Modern Vespa

Another reason why a project like this takes so much time…seam sealing.

Scrape out any loose factory seam seal, sandblast and blow oshpo into the seams with an air compressor, repeat with clean water. Dry overnight. Lots of taping, epoxy with a brush, seam seal and another round of epoxy over the sealer.

Hope to get it in epoxy and high build today. Then I'll be over the hump and have some time off for riding while it shrinks and cures.

Test fitting gears and screwgied the taper pin on the bat wing. Ended up having to cut off the fucking post after all other extraction efforts failed.

Scooters are stupid.

I second that. I wouldn't get as frustrated if I didn't have a full time job. Working is for suckers.

Razzafrazzin' stuck gear and sprocket. PB and propane haven't worked yet.

Cylinder came off with a fight. Thankfully, nothing critical was damaged. I think I'm ordering new head studs; the clean-ish one was chucked in a drill and sanded.

Managed to extract all the case bolts with minimal fuss. After reading about how fussy it was to split these cases, I figured it was no harm it removing them all while scheming on how to get the gear off the crank. Was quite surprised at how it popped apart while trying the apply a bit of impulse to the gear puller; gear didn't blink.

Stator is definitely crap. Wondering it it's worth even working on that. Hope that Vape kit fits a P4.

Off to Tampa in the morning, I can stew about this until I get back next Sunday.

Can you slide this style of puller behind those pieces?

I have a similar set. Unfortunately, I don't have the clearance in the case to leverage it. See my thumb vs the case for scale.

Looking for an old bearing puller I have. Has a split die for fitting around a bearing and a steel sleeve to keep it together. Sort of like this:

https://www.treatland.tv/MLM-universal-6202-bearing-puller-p/mlm-sachs-vespa-bearing-puller.htm

I suspect that is the way out of this jam.

EDIT: Sprocket came off after several rounds of heated negotiations. Gear wins until I get back...

Got the primer on. It was crazy windy, but got it done. I will need to fill some pinholes and hit it with more hi-build, but it's a relief to get it in primer before winter. Paint can wait until spring if it has to.

Awesome! Bet that feels good getting done with that stage.

I've been there multiple times over, playing beat the cold fall weather here in rainy oregon. Definitely a huge relief when the bare metal gets covered!

They are, but "it is what it is."
Great quote from this awesomely honest guy's channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@smallborecorps

Don't get me started on trying to buy pullers that fit the Rally Vespatronic flywheel
Now have every possible puller, aside from the one I needed this weekend

Ray, I feel you man. When I dismantled my Aermacchi (which was in much better shape than this Minarelli), I had every tool needed at-hand and disassembly was a breeze...I figured I'd finally had a complete arsenal to handle any project.

Then this bloody crusty Minarelli comes along and upends my wishful thinking.

I should stick to the stuff I have tools for!

It was 80 here yesterday so I took the SS out for a three hour ride through the woods of SW Ct.. The height if this years Fall colors. I'm sorry I didn't bring a camera.
On the way home it felt a bit rich and didn't want to idle ( I checked the choke knob and it was fully in ) but I made it home and checked the carb. What had happened was on a hard bump ( I think it was a recessed pipe cover) the carb had pivoted forward and pushed the choke outer into the frame grommet and then when it backed off, it pulled the choke on a bit. I rigged up a piece of wire and a clamp to lock the outer in its socket.

The bodged up Sprint V. is wracking my brain. Finished everything and it now has intermittent ignition issues. Flywheel was f'ed up so it was a PITA to get it off each time while testing things. I decided to machine it on the lathe for a puller…

So much better than the 'so called' self extracting type with circlip. I don't miss messing with my primavera and it's flywheel one bit. Keep those threads clean with a cap.

I am suspended in the useless void of waiting for parts.

Balls.

Sympathies, my man.

I am suspended three times zones from my project and the parts arrived in my absence.

D'oh!

Once in awhile I have to bust out this timing device for the mags when the engine doesn't have timing marks. Works the same as our degree wheels but this one mounts on the prop spinner. It's quicker and easier than the degree wheel. It has a weighted needle and all that's needed is to tap the prop with your hand. The mag gets turned till the light comes on. It also buzzes. Similar to Ray8's ohmmeter technique.

That's awesome, Rob!

I love how universal these techniques are across machines of similar tech levels.

I'm a little surprised how not-tidy the wiring and hoses are in that compartment, though. Is that that normal for an older plane like that?

No, normally everything is secured so wires, hoses and tubing don't chafe. This nasty old Cessna 172 came in for a leaking mag gasket. One of the hold down nuts was loose and the screws for the plug wire harness were loose also. This plane isn't a regular customer of ours and is new to the field. If we end up doing the annual inspection, it'll need some extra work for sure.

that makes a lot more sense. What sort of obligation to report do you have when you work on a potentially-unsafe aircraft?

Is it just "tell the customer they're gonna fail their next inspection," or is there something you're supposed to file with the FAA, too?

It definitely gets discussed if there's an airworthy issue. We wouldn't let it leave without correction if our name is going in the logbook. Almost everytime the customer says fix it. If not, they can take their plane but I won't put my name in the book. It's backwards in aviation. We're guilty till proven innocent so we're real careful.

Yeah, but it's also generally effective, I think, so not the worst thing in the world. (Especially for someone who used to live under a final approach flight path)

Jumped straight in to the Fall spirit, for Leafpocalypse 2024!

On my Property we have 2 huge elm trees, 3 maple trees, and a huge douglas fir. When it comes time to shed, all these trees DROP it like its Hawwwwwt! Summer green to bare branches in a few weeks. Thankfully the city runs a "Leaf Pickup" program, so we pile them in the street; then the city comes by with a big vacuum truck and sucks em all up.

Dang and I thought our maple tree dropped some leaves ...

My house now has a lot of trees that drop a lot of leaves, but I just pile them in a corner of the yard and let them turn to mulch, because there's literally no other way to dispose of them in Nashville.

My old house in Chicago also had half a dozen BIG trees in the front yard and many, many trees in the back yard. You had to bag your leaves for pickup, and I usually got about fifty big brown yard bags, packed TIGHT, every year. That's one thing about that place I definitely don't miss.

Leaves dropping like mad here in Vermont and all over the road, which heralds the end result of regular riding season. Can't complain though. A long, warm fall made up for the rain forest summer. Feel like I got in a solid riding season.

I pay extra for no leaves here in California! Your leaves are gorgeous but I would loose my mind raking them up. My backyard is in a shit state as it is. I need to get on it.

I moved here 4 years ago from SoCal, where I'd lived my whole life. The first Autumn and Winter here I was MISERABLE. I was 100% not prepared for what living in the Pacific North West was all about. Leaves, rain, freezing air, snow, darkness, more rain, even more rain… I almost lost my mind. I've adjusted, somewhat

I here you on that one. It would take me awhile if ever, getting used to the wet weather. The ocean up there is cold too.

Yeah, I'm still working on the "adjustment". Hibernation mode is approaching and still two months away from winter solstice, something I never paid attention to in the lower latitudes....

Our house in Vermont has no big trees in the yard, so no raking. The PO spent years growing a gorgeous lawn, but it's a bitch to mow. A solid acre of thick lush jungle grass that grows like mad. There is always something I'd rather buy than a riding mower.

You already have a riding mower! Strap a lawn mower to your Vespa then you're golden!

I live in the south of Andalucía, the south of Spain. At 700 meters altitude though at the north side of the ´southern divide´ which includes the original Sierra Nevada.
Thus in the south ánd keeping track of the sun

Ugh…i totally understand where you're coming from, except i've always have lived on the rainy side of oregon. My trick was to find an outdoor activity that i could enjoy even when the weather was grey and gloomy. Fall meant cross country running races and cyclocross racing. I enjoyed running outside in cold wet weather, so i also had that going for me. There's no dust when it's wet, so dirtbike riding was still fun 12 months out of the year. Snow meant that i would go out 4 wheeling in my jeep. We can also make huge fireball explosions out in the forest without fears of starting a wild fire.

9 months of lousy weather a year here in oregon just means that i could also focus on scooter build projects more and riding them less. It also gives me a HUGE appreciation to having those 3 months of nice weather a year! I never, never, never complain about the 100+ degree days we sometimes have.

Same. AF1 quoting 6-8 weeks for 1 part from efffin piaggio, all I did was torque down a coolant bleeder valve too tightly after a flush on the '13 bv350. Torque spec: 3Nm. Not 13, 3.

Played hooky from work to paint the long side of my bus. It's supposed to hit 70* and sunny by noon, so I'm gonna go for it.

I tried, but didn't succeed in getting these panels dead flat. I'm not quite sure why, there are still some ripples in it. It might be the way I'm sanding or that dead flat requires more rounds of full spread filler. I'm going to keep moving forward though as it will still be better than factory and it will always be a driver bus.

"Good Enough" is the only path to sanity and success on projects like this one.

Keep it moving forward, because "not quite perfect, but out in the world" beats "perfect someday, never leaving the house" every time.

Still working on a solution for the crankshaft gear on the Minarelli P4. At least research has confirmed that the P4 and P6 have the same crankshaft, so I can use that PowerDynamo CDI setup.

Weather was nice yesterday, so I opted to try and break down the front suspension. PB and propane got all the fasteners free, but I did need an engineer's hammer and a large punch to knock the front axle out. Ancient, desiccated grease/mud mix sucks. Can't wait to try the rear axle, I already know it's binding.

Got one fork leg to move slightly, so I wrestled with it to get it disassembled. The ancient ick that had replaced the oil made it a helluva job. Cleaned it with acetone, SuperClean Foamer and dish soap. Other fork leg is frozen pretty solid, but I'm going to experiment with it to see if I can free it up anyway. I need practice for the Aermacchi forks, which look to be in better shape, but they're frozen too. Between the pitting and scarring, I'm thinking that rebuilding the indian forks might be a fool's errand.

The Plan B is to retrofit a set of decent EBR hydraulic forks. This would get me a bit more suspension length and built in disc brake mounts. The plan is to retire the wheels as good spares for a needier machine and to replace them with supermoto style wheels and tires. I was considering re-lacing the rear hub and keeping the rear drum, but at this stage, I'm warmed up to the idea of just upgrading the brakes and suspension in their entirety.

The bike is too beat to justify restoration and that's a big reason why I took it on. I tend to iterate endlessly on trying to rebuild something as close to original as possible or preserving it. I'm hoping this project forces me to step out that loop and just find solutions to make it work and work decently. The goal is to update what I can't easily restore while not totally throwing away the original aesthetic that made the Indians readily identifiable.

Anyway, it's another nice day. I'll fight with the rear end later and continue breaking it down so I can clean up the chassis for powdercoat.

Orwell - is that final paint? So many things on the bus are orange, are you doing a 2 tone?

^^^
This right here is wisdom to be gleaned. Well spoken, Chandlerman!