Modern Vespa

Sorry, I meant "distress" or fake patina. Do a you tube search on "how to patina paint auto". You will get several ways to do it. One may suit what you're trying to do....or may not.


Good luck!

Patina shmatina ... sometimes old crappy paint just looks like old crappy paint. Strip it off and give it a respray.

Just the handlebar then? Or the complete Vespa?

I allready have a Vespa with new paint, so the idea was to restore this one original, with the original (imperfect) paint.

In reference to the crack on the leg shield V oodoo Seems to be the man to bring things back from the the world of tattered, beat up or close to dead, his recommendation sounds solid. I would drill a small hole at the end of the crack and mig weld the entire thing so you have no more problems with it. It will just add a little character.

The only thing worse than glorified corrosion and rust re-branded as "patina"... is fake "patina". Hey, it's only original fake patina once.

Sometimes you just gotta do, what you gotta do.

DD - fantastic. Really.

My vote - weld it, grind it, leave it. Battle scar.

Photos upload speed...
Ironic - you have stripped an entire bike of 20 years bad paint - but photos upload is truly the frustrating part.

My experience - site is slower when many are posting.
Trick is to post in off hours to US.
Your GMT+2 - so easier to find a window?

Shoot for late morning your time ~ 10:00 - you should find it quicker - and keep uploading those photos - what a fun ride.

ill get some in this thread soon!

Here you go. It’s a pity I’ve already stripped it, it would have matched your bike.

labor of love.

Tonight, my 16 yo daughter Sarah told me I absolutely needed to create an Instagram account about the restoration of this scooter

OK!
https://www.instagram.com/vbb2t/

Not !!

Did the right side today!
Almost finished with the paint stripper, only the handlebars and brake pedal left.
Happy, cause I've had it with the decap

Next:
- Handlebars and brake pedal

- Acetone to get rid of the rests of green and black on the scoot.
- Polish the paint
- Owatrol

And then rebuild!

And ride!

I now also have confirmation that there was only one spot with bondo on the Vespa! On the right cowl next to the kickstart.
So it is in great shape!

looks good how about the Piaggio badge, that could be corrected

Thanks!

Would this be the correct one?

Don't mind him, he just knows how to paint really well and thinks of well worn paint as 'damaged goods' somehow. He is right of course but some ppl like old even if crappy. You like it or you wouldn't be putting in all this extra work and you've still got well over 90% good paint on there, that's plenty. Rust protection for the rest.

If you did decide to respray, you'd want to get the body 'perfect' first or you'd get a crap result, worse than now.
Don't need to worry about that the way you are going. Let the next owner have the honor of putting beautiful new paint on it.


Which reminds me, what about that legshield crack?

And yes, that's the right badge.

What next owner?

The legshield will be welded. I’ve found who will do it (a pro) and will see with them how we’ll do it. First got to have it back to a riding state, because I’m gonna ride it there

Think about it. Given that the bike has survived so far plus all the love that you're now giving it, it's almost sure to outlive you. Maybe even several times. And maybe by then patina'd old paint will be a tired old trend at the end of its life and it definitely would pop nicely w/ shiny new paint. But I like the current look, trend or not.

That'll be my kids problem then

Typically I agree with this. I'm not much on patina, especially with so much fake crap out there.

In this case I may be persuaded to think it looks OK with original paint.

Nowadays, if a bike has a fancy paintjob people start questioning whether it's a bodge.

This.
And also, it's now quite easy to see the my scoot has no holes!

Um....only people who don't know what they are looking at. Does "fancy" mean two-tone to you?

Bodge?

Is that a question?

Ha, yes but rhetorical.

SoCal City in Vietnam?

Is that what it looks like to you?

No, looks absolutely gorgeous

By the way: what I meant is that a new paint job can hide a bad scooter underneath. With mine, that’s impossible.
I did not say, by no means, that all scoots with new paint are bodges...

I just want to walk back this comment I drunkenly posted in half jest last night.

I didn't mean to throw shade on anybody's paint job. All I meant was that the bodge makers are good at covering up shit with paint.

There have been several legit looking US bikes posted in the Bodgespotting thread lately whos only sin is having a recent paint job.

Last edited by gmontag on Tue May 07, 2019 1:55 pm; edited 1 time in total

I don't know how I missed this thread until today but you are doing awesome work. I love the look. Great project.

I love what you're doing also. And as far as paint goes, my wife and I have differing opinions.

She thinks people see shiny, nicely painted scooters and they can see themselves riding around on it.

Me, I see something that I'm going to be nervous about scratching, and riding the begeezes out of. And it's obviously not the original paint (unless it is). I prefer having a mechanically sound scooter, with the body "fixed up" without masking the life altering events.

Straighten a leg shield, sure, pop out dents, sure, strip off old paint, sure. Strip it down to nothing and sandblast the whole thing raw, then prime, paint, paint, clear? Maybe, if it's a basket case. But that beauty you have is definitely not a basket case, and is coming out awesome!

this is the reason why i like ur vbb, not just the og paint but more like u have a very solid project and almost have everything complete..


one of my friends that always debate with me since he was so onto og paint but when i saw the floorboard was already been replace in a horriable way and he missing lost of og part so i said u only buy a body set with a lil og paint in it, he bought that bike 25 times more then the my vbb price that still have og floorboard and no weld, the price of his vbb is the only reason he proud in the end of our conversation

as for me, since i own mine for 21 years, i done to many things to mine but never damage the body

Well... if my project could end up like this one...

DD Looking good, I would never have the patience to strip that paint back.

In my view you would have a piece of junk. But we all love our rides for different reasons.

At the end of it all it's the enjoyment you get out of it.

Did a little more today.
Discovered that a Dremel (thanks @Charlieman22 )with a polishing pad works great to remove the black rests! Ran out of pads though...

Also had a nice surprise! I thought there was not much paint left on the handlebars, but it seems there's quite some left!

Pics!

Underneath the green primer, on the original paint, I've got some strange, round, scratches I would like to remove.

How would you guys tackle this?
Wetsanding? Polishing?

I've got no experience with both. But I've got an excentric rotary machine lying around.

If you sand out those scratches. you will most likely remove most of the paint. It look like someone was using a DA sander without the sufficient knowledge to operate it. Or something got under the pad when said person was sanding and could not be bothered to look at what they were doing. My buddy in FL would say "that's what you get when you smoke the cheap stuff".