering that I should have done a 'body-in-white' assembly before powder-coating - lets not go over that again) ....it's amazing how much flex there is in the coating while gently persuading a panel to ease its shape over your knee.

However there comes a time when you realise that no matter how hard you try (or how hard your knee is) there is no way you are going to humanly reshape some bits.  My steering bump-stop being a case in point.

It wasn't until I had assembled the front forks onto the frame with the forks cowling that I realised that there was more turn to the right than there was to the left.  I measured it several times and started to wonder if there might have been some old and peculiar French motoring law designed to encourage motorcyclists to turn right more sharply (perhaps to get them off the main road quicker?)  But on closer inspection I discovered (and I really should have seen this before) that the flange bracing the frame and headstock - which also acts as the stamping for the frame number AND the steering bump-stop, was bent out of line!

How on earth could this have happened?  That is quite a hefty bit of metal to be bent so.  Surely if this had occurred as a result of an accident or some rough misuse, then wouldn't the forks / handlebars / wheel / frame also show signs of stress? I cant see any!

I had acknowledged the fact that a risk of painting too early might be having to damage paint later during fitting - now was the time to take a deep breath and accept it.  With the forks removed, armed with a 4lb club hammer and a hefty dolly, I whacked seven-bells out the flange and encouraged it back into a central position.  Paint damage was minimal, the turn equalised and I went to bed that night wishing once again that my bike could talk and tell me its story