Modern Vespa

I had started looking for info on doing the floor on the 63 vespa and had asked a Mod to switch it over to NSM but nuttin became of that so I'll just start from scratch here. Voodoo already gave me some great guidance and enough to get started. I have a new floor from Sip and will be removing the old floor and putting in the proper pegged rear brake.
Still a Bodge but I've left it sitting in the corner because of the incorrect rear brake it has and it was always in the back of my mind that I would one day fix it so that I would feel better about it.

It's been 35 years since I did any welding and that was stick welding so it will be a while before I weld in the new floor , I have to get use to this new Miller welder first before I do floor welding.

I managed to weld on a couple braces and get the frame strapped in for removing the floor.

What’s wrong with the old floor? It’s not rusty.

Wrong floor , not a vbb floor. Unless you’re referring to the new floor sitting on the frame?

P floor currently right?

Real curious how one removes an old floor and looking forward to watching this whole process! Following along.

P floor and brake setup.

Why not just leave the old floor panel in, but remove the cross braces. Take the cross braces from the new floor and weld those over the top of the old (perfectly fine) floor.

I need to remove the floor to put a new brake peg and holder for the cable.

Translation from Canadian:
He wants to get into the tunnel, see what's up, then have the best correct floor a lot of effort and a little luck can buy.
Close enuff?

Ahhh you speak Canuck.

Angle grinder with a cut off blade made quick work of the sides of the floor.

Ok I have to say the people over seas that weld these sure know what they are doing , it took quite a bit to break the welds.

Excellent start!

Please be gentle, looks rather helpless and vulnerable like that!

Clean up the inside of tunnel with fresh primer to add extra rust protection while it's open!

I sure will.

I 'll be gentle.

I'm going to need a bit of help with measurements when I get the cut off brake pedal peg out of the hole. Going to need to know how much it protrudes out the side of the frame as well as how far in the locking pin hole for the pedal is from the end and the angle for the hole.

Yeesh!...i'd be inclined to remove all of the paint from the scooter, then get the whole thing dipped (acid) to get rid of all that rust that you can't get to. Who knows what's under all that filler.

It also looks like Grandma's blanket also got a few burn holes in it with the new welder!

Already been stripped down , bead blasting , inspected, primed and painted once. Still have alot of cleanup to do.

Gotta ask , is this typical of a vbb floor to fit raised like this ? Is it supposed to be pressed down perhaps once the rear is fastened down? Makes me wonder if Sip sent me the correct floor that I ordered.

Your new floor looks shorter. I would contact SIP just to be sure. Is there a chance that with the bodge job they did on the floor , they also elongated the frame / tunnel??

Seeing your first photo, I would also cut along the neck and change the double sheet that's there. It looks like you have a lot of underlying rust there, pretty typical on old vespas. Following photos, a repair I did on a full restoration of a P200. Frame was solid and the only problematic area was there because it gets wet from the front wheel...

Are you sure the back half of frame is vbb aside from floor? Maybe the bodge was also the frame not just floor?

Absolutely sure , no welds showed otherwise anyway.

SaFiS thanks for the reply and your photos. I've still got somemore cutting to do up front , I wasn't sure where the butt joint was going to be so I cut the old floor short of the target. Still have more investigative surgery to do there. As for the new floor Sip actually sells a couple versions of the floor , mine is the shorter one . As far as I know the frame hasn't been elongated, Jeeez I sure hope not, didn't see any obvious signs. I can contact Sip but they are absolutely brutal for responding.

Here's somemore info on the floor.

I think you need a solid dimension between known points now. Let's see what happens when you check here. I think it's about 4" on my Super where I can measure easily, but will verify on a '62 VNB and a '58 VBA and see if they are in the same ballbark while you see what you have there. I think you need to fit it well at the BACK first, square it up good and figure best place for the front joint when you have that done. You will likely want to trim off some of the front of the new floor to avoid cutting off more original legshield than you want or need to,.

When I made the bolt on floor for my old trashed floor Sprint, I had to set that rear vertical flange that the cables go thru in snug first, then get the front curve matched to the bike.




measure your motor mount hole center to back side of first reinforcing rib

Thanks Voodoo I need all the help I can get on this.

22" from brake peg to motor mount hole , did one from back of floor frame to tail on rear fender . I wish I had someone to hold measuring tape so I could get a full photo end to end.

Oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot about that. Just don't weld the new floor in first. That's something I'd do, and start cursing and crying.😂🥊

Haha way ahead of you, keep holding myself back.

I like to get one obstacle a day out of the way. Peg is out and new is ready once someone gives me the proper dimensions for the peg stickout

Made short work of the peg with this bit on the air tool.

Nice job on the fitment and welding. Did you use a Mig to weld it in place? Size of wire , settings which welder? I'm new to the Mig welding and need alot of practice.

Nope, my crude drawing has maybe fooled you, but these pics show you that I was talking about the vertical edge of the first reinforcing rib. It's well above the mount hole, so you just have to do the best you can. That back flange is sloped & not the best place to measure against.


you can see the slope of the back flange that laps the frame here

from directly overhead, looks more like 4 1/8"

Thanks Voodoo I’m going to see if I can get the new floor flap sloped a bit more to match the frame. We’ll just have to make it work.
Now can you give me the peg length from the frame so I can cut it to proper length, also if we can figure out the angle of the peg hole for the brake pedal pin. One step at a time.

I'm going to butt in on the welder...

Every welder is going to have different settings. I see that it's a Miller? Hopefully you're set up for using solid wire and not that silly innershield monkey business stuff. It costs more, but is 100x's worth it. 030 wire is what i usually use in my 'lil Lincoln 110 welder. .030 is kinda too big for lots of the sheetmetal on the scooters. You might try .023?..you will probably have less burn thoughs. Usually welders are set up to use either .023 and .030. You just have to flip the drive roller around to get it set up. I run .045 solid wire on my big 220v Esab for zapping anything thicker than 3/16".

Oh, and weld outside if you can, or have REALLY good ventilation! The fumes are bad, bad, bad.

I never count it as butting in, all info is appreciated. Yes its a Miller 211 running on 220, right now I'm running with .023 solid and gas mix. My son dropped me off a good sized piece of body metal I'll be practicing the butt welds and plug welds on. My son is an HVAC guy and said this week he will be getting me a furnace fan and we'll be setting up proper ventilation as well I use a 3M respirator.

Can someone with with a VBB2T or if they are the same similar model please do some measurements A to B and distance the peg protrudes from the frame C?

This should help and I will go get those dimensions for you from similar bikes. I would set the retaining pin angle more like the first pic to make removal MUCH easier.

A is about 1 1/2", B about 6" and C is 2". The tube sticks out about 1 3/4" from the frame. About the same on all 3 older bikes, the Super, a Sprint and a VBA.

Perfect , thanks Voodoo I can cut the hole for the brake housing now.

Is this the way the brake pedal pin goes?

Moving ahead slowly, I got the housing for the rear brake line cut in ( rough ) , not exactly sure on the angle yet. This is all Voodoo's ideas.

Contacted Sip about the floor sitting funny and they first asked for pics then they asked to verify it is a VBB2 and not a VBB1 which I sent them a pic of the serial number on the frame and told them the item actally says it fits both.
I had ordered a new set of floor rails from Scootermerc and tried them on with new floor in place and if I pressed down on the floor the rail fit perfect going up the leg shield. I will wait and see what their technical department says before going further.