Modern Vespa

I used evaporust on my GS tank. it did soften and discolor the paint some. I used it on an old rusted license plate and it worked great.

in both cases it was not bad and ospho may have been better or worse. Oshpo does protect the clean metal surface better, so after the evaporust I'd still hit it with ospho.

"now after careful steel wool work, it looks like 023087, not 023037
so maybe ultra rare, sSuper valuable 1969, one of ONLY 69 produced?
That's what I now choose to believe!"



V oodoo-the paint is looking great! You get so much accomplished each day. VERY impressive! Mind boggling, actually.

But I have to question your belief here on having one of the ultra rare Super valuable '69s in your possession. Call me crazy, but based on the chart, wouldn't it be a '67?

Please correct me if I'm wrong and don't get fried that I asked, ok?

Drat! Give the little lady sleuth a big prize, what I first thought was a 5 was only a lowly 3 so then I got so excited with a nice 8 rather than low 3, that I celebrated early, but she's got my number dead right. Probably a junky older '67 POS and illegally registered tardy as a '68. ScooterHelp now confirms 1967 as well.

CURSES! Still much newer and better than your much senior '66! But regardless of who's really oldest, thanks a lot for all of your kind help anyway.
Can't win.

Well thats a bit of a let down, but hey just another to your corral.
You're doing a great job making her shine.

Old crappy 1967 model, I'm slowly getting over it, but ain't easy.

I got a little more done late last might and today, Clearcoat is on the bottom, I got a little straightening done and started getting that damn black scrubbed out of the engine well. Here's a 'before' pic again.


This black is bad stuff!

Well I'm still going to enjoy all your play by play.

I thought the hex piaggio badge started in 68

Hallelujah!


1967 should have this badge ^^^, you are so right! So mine is a renegade '68 or maybe that awesome legendary '69 even!

I got me a genuine late model script badged HEX Vespa Super right here! I just don't know what the hell year it is now.

I must say, I am very impressed at the speed you get these projects done. My latest is not going as well. I was really hoping to remove the dodgy top coat paint and get back to the original silver. Alas, it is fighting me every step of the way. I tried straight Acetone, nope. Two kinda of what goes for paint remover nowadays, nope again. I finally found some old paint remover that has some bad stuff in it that is no longer for sale. With this and a rag or ultra fine scotch pad it is starting to do the trick. But the original paint is rather dull. I have some time today to work on it , so once I get enough removed I will have to make an assessment of what to do next - live with it, or repaint. I was really hoping to keep the original, but we'll see.

I got lucky, but there IS a slightly darker yellow underneath in some places and it's tuffer to get off. you can see it here where I wiped the side of one of the cowls and toolbox door some then hit the tuff stuff.


The problem I have now, is I thought I would have some good brake shoes for the 10" front conversion, done so easily per Ginch, but NO I do not . Just about every Vespa shoe known I got, but not these unless stole from an involuntary donor. Nope. So looks like I gotta sink another $18.03 into this damn moneypit just to safely stop. First parts I can't just scrounge up.

I've got a new set of 10" shoes for you Voodoo! I'll put them in the mail tomorrow!

Scott, my good man! You mean for zero cents? Oh, good, hope they are well used a little bit, maybe you could ruff them up?
I want no brand new pieces on this old POS but I won't waste $1803, I mean $18.03!

Oh BTW, these are the ones w/ ONE overlapping hole at the top, not damn P style all modern TWO hole and such, like in my picture?

Nah, you got good eyes still, right I hope?

PS: your lower link & a decent shock are now ready to go! Nice timing, Bub.

Today's progress, not much. I got the engine cavity done and found some welding is gonna be needed, I had thought this damn thing was solid!

Have you got the welder for fixing that or do you farm it out?

Obviously my eyes are not very good! Dangit! Sorry man - I didn't mean to get your hopes up. I've got the wrong type, or at least the wrong type for your Sprint, er, Super, er, Super-Sprint. No wait, the Hard Boiled Super on 10s....

What, are you pulling my leg? I have a Monkey Ward 200 amp buzzbox Craigslist $100 special I like better than wire feed for sheetmatal repair work and general fabrication. Welding this busted brace required a series of small tack welds, trying to run a bead would just heat it up too much and the paint on the opposite side would catch on fire.

I clamped a piece copper on the other side and backed that up w/ a packege of frozen hamburger. Worked OK and should hold good.

Power turned down for smallest rod I can get

Nice work! Now I want a burger!

Renaissance man.
Paint, weld. cook.
Hope you turned those in to burgers.
Double points if you did it with the torch.

I keep checking in with great hope that the yellow portion on the front of the leg shield and horn cast has been removed.
Weirdly obsessed - opening each time with anticipation -has he gotten to it yet?
Is it some kind of viral marketing?
Forcing us to keep coming back to look?

No burgers, sorry , wifey gave me 15 minutes only to return it, still fully frozen or she's throw it out. But yeah, more hard on there thick YELLOW DAMNED PAINT to pry off. What fun! And mostly just needing more solvent, just used the last of it on part of muguard I can't get at later, so so I can now stick in my freshly groomed 10" fork.

I also straightened the kinks in the mudguard perimeter. I thought it was a crusty mess inside there and on the bottom of the fork assembly, but they both cleaned up pretty nice w/ a couple wire brushes, trusty rag, a little carb cleaner & PineSol spray bathroom cleaner.


And yeah, the last mellow yellow two-tone 'accent' shall now come off LAST thing and tnx for the tip.

Voodoo nice work on the weld job and thanks for the tips.
That front end looks super clean and in great condition.

Tanks Lynn, you have a heap of much tuffer welding in front of YOU(but lucky no paint!) and Imma be looking over your shoulder too!

Been busy w/ life's bigger issues like figuring out my $weet new hearing aide$ and my fancy fucking 'smart' ass fone . So poor Hardboiled has languished mostly during all that, but I did drop the fork in(literally!), clean up the motor and I'm now doing the centerstand. Dropping in motor next, yep that's right. Still upside down so motor in from the topside, kinda kinky, no? Regardless the innocent motor cleaned up so nicely and I really have to say from a pro point of view that these castings are some of the best I've seen. I scrubbed every square millimeter and it was smooth as baby's bottom all the way. Hat doffed to the LML foundrymen over in India where they do make a lot of good stuff.

Remounting the center stand and after a good cleaning, I've decided not to repaint it. The original silver isn't real good, but not so bad either. So it stays old paint like most of the rest including all the front end(well a little clearcoat ). But I did disassemble, clean & paint the rear shock a fashionable two tone for a small thrill at least. Oh yeah, I caved and painted the brackets. Bolt heads too.

I did a 6mm to 7mm upgrade on the mounting bolts and added nonstock washers on top & nyloc nuts below. This part of the bike is about perfect and now it should stay that way as long as ppl don't sit on it rough when it's vulnerable in the up position.

amazing progress!

don't forget to add the little flex spring between the stand and the body. stops it from rattling and protects the paint.

Voodoo was the copper ground cable under the clamp for cooling the weld or improving the ground contact?
I'm presently researching for my upcoming weld job as to what would be better for sheet metal heat sync , copper or aluminum?

Was also wondering how do you like those 2" sanding/grinding disc? Seen them on Amazon but hard to tell which would be the good quality.

Nice finish on the weld fix up.

This one came without and you can see that wear, but I will track down a set. Thanks for the reminder.

Lynn, I'm just lazy and didn't take time to fix the ground clamp. But I did get the motor in and was SO easy w/ a friend to help. Maybe I'll take a nice little Sunday ride tomorrow... Just some cables and a few wires to hook up, what could go wrong? Who needs brakes on BOTH wheels? The token two tone paint job's gonna rock hard!

What , you put motor in with frame upside down? That's gotta be eccentric in every level, I like it.

I will probably always try to rig up something like this from now on, SO much easier than trying to 'insert' the motor from underneath or even on the side.
Done it twice before w/ smallframes and one guy can set the smaller motor in pretty easily, but first largeframe and a bigger or younger guy can probably do this alone w/ a little luck.

On the first one we bolted a length of 1 x 2 across the rear top w/ tank bolts and a pad under the headset on the floor, but not as stable as this newer way.



the bolted on stick before we flipped it over



next I tried this, similar to now w/ stool-table, but only bungees to hold it there

Mucho respect to anyone who can singlehandedly flip an upside down scoot that's balanced on a table and a stool without injury or damage! You rock T!

Smart guy, but forgot to mention that you need a good place to stand as well. My method is a little like this kinda, but cheating w/ gravity to flip it NOW when it's all loaded up! It's cleverly laying the whole damned contraption down on pillows using gravity mostly, then firmly grabbing hold of the lightweight stool and merely flipping THAT little thing up, then engage centerstand and unbuckle stool, fire it up and just ride down to your place, Mike?
Hope it works mostly that way, we'll see.

With all the fiddling and collecting of scoots and seeing as you have a welder, perhaps you can make something for holding them in what ever position you need.

You're the one with the fancy new wire feed production style modern welder, right? I been giving you tons of help and you are younger than me w/ tons of time w/ your 2 or 3 year scooter projects when you are not collecting old parts in Italy... So maybe you could whip me up one a these if I shoot you the cylinder by Fedex Air to you house w/ a parachute?

I mean REALLY? when I got my handy all angle lightweight wooden stool thing?
It is surprisingly stable, but w/ motor & fork in it's obviously a bit topheavy and I am considering screwing an anti-tip oversize base to the bottom as well.

But if you DO have a little spare time, here's what we need, just make two.

Shipping from Canada would be killer.
I like the idea, oh and my Birthday just went by , 58 years young, I think I'm a bit older.

Canucks!

Now that I think about it, this is how I did my first smallie about 10 years ago in Greece

Maybe after dinner when I get the cables, wires, shift box, clutch, exhaust, lights, brakes and a few other unimportant things somehow connected, maybe the gas tank too?

It did come down easy with no drama. I will need to extend the centerstand to make it more stable. I am looking forward to the first putt putt up to the mailbox and see what still needs attention or was just forgotten. Couple more days maybe. i AM digging the two tone look and I do appreciate the nudge in that direction.

Nice job 'flippin the omelette'! I can almost smell the oil burning now

She looks great with the two tone, we'll see how long you keep it. That taillite looks great , really pops.

Very Nice Voodoo - Not quite "Hard Boiled" yet, but it is, (I'll say it again), no yoke....

And just like THAT, the hunks and bolts and bits are reassembled into an actual scooter! Finally, something I recognize a little

Looking great, V oodoo! And betting when you kick it over, it sounds as good as it looks. A bit of a shame to hide that shiny spotless lump under the cowl, though.

Totally loving the cheerful two-tone paint and am kinda hoping you leave it like that, at least on the cowls. It simply looks yummy! Perfectly done!

Yeah, it sounds that easy but those lovely pictures are only sort of dry fit posed just shoving the parts together to see what it will look like one of these days. It took me TWO days to just connect up the motor right and finally get the wiring resorted so I got spark and FINALLY got the motor started in the dang bike.

And I am just NOW hooking up the shiftbox and that rat's nest inside the headset and levers and brakes and lites and and and... So now is the good part scrubbing small parts and fitting them just so and looking how I finally decide will be just right . If I try to go too fast it gets fubar'd too often and I get to do it all over. No thanks .