Modern Vespa

The Lammy continues its hard embrace of entropy.

Tonight, as I was on my way to the grocery store the AFR bung and sensor decided to break off at about 50 MPH. Suddenly having a large hole in the exhaust made it pretty obvious when it happened, but I didn't figure out what had happened until I'd gone the rest of the way to the store and figured it out.

Lucky for me, no one had run over the sensor, which was lying in the road right where I'd left it, so I brought it home and welded it back in place. I fixed the broken mount point while I was at it, then put it all back together.

I considered adding some additional bracing to the AFR bung, but I'm about ready to remove it, I've just been lazy about it.

Then, I finished my EGT install, because with the new open tip sensor, it works great. Better than it ever did before. More on that once I've had a chance to ride with it more.

I FINALLY got the air compressor back in commission. It took a little more than I anticipated - but isn't that always the way?

The bottom gasket was too small and leaked all over the place so I had to make a new one.

The one way check valve for the air going into the tank was all crudded up and needed some love to make it work correctly again.

The copper tube providing air flow from the cylinder to the tank was leaking like a collander and needed fixing.

Belt replaced and tightened,

Oil changed - twice.

I'm going to run it in the garage for a while, and if all checks out, move it out to the storage closet, just on the other side of the garage, where it lived until it threw the old belt.

Great Scott!! Great work! It was quite the effort to get it going again. I'm sure the ole air pumper will thrive for another generation.

Still working on the long side of the bus. Not much to see, but I caught a break removing the side window. Not only no rust, but the window frame was in pristine condition. Filler work is done. On to sandblasting the seams, seam sealer, prime and final sand.

Looking good Orwell. And I'm glad you've held on to your bus and are giving it some love.

Back in the late 70s (I was in High School) Me and some friends were hanging out at Surfers Point in Ventura.

This Aussie guy comes up and said he's seen us a bunch over the last few days and told my friend if he drives him to LAX, he can have his VW Bus! He bought the bus when he came to the states and was dumping it on his way out. Way cool...

That's a great story. Buses and surfers go together like a horse and a bucket.

While I've been waiting for tools and parts to arrive, I decides to finally tackle a home reno job that I've been putting off for some time; hardscaping pavers on my sideyard.

Next to my garage there is a 10'x20' sideyard with double gates that leads from the front driveway to the backyard. Since I moved in here four years ago, that area was covered in a mountain of gravel, dirt and debri; 2' higher in the middle than the rest of the paved areas. The gravel was always covered in weeds, had other junk mixed in from the PO's; and was a treacherous climb to get over the mountain. My plan has always been to grade and hardscape this area in some way.

Two years ago My 2 kids (16/18) got to work!! We cleared out all the trash, and shoveled I don't even know how many tons of gravel out of the sideyard and piled it in the back; to make a new mountain of gravel! Atleast now it was out of the way.

After that, we got to work on grading the hard clay soil underneath. It was rocky, and hard packed, so progress was slow; and very hard work. I suppose in hindsight I could have rented a Cat or smthn; but cheap is the name of the game so out came the shovels and pick axe! We leveled it all, with sore hands and aching backs, covered it with a tarp to protect from Oregon rains…then rainy season struck so it sat this way for 2 years….

Until last weekend. With some time at my disposal, and being sick of having yet another unfinished job around here, and rainy season just around the corner; I ripped off the tarp and got to work!

One of my main goals was to make a nice flat stable sideyard, able to pull up a car; and do it as cheap as possible. Thankfully the PO's had left behind many cement pavers of various styles, and with gravel mountain; I had almost everything I needed on hand.

I counted all the different sizes shapes and colors of pavers I had, as there wasn't enough of any one style; and created a pattern that would fill the space and IMO look creative and interesting. After deciding on a pattern, I got to work. The soil was already hard packed and level, so I added a layer of paving sand, and set about setting stones. 208 individual bricks and pavers. With spacing between to fill with gravel. I worked on it every day for just over a week, and today set the last stone!

The whole area has a very subtle grade away from the home, and should shed water efficiently away from the home toward the street. A few small details left to finish, and I'm happy with the results! Now I have a fancy area to store the trash cans!

To prep the gravel for its new home with the pavers, I built a rig to sort, sift, and wash.

Built from scraps a table with a sliding tray and mesh bottom. Gravel gets shoveled in the tray. Pick out the larger debri of sticks, leaves, and anything not rocks. Slide the tray back and forth vigorously to allow the dirt and smaller debri to fall through the bottom. Wash it all down with high pressure water. Then Dump it into the wheelbarrow. Repeat…many many many times.

Nice work on those pavers!

My bones ache. I found new sore muscles I didn't know existed

Nice work. Those stones are a bitch to move.

My back hurts from just reading that post.

Looks outstanding and I really like what you did style-wise. I laid down a bunch of 12" pavers as paths in my yard to the workshop and carport and while I didn't do nearly as nice a job as you did, it was still a TON of work just carrying them. I need to do another path and just can't get motivated because I know how much work it's going to be.

And let's not even talk about the collapsing (collapsed, really) stone retaining wall along the front drainage ditch...

Funny how you can unsee a big pile of ugly that is an unfinished project. Well, at least I can unsee it.

Even more true for unstarted projects.

You have way, way more patience than I do. And I'm so damned sick and tired of looking at river rock (our local equivalent to gravel that landscapers were using EVERYWHERE for a decade or so) that I'm going to hire someone to come in and scrape all that crap out of our yard.

I have more free time than free money, so I make the best of it. River rock is a better term for my gravel. This style of fill rock is very prevalent here for landscaping. It wouldn't be my first choice, but I've grown to appreciate it. I have a few other areas that I'll be able to make use of it.

Chapeau to you GeekLion.

For me that is past ´fun´. Have two ti hips and recently a ti shoulder. Hauling heavy stuff is not very compatible. Stacking/ carting hay bales for the horses cannot be avoided but is already not advisable. The horses are on the farm up the road where my ex decided to stay put.
I recently moved to a single level ground floor apartment so (sadly) no driveway/garden whatsoevvah.
New phase of life more befitting age and titanium bits
Anyway kuddos to you sir!

I'm in the more metal than bone club as well! Both hips, both shoulders (multiple times no less) and a fake collarbone. Up next is another new shoulder and my knees need to be cut out and replaced. I'm like a rusty old Vespa frame

Worse than that...you're a bodge!

That's definitely more accurate sadly!

Now that I have rods and screws in my lower back, I can sympathize with people that have had this and so much other work done, like you FM. But what is the alternative - sitting around and watching TV? I'll take some pain over not getting something useful done any time.

I also tend to think that we bring most of these problems on ourselves. There are some genetics involved, sure, but I know that I have done things in the past that haven't exactly helped my own situation. No more, I have different priorities now as I want to help raise my beautiful granddaughter.

Whats really strange to me is how, while y'all didn't really have a choice, I have known people who *did* have control of their destiny and chose the surgery.

Like...I used to work with this guy. Good dude, reasonably intelligent, morbidly obese. He started having knee issues and the doctor straight up told him, "You can lose weight and your knees will be fine, or you can get knee replacement." He chose knee replacement.

I was about as WTF??? as a human can be when he told me that was his decision.

C-man, could not agree with you more. In my case, the lowest disc had herniated thrice, had been operated on twice and there was little left of it. The disc above was also herniated. At the start of this year, I lost 30 pounds, did PT, quit what little drinking I did, but in the end it wasn't enough. I wanted to avoid surgery if possible. Once I saw the MRI I knew surgery was my only permanent option. They could have given me shots every three months, but to me that was just kicking the can down the road. I am 68 and did not want to put it off when it may be more difficult in the future. I am 2 weeks post op today and I'm glad I got it done, I'm ahead and I'm going to work hard to stay ahead.

I have a niece that just earned her Doctorate in PT about a year ago. Recently she told me that if most of her patients lost 50 pounds and stretched everyday, she would be out of a job.

I believe this. I started having issues with my feet hurting. I've since lost maybe ten pounds or so, and the foot pain is gone.

I'm sure other annoyances will go away as I lose more weight, and I don't have anywhere near fifty pounds to lose.

Exactly. The alternative is not something I'm willing to consider. I may be in constant pain but at least I'm alive and can ride (most days anyways) and get to raise my kids as a stay at home dad. Could be worse.

I don't think most people like me and you could actually lose 50 pounds and still be healthy. It's just something she observed.

Always could be worse. But, kudos to you for dealing with it and raising your kids.

When my then love was pregnant of our son my priorities, risk behaviour, changed fundamentally. Now I had a responsibility. That was 22 years ago. Damage was already done though. It is when you are a teen, in your twenties, thirties even, you do or rather I did a lót of things that seemed like a good idea at the time but years later came back with proof it was not.

And about self inflicted... Mwah. Yes and no. I have had, ám having loads of fun and am in a better place than just about all of my sedately living social circle moaning about. Ah, yes that is self inflicted too. I agree with you

I had wrote a long dissertation, but then erased it all. The jist of it is that food addiction isn't any different from any other addiction, except that it will probably be painfully obvious to others that person. I've had many, many (probably 10~15) different overweight and obese men at the gym approach me and talk about their weight loss battles. One thing that has been the same exact result with every single guy has been that their joints have felt MUCH better after they lost weight. We as a nation need to learn that "comfort" food is most likely going to be very detrimental to one's health. Relying on food to find comfort will lead the person downhill both physically and mentally. There's much better things in life to find comfort in. As with anything else, moderation is the key.

Words of wisdom right there.

I had a friend tell me it's like building a house on an empty lot. Are you going to put in your mouth healthy, balanced food to build a solid foundation to your " house", or dump garbage on the lot.....

Round two on the Greek-Bodge Sprint V. with the mismatched cases. Crank was binding on rotation so I had to resplit the engine. Rechecked it on the truing stand and needed a bit of a beating to come close to 0 on both ends. Also installed two 0,5mm shims, one on each side of the crank and now it's centered and spins freely by hand. Also doing cables, I'm pretty sure these were the original ones, especially the shifting cables which had the "mating" crimp and gave me hell to slip in the new ones. All cables were covered with red shrinking tubing instead of having been replaced. Need to resleeve the engine loom, replace the fuel line, rebuild the carb and hopefully finish it by Sunday...

What's your process on choosing and fitting shims Chrys, just make sure it's centered in the pad? And how much float is acceptable?

Centered the crank with the bolts torqued and measured with feeler gauges. This one's terrible. On matched, good cases, you shouldn't be needing shims for the crank...

I don't know if you had seen the carnage...

That's just nasty! Glad you were able to revive it.

A mate had one where they had re-done the rotary pad. Pretty reasonable job. When he went to fit a new crank to it, he found out they had turned down the overall diameter of the old crank to fit!

Finally in stock. Felt like a kid today…

So cool!

So today I got together with a fellow NSMer to fish for some native trout at a secret location. Didn't expect it to get so hot but we caught fish. After that I had hibbert fly me around in the C180 so my legs could rest from the hiking.

WOW that was freaking AWESOME Baja! I got to do some really cool stuff today with Rob got to fly fish for wild trout we both caught several and released them unharmed. And probably more exciting fly a plane! Got to take the yoke and feel what it is like to be a pilot! I can't thank you enough! My initial feeling when taking off was this is a little more scary than the Rocket Ship ride at Disneyland.