Modern Vespa

The best is the enemy of the good

Not quite the day I hoped for. Wind was blowing like crazy and wouldn't stop. Went for it anyway. Fair amount of peel, but probably salvageable with color sanding. Worst case scenario, scuff and shoot the big panels again. Window frames are fine.

My machinist had the necessary bits to cobble together a gear puller. After a bit of fettling, it finally popped free.

Cases halves are split, finally. Love how ancient oil and desert dust magically turn into mud in the block.

Time to order bearings and seals. Need to try honing the bore and see if I can reuse the piston. I found new standard rings. If not, it might be tough finding an oversized piston...

It's a game of inches, and I'm celebrating all the gains.

Or as we say… Perfection is the enemy of completion.

Got to test ride a '73 Yamaha RD60 yesterday. Apparently, they made RDs this small: 55cc with a 15mm Mikuni and a two petal reed block. Five gears worth of tiny brapping noises.

The owner grew up in the UK and had a FS1-E, or Fizzy, when he was a lad. Picked this up for nostalgia, but it's slower than his old bike. It four-strokes hard at 8K and needs a bit of fine-tuning. I told him I'd find a few bits and see if we can make it sing properly.

I doubt the Indian can stand up to this, but it was a nice nudge to keep going with that rebuild. Was also reminded that there's an '82 MB5 that I need to get back to running, just need to find a 4th gear for a '80-'81 CR80R!

That's a really cool bike! It's one year younger than me. Can't believe those were ripping around while I was filling my diaper. There is a guy with an RD400 behind my work that he bought new and still rides.

Rode to my work with Hibbert and did a weigh in. With gas, his GS was 242 lbs. The Malaguti topped out at 204 lbs. That GS has plenty of torque with the new cylinder and a unique sound from the exhaust. Nice job Hibbert!

Considering your score on the Malaguti, keep your eyes out for an Italjet Formula 125. If you dig the 'guti, you'll love the Formula.

My friend Subetherbass (on here) inherited one, I remember riding it and being amazed how smooth it was.

Man… that RD is rad, too bad it's the wee displacement and not the bigger, stronger brothers of the RD fam. Still hella cool.

i never knew RD's went that small. seen some 250's on craigslist before but never anything that small. wild!

Mentioning Italjet, have a look at the ´Velocifero´ model.

I have one that I picked up from Greasy. Love how the floorboard still has the Piaggio hexagon stamped in it. It's hiding behind the horncast.

Planning to do an Athena 50 kit on it and nothing spicier. Cable operated drum brakes can only do so much.

It's that time of the year again. Total of 1,8tons in two days. Not our best year but also not our worst. Weather was once again really crappy during pollination and the extended drought during the summer also didn't help...

Early harvesting here too.
Not crazy rush as usual because of the causes you mentioned.
Normally there are harvesting sounds all around all day and in the late afternoon all rush to the plant to get theirs processed same day; long lines of tractors with trailers full. Now just the ood one dispersed durin the day.
Sofar not heard anything about the quality.

Results: 408kg or 444L of extra virgin olive oil…

Hope the prices paid to the growers are good this year.

Will be buying a 5l bottle (maybe two) of the early batch this or next week. Ditto a litre or half a litre of ´flor de aceite´ unfiltered.
I find in übercool that the coop at 500 metres has a label with a photo illustrating the view right in front with the harvested trees in it!! Literally from the tree to the kitchen via the press up the track.

Doubt it. That's why I don't sell mine. I'd rather give it away for free than sell it for peanuts and others get rich…

Going a little deeper into the whole color sanding thing. Rear quarter has become a test panel for trying out different techniques as it had a nasty run, a lot of peel and trash in the paint.

A couple evenings of color sanding with 1500-5000 grit have improved it a lot. If it survives buffing without burning through, I will be happy with it.

Looking good!

You should be able to get a really good finish with compounding, then buffing from where you're at.

If you're worried, maybe do a quick round of 2,000 and 3,000 grit, but my compound is supposedly good from 1,000 or 1,500 grit, so maybe try compounding, then decide.

Ugh. I've been there multiple times. You'd be watching the weather forecast, hoping for a warm day that's going to be over 80 degrees. That day comes, you get everything all ready to go and paint the night before, and whoosh….winds the next morning, afternoon, and then increasing in the evening. It's so frustrating that I'd rather be kicked in the crotch. You knocked down the orange peel pretty far. I'd be tempted to squirt two more coats of color over the top…especially if it's single stage paint. You definitely want to have enough color on there to get a correct mil thickness.

I do that with my eggs as well.

When it became obvious during painting that I would have to do a lot of sanding on it, I gunned on a couple more coats.

I'm gonna see what I've got after buffing and have a good look at it in the sun. If it's getting thin, I will give it another couple coats when I paint the next panel.

I knew it wouldn't be a good painting day, but I think it's easier to reshoot a bad section than the whole after it's sat in primer for months. I can also put the window back in and drive it now.

Got the Minarelli's input and output shafts cleaned up on my machinist's lathe this morning. Upgraded it to "running, sliding fit" from "crusty, jamming-binding fit". Now I need to finish breaking down the kickstart shaft and have it cleaned up too..

SKF Explorer bearings (Made in Italy) ordered to replace the crunchy RIV bearings. Following up on a missing hone order so I can try to clean up the stock bore. Once the bore is sorted, I'm taking the reciprocating bits to Crank Works for a rebuild and possibly a balancing. SIP claims to carry a crank for this engine (not really, it'll only fit a P6 and a P6-4), but I kinda want to keep the OG as the conrod, bearing and webs all look to be in good shape; I think only the taper for the flywheel is going to need some work.

Some more bollox, but different than the usual. Projects seem to have a domino effect. My heated, well ventilated, detached garage at my other house has been clogged up by a 2012 Hyundai Accent with a starter that won't crank. It was my mom's car and will go to my younger son who is learning to drive. I need to shift it so I can get my bus in there for painting.

Did some test light magic and finally had to pull the starter. Not an easy thing on modern vehicles that are a couple inches off the ground with everything jammed together, but I managed. New starter arrived today.

As for the bus project, the sketchy panel buffed out nicely but there is some porous paint where a big run used to be right in the middle of the panel. I may try to spot paint and blend it or just hit it with another coat sometime down the line. Either way, I'm moving on with the rest of it.

Oh, that sucks, Orwell.

If that run was anywhere but *right in the middle of the panel*, I'd say just ignore it, but that's hard to overlook right there.

Checking on ur guys, hope everyone is doing great and live more happly that last time i check

Love you guys and cheer

Hi ebeth!!!!

Glad things are better in your orbit!

Great to see you post.

Hey Ebeth, long time, no see. What's going on in your world?

Dismantled, cleaned up and reassembled the Minarelli shifter mechanism. Replaced the snap ring that I found shattered in the crankcase and the one that snapped into thirds when dismantling the mechanism.

Also cleaned up the crank and flywheel taper. Going to toss it on Ray's truing stand once I remember where I stashed my dial indicator.

More RD pr0n: there was a lovely RD400 at Gear Shifters bike night tonight. And it had a For Sale sign on it! Tempting, but I know I can neither afford the tickets nor the hospital bill.

Pretty happy with how these panels cleaned up with sanding and buffing. Moving on to the other big 1/4 this weekend. I'm in the groove.

That paint job looks better than factory. Kudos!

The reflection is crisp nice going.

That's a mirror finish anyone would be proud of. Nice work!

She's a beaut!!

Rode to Tombstone with my local club today. Good day for scooting. My buddy didn't want my "slow" Scarabeo holding up the group, so I borrowed his '22 Kymco AK550. All I can say is that it's got a sweet exhaust note (270° parallel twin) and it comes ridiculously pre-farkled. The 52hp on tap requires a bit of throttle discipline.

I clocked 200 on the round trip, but the guy from Phoenix (blue T MAX) wins with the 400+ mile day.

That's bitchin! I want to check out Tombstone sometime. My wife is from Globe so I've been there a million times. Apache Jii day is always cool. Looks like perfect weather for you and your Posse!

Got tired of panels blowing around like wind chimes when painting. 2x4s and strong magnets should make everything easier.

Oh, I like that a lot!

Do the magnets damage the fresh paint on the inside of the panels? If not, it makes so much sense

It's been pouring rain all weekend, so I didn't do much, but I mostly installed the disc brake I got onto the Lammy.

I didn't like how the fittings made the brake line route on the headset, and I'm not sure what kind of fittings it had, so new 3AN line and fitting (I already had one) are on the way.

And, unfortunately, it came off a Series 2, so the headset mount/switch housing didn't fit, so I had to track down one of those, too.

Once that is complete, though, it should be good to just ride until something breaks, which is good since I have the GL's motor to re-rebuild, plus a couple other minor Vespa projects in the wings.