Modern Vespa

Yup bracket is missing. Looks like you will be needing a new center stand. Be sure and order all new hardware too.

Hec

Yes, same as the other side should be there.

Thanks. It's something I could fix except they are so cheap.

Yes they are! Besides that old crappy center stand doesn't deserve to be installed on your freshly painted scoot!

Hec

Yup

And those crusty brackets that I won't have to sandblast and paint.

I'm thinking of splashing on a new wiring harness too. I could salvage the old one, but new ones are cheap and I would be that much further ahead. The old wires have some overspray on them from whoever painted it before. That irks me to no end.

Go with the BGM harness if you replace it. Better quality and instructions than SIP.

I could have salvaged and re-used the old harness on the Smallstate, but decided not to bother since it was beat to hell and I'd converted it from 6V "balanced" anyway.

A new wire harness is a must. Mine looked good except for the dreaded green wire. Once I had it out of the frame I found other spots with wire insulation crumbling with exposed wires. I can't believe my Scoot even ran. A new harness is a no brainer. I got mine from Scooter Mercato. Only one terminal was the wrong size and the colors of the wiring maybe a different shade or have a stripe added to it as compared to the original. You can figure it all out by having the old harness in hand and a good wiring diagram.

Hec

Last night, I took the front hub and backing plate off the fork to clean them up. It should need any sandblasting as it's only grime and a little surface rust.

The hub and backing plate came off the spindle quite easily and weren't rusty/crusty. The rubber seals are still soft.

I will be replacing the rubber shock bushings.

I'm not sure if I should replace the races or wheel hub bearing or just grease it up with new seals and ship it. Looks like a fairly easy job. The VBB arrangement looks way more complicated.

I am feeling really happy about getting all my painting done as hard winter has finally set in. -5F here this morning. Not sure I could keep my paint booth warm enough.

I think I'm just going to put the hub/backplate back together with fresh grease and new brake shoes and call it good.

Taking a break while waiting for parts. Tweaked my back clearing out my garage loft, followed by humping the sliding door of my bus around the garage. First time that's ever happened to me. Guess I'm actually getting old.

Thought I was at the end of the new parts list for the P200, but that's how it goes when you tear it down to nuts and bolts.

Glad someone mentioned legshield and floor rails go on first. I would have done them last. Outer rail goes over the end of the legshield trim and held by the same rivet depending on the width of the trim.

The P200 autolube (installed in the Stella) has been leaking 2t all over the garage floor. Something up with the check valve or o-rings that I have to figure out.

Here are a couple of more tips.

Make sure you don't rivet the outer floor rails top rivet as it has to go through the End Cap and Leg Shield Trim. Save these for last! Which brings me to the order of installing the floor rail rubber. You want to push the rubber downward from the straight sections toward the rear curved sections. This way you are only fighting the curve sections as little as possible. Use a spray bottle with soapy water to lubricate the rubber strips as you push them on. Lastly install the end caps. Cut the rubber floor strips 1/8" longer than the distance from end cap to end cap because the rubber strips will shrink over time. You will compress the rubber floor strip a little during installation due to this. This will ensure you don't have any gaps between the rubber strips and end caps in the future. I hope this makes sense.
Install your center floor mat after you install the wire harness. The center mat trim on each side of the tunnel is held on with sheet metal screws which protrude into the tunnel. This eliminates the risk of snagging and tearing into your new wiring sheath and wire insulation as your pull the wire harness through preventing electrical problems later.

These procedures worked great for me on my P125X.

Hec

Thank you!

Your instructions make perfect sense. I would never have thought of the wiring harness snagging on those screws. I did know about the rivets going the end cap and legshield trim. After getting all the trim on, I should be in familiar territory with assembly.

I must confess. On my P125X build, I installed the center mat before I pulled the new wire harness through. I quickly learned that this was a bad idea. I was reaching in the tunnel to pull an old control cable through to be used to pull the wire harness through. I reached in the tunnel to help it along and the screws caught the back of my hand! Ouch. I didn't want to damage my new wire harness! So, I took the screws out before I pulled the wire harness through. Live and learn right?

Hec

After I saw your post about the center stand I dug mine out and the bracket was missing too.😂🤣 On another note, I'm glad you mentioned your floor rails. Forgot about mine and hadn't fit them yet on the GS. Would've been disaster to do after painting the frame. Thanks for the save!

Yup! Pre fit floor rails and aluminum crimp on leg shield trim prior to paint. This will avoid a disaster later and lots of head aches!

Hec

Honestly, your best bet is to pull the harness through before you do any other frame assembly. It's more so on the pre-P bikes where you can't get under the horncast, but being able to move the frame around for convenient access, lack of screws, and especially no fork getting in the way of things makes a HUGE difference in ease of getting it installed.

And while it's too late for you, I'd suggest increasing the size of the openings around the upper bearing race so things fit through more easily. Or maybe that's just me, adding turn signals and sensors and all sorts of other bonus wiring to my bikes.

I have pulled a lot of wire through my Stella, front to back which has been good practice. I left a couple lengths of minder wire running from the horncast through the signal light and another running to the engine for the future construction of the Tupolev avionics suite.

Found some pis of a seat foam repair. Typical drivers side seat.Did you try yours yet?

Not yet. Kind of got distracted doing the front fork. I have to regroup and do another round of parts ordering.

Back is slowly getting better. Way in the back of my mind, I was working on fabbing a new bracket for my center stand, but let go of that idea for good when I couldn't find the rest of the hardware for it.

First lost parts. Went through my VBB stuff and found the stand hardware for that scooter. Pretty sure the rusty 200 stand hardware went into the rusty coffee can of random rusty hardware and got used to hold up plumbing or conduit. That makes it an easier decision. I don't have to fix stuff just because I can. That goes for the fuel tap too. Fast flow tap now on my list.

Cleaned the crud off the front fork and hub and thought about ways to focus and keep it simple. Rattlecan! Birdsnest did a nice job on his ET3 fork. Works for me. Time stands still whenever I go to the paint store.

Did a quick check of the floor rail fit. They will need a little metal polish. Delighted to find a new roll of floor rubber in my parts stash. Forgot I ordered that.

Doing a practice run of color sanding on the tank top, the part that picked up the most trash. Most of it coming out with 3000 grit.

The parts list keeps expanding for many little things…the stickers I took off when I painted.

My VR-1 engine is on hold due to the many current projects draining my mad money (and time). I'm also more inclined to sort out the issues with the LML VMC 187 first. It's been a fun engine with a lot of potential. Would be a shame to let it sit on the bench, so I'd like to see it through.

Last night I had this dream that I was spraying paint on scooter parts out of my mouth. The Mrs woke me up to shut me up. I was making this b-b-b-b sound like the Jetson's car. I think my paint booth needs better ventilation.

Over the weekend, I did a quick test of color sanding on the most unpromising painted part I had. Gas tank was propped on a box on the floor and got a lot of grit in the paint.

If color sanding can rescue that, then the rest of the scooter shouldn't be a problem. Using the correct compounds helped a lot. Also using small wool and foam pads I picked up from HF and did a little by hand. The small pads fit in a drill chuck. I have a variable speed buffer for larger areas.

Can't wait to get this thing back together. 🙂

That looks OUTSTANDING. You have to be pleased with the results.

^^^

+1 Cheers.

Thanks! Yes, very pleased. I'm really happy I stuck with the whole learn to paint thing. At times, it was a real slog and seemed like a dumb idea. The next project should go a lot better.

Our painter breaks out the pressure fed full face mask when he's painting the nasty stuff. There is a pressure regulator on his belt to control flow. Just make sure nobody farts or puts a cigarette next to the air intake.😉

The 200 engine (in the Stella) has been leaking 2t for some time. When I was using it, I often got smokey starts.

Pulled the carb box and the autolube cover seemed loose. Gasket was soaked with 2t. I pulled it apart and cleaned it except for the check valve and nylon bushing. O-ring looked good. Could be as simple as a loose cover.

Nothing else to do but put it back together and give it a try. If it doesn't work, I will dig out the check valve and see if anything looks unusual. Other than leaking and probably over-oiling, it did work.

I haven't found complete carb boxes with autolube. Seems like you have to buy the bits separately.

Parts order should be coming in today.

Order of operations is:

Cut and buff the frame.
Wiring harness install.
Legshield trim and floor rails

That will be a big hump to get over.

I found my center stand hardware, so I might take a stab at fabbing a new bracket. Maybe not worth the time, but it's my kinda thing. That tetanus bucket of scrap metal I have is not going to empty itself.

I tested the speedo last night with a drill. Seems to work, but the bezel is pretty scratched up. I might splash and send it to Speedo King. I admit to having a fetish for illuminated gauges and warning lights. Especially on old cars/scooters.

Also keeps with the theme of having a new P200e fresh off the showroom floor. Looked for one at 17, but they were long gone. Ended up buying a new PGO 150, because I just had to have new.

I usually like a little weathering on my projects. On my bus, most things are refurbed, because aftermarket parts are so bad.

Got the bezel off the speedometer. Lens should clean up with a polish. The other parts are good too.

Anyone ever replace a bezel on these?

Thanks!

I sent mine to SpeedoKing. I decided to leave that job to a professional. Didn't want to take a chance on breaking it. He made mine look like new.

Back in the mid 90's i took automotive refinishing classes. The instructor was telling us stories a couple guys would fart into the air intake. The guy who was on the receiving end of the fart ended up busting out of the paint booth and chased the farters all around the shop!

If you still have the mixer box apart, think about remove the oil pump gear cover, then pull out the pump gear. Reason being is that lots of gunk slowly builds up at the very bottom and it can let oil seep past the O rings that are on the gear cog's shaft.

Thanks. I did exactly that. Hardest part was aligning the o-ringed bit with the screw. It only has a slot for one o-ring. I hooked it back up the oil tank and will see if it leaks. So far so good. I will have a look in the morning.

Yeah, I am considering that too, but it looks like it's just the metal bezel that needs to be replaced. It wasn't easy to remove though.

Checked the carb box this morning and no signs of leaking. Couple dribbles of 2t under the engine though, which is strange. The carb box is sitting on the floor boards.

I was blown away by how many mistakes I was able to fix wet-sanding my VBB, especially since my first trial effort was a big disappointment. Took a little experimentation to get the wet sanding right, too, but nothing like the paint work.

We'll see how many new curse words I invent while painting the Smallstate next.

Legshield trim and wiring harness arrived last night from Scooter Mercato. Trim looks just like what I took off the bike. The wiring harness looks to be good quality with the correct connectors, covers and connections. Still lots more bits to order.

I hope to get after it tomorrow morning. Definitely Saturday morning after coffee jobs. Evenings are always for parts cleaning and grunt work.

A little progress this evening. Got the front end of the wiring harness in. The spur that runs behind the stearing lock to the headset was a little tricky. I think the tank end will be easier.

I have never done one but I thought about it on my P125 before I opted for the SIP Rev Counter 2.0. My plan was to buy a new lens and bezel. The bezel is crimped on. To duplicate the crimp, I thought of making a jig out of piece of 2x6 wood. I was thinking of making a hole in the wood with a hole saw slightly smaller than the O.D. of the speedo bezel. Once the hole was made, I would cut the 2x6 in half right through the center of the newly made hole. Next I would drill 3/8" holes through both end of each half to clamp the two pieces back together. Kind of resembles a bearing puller. You would draw the two halves together around the bezel by tightening nuts on the all thread and crimping the bezel down.
Make sure your wiring harness passes through the bottom gap of the front frame bulkhead and bottom of frame. This is just in front of the front brake pedal hole. You don't want the wiring harness resting on top of the bulkhead and passing through the top gap between the bulkhead and frame tunnel top. If you do, the bulkheads top edge will cut, wear and tear on the wire harness over time.

Hec

Thanks for your suggestion. I may give it a try, or may just farm it out.

I will check to see that my wires are routed as you describe. I didn't realize there was more than one opening in the frame for wires to go through. Thank you.

I'm looking forward to seeing you do your legshield trim. You're at the stage that makes me nervous, assembling without scratching the paint.

When Steve repaired my speedo he went through the whole thing and not just change the plate and lens. It'll probably outlast me now. Can't recommend him enough, really great work.