Modern Vespa

Well it's a snow day here in PA so I thought I'd take a break from shoveling and post some pictures of my projects.

I bought my Vespa used from someone who bought it used from a PA Motorcycle Riders Course. Even though it only had 1500 miles, it was pretty dinged up from the riders course. Last summer I tried to cover them up with stickers. This winter I tried to fix the dings and give it some new paint.

1. My fist step was to sand out all the dents and dings.
2. Then I bought some Bondo, filled in the dents and sanded down again.
3. I stripped down the Vespa, cleaned it and taped it up for paint.
4. When everything was painted I ended up using 10 cans of dark grey plasti-dip, 1 can of plasti-dip graphite metallizer, 1 can of Rust-olium satin clearcoat finish.
5. After it dried for a day I used Turtle Wax Ice Spray to give it a smoother/less rubbery feel and to give it some extra protection from debris. Someone on youtube also mentioned that this wax would help sliding the body panels back into place and reduce wear from friction.

Here's what it currently looks like. I did a quick video to try and capture some of the sparkle from the Metallizer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIxZiqSeK4

All taped up.

Another earlier project I tried to do after seeing other members on here successfully do it, was to try and shave down my seat. I ran into numerous problems with this.

First; I was unable to heat and dent in the plastic hump. So I cut it down and taped it back together. Second; trying to shave down the foam was a mess. I didn't have an electric knife as others suggested. So I tried just about ever cutting device I could find in the house. The end result was a lumpy mess. I once again used tape to try and smooth it out. My staple gun also had a difficult time stapling the cover back onto the plastic.

Yes, the seat is now lower, but it's far from perfect. The finished seat is in the above pictures.

That turned out great. I like the new shape of your seat. Is there still enough padding left to make it comfortable?

great job.

The prep work looks excellent to me, the result also.

Do you have background knowledge of bodywork? Ever done it before?

Doesn't really look like a rookie job. Nicely done.

There is still enough padding to make it comfortable for daily commuting. Eventually I'm going to take all apart again and try to smooth out the bumps and insert a gel seat pad to make it a bit more comfortable. I was too impatient the first try and rushed through it.

Thanks!

My only experience with Bondo/bodywork comes from watching lots of youtube videos! No real world experience. My fear was that it would dry too quickly and I wouldn't be able to smooth it out in time. I mixed enough Bondo to work on one spot at a time so it wouldn't dry out. After the first layer was dry, I sanded it down, then applied another thinner layer of Bodo to fill some low spots. Sanded again. Having an electric sander helps a lot!

Another plus with using Plasti Dip is that you don't have to sand down and prep the entire scooter. You can dip right over smooth paint.

Overall - this was much easier then trying to shave down the seat.

Looks pretty cool 🖒
The paint on my tiddlers a bad rattle can job, this is giving me slight motivational thoughts 😂

Finished most of the scoot. Was able to take it out for a little ride today.

Be careful with the valve caps, I had similar on a 600 & they tore the valve allowing a sudden deflation at a bad moment.

Interesting... the only thing I checked when I installed them was to make sure they didn't stick out too far and hit anything.

Do you know why yours did that? Sharp edges?

Thx for the warning!

It was the weight of them, it's multiplied by speed & next thing it tore the valve where it pokes through the rim as it's the weakest spot. I was lucky to keep on tbh.

You are lucky! I couldn't handle that riding situation yet. Be safe!