Modern Vespa

No before photo, but this thing was covered in half an inch of slime.

Never thought to clean one of these up, but it is original to the bike. Kind of halfway there.

These are absolutely impossible to find.

I will try to find a shop that can reconstruct this one.

The headlight ring, too. There are just none out there.

You can get the reflector re-plated if you wish. The glass is held on by small tabs that you gently open up.

No tabs on this one. It's a US spec sealed beam headlight. Different than the ones we have on our side of the pond...

Unless you're planning to enter a concourse competition, I don't think anyone will fault you for going with a replacement-bulb style US headlight instead of the sealed beam.

The CEV trim ring is worth refinishing though. They're getting scarce and the repops are pretty crappy.

Scooter Mercato has an aftermarket headlight unit which uses a standard replacable BA20 Halogen bulb. Fit and function are great. I used this exact unit on a few scoots.

Glass headlight:
https://www.scootermercato.com/Scooter-Parts/Headlight-Assemblies/114435

Bulb:
https://www.scootermercato.com/Scooter-Parts/Bulbs/B12HLHAL

Fixing hardware: currently out of stock
https://www.scootermercato.com/Scooter-Parts/Headlight-Assemblies/S-15221-KIT


Scooterwest also has an option, which includes the chrome ring. Good quality, but not CEV stamping. Better than no ring!

Glass headlight
https://www.scooterwest.com/usa-head-light-for-vespa-rally-sprint-super-small-frame-114345.html

Fixing hardware: in stock
https://www.scooterwest.com/screw-and-nut-set-for-usa-style-vespa-headlight-015543.html

Since you're in Greece, I'd be happy to help order/ship; if helpful. Just hit me up!

I have a 6v CEV sealed beam out of my Sprint you can have if that'll work.

GL, thanks for the offer, but I have no need for a US headlight. I was responding to "Rallygeek" but I forgot to quote him. Our Sprint V. / Rally handlebars have the bigger EU spec headlights were the glass was held by folded tabs at the back. You could pry them open and replace the glass or the reflector (were sold as replacement parts)...

Here's my handlebars for my upcoming project and the LED headlight I'm going to use (will run full DC)...

hjo: Sorry for the small thread hijack...

ahaha!! Totally my mistake! I got mixed up HJO - that info should be for you


SAfis: nice headset and LED light! dig the smoke bare end signals

Thanks for the Mercato links!! This is the same one, 02827. Slightly different marking. How is the glass on that?

This looks so great!

Glassy

It was working when I pulled it out of my SprintV in 2018, been in a box of parts ever since.

In my experience, the 6v sealed beams will work just fine with 12v; if you're going that route.

Nice! I'll DM.

Keeping it 6 volt. I hope it's stable.

I had a 1974 super, and the battery would drain if you rode it with the headlight on. Then all the lights would die.

It may have been the rectifier.

Why?

Picked up this video via the Youtube algorithm. Thought of your project with that under-seat key switch.
Took a few views to figure it all out, especially with that curious scoot as a model.

Why keep it 6 volt? Or why worry if it' stable?

I have all the 6v parts. The regulator, stator, harness, everything. I have a spare regulator, so hopefully one is good.

This video is interesting. It's converting from AC to DC. With a lot of American bikes, people converted the other way.

Super excited about this. Speedo King rebuilt my speedo and sent this photo, and video of it working.

He's amazing.

Break lever is amazing!
And fender looks ace as does the rebuilt speedo.

What was your process with on the brake pedal?

Totally. I had some seriously corroded aluminum parts on my boat and used 3M 9020 Aluminum Polish and it worked great.

The brake lever.

I had it vapor blasted, and it didn't come out well, but cleaned up. It had lots of pits.

I just used sandpaper, up to 1500, then chrome polish and a rag. It still has some pits, but didn't want to remove more material.

Amazing job

Thanks! This is so fun. I don't know what I'll do when I'm done. I guess spend another year on another one.

I saw a DTM epoxy while I was looking at colors for my VBB that also etched, but by default, they don't. Better method is to galvanize the metal with ospho, wash/flush really well with water, then prep normally for DTM epoxy

I didn't get Ospho, bc the only place that has it is 20 miles away.

But also, it needs to be flushed with water. Or appears to be, and scared of water getting in seams.

So I used a wire brush to get every visible bit of rust, and epoxy or etch.

The bike has a lot of areas with rust pitting, which will need a really light layer of filler or some kind of building primer.

It definitely needs to be flushed with water, but it's as thin as water, so anywhere water would get, it would have already galvanized.


As to the pitting, some glazing compound will fix that right up. High build primer might also work, but I don't have enough experience to say for sure. Either way, buy lots of sandpaper

I'll dig some up!

Check out Evercoat Easy Sand. SoCalGuy put me onto it and it works really well for dealing with small scratches and pitting.

This looks perfect!

I don't think there are really many places it needs Bondo. There are a few dents, but I think they'll straighten out.

So really just some pitting from places there was surface rust. It's more smoothing texture.

lollll.

Scooter Center has a washer I need.

It's like $1.50, and the shipping is $100.

Have Mark Ito at scooter-speed.com order it for you. No excessive shipping costs.

We've all been there. That's part of why I've gotten pretty good at sourcing stuff based on spec's, not the scooter sites.

Which washer is it?

Ospho is basically phosphoric acid. There are other products like it. The idea is that it flows into the seams and kills the rust. It leaves a powdery coating that you have to rinse off before you paint.

I've had success building up deep pitting with epoxy primer and sanding between coats. You can also use a thin body filler sometimes called dolphin glaze. Avoid the crumbly red spot putty that comes in a tube.

I found it!

From Scooters Originali. I didn't see at Scooter Speed.

It's a shame. Those German sites have some really nice parts, including lots of ones that are still Piaggio-branded. but you have to do a big order to make it worthwhile.

Oh yeah. Ospho is phosphoric acid, and some ingredients for liquid consistency.

It's basically the same as naval jelly. Which is easy to find. For some reason, Ospho is only at one store I could find in Marin County (20 miles away).

ok! It would be good to do the seams.

When they blasted it, they got all the paint, but there were spots with rust along the seams. They didn't get all the rust. I think the media must have been too heavy gauge.

And the spots with the old rust have grown a bit. It's so insidious.

I have to get some primer on this before it rusts again.

Part of what's so awesome about phosphoric acid/ospho/naval jelly is that it actually galvanizes the metal so it won't rust in the time between when you treat it and when you lay down the primer.

ok. That's my weekend project.

Going to protect all the parts that aren't getting metal work.

Things you never thought would clean up (and probably weren't worth the effort).

"What're you doing?"


"Nothing. Just sittin' around polishing my exhaust stub."

I didn't realize these were ever shiny. I don't think I've ever seen one that wasn't all rusty.

Guess I saved $50.

Things.