Modern Vespa

Not sure what you are using for stone chip, but carry on. It's just a preference thing and you have thought this through and are doing great work. Looking forward to the money shot.

Well, stone chip application is a massive topic of debate. Who knew! Been doing more research today. Seems to be equal amounts of people on either side of the debate! The arguments for and against are basically:

It adds extra protection and sound deadening so is a good thing.

Or

It seems like the right thing to do but lots of stories and pics of people putting it on but then not realising the protective layer has been penetrated and then water and dirt being trapped behind and causing lots of damage.

There is also the argument to put it on a daily driver and keep an eye on it but mine isn't going to be a daily driver and will probably only see a few hundred miles a year.

So I'll sleep on it but airing on the side of not bothering. Saves lots of time as well!

I guess it's one of those restoration debates that people can get really worked up about, like whether filler should go over metal or epoxy primer. Most of the time, there is more than one way that works.

FILLER OVER PRIMER!

So a bit more progress on Friday and today.

Decided that doing the whole bike in one go was going to be too hard for the lack space and skill that I have.

I got the underside ready and then painted on epoxy primer in any area that I had burnt through while prepping.

Left it an hour or so and then shot it. All went fairly well apart from a stupid mistake where I poured in around 400ml of paint in to my paint pot with out first putting on the needle and tip to the gun 😤

Que a wet sensation on the leg, much swearing and paint all over the floor 😂

If forgetting the needle and spilling a little paint is the worst thing that happens to you while painting, you'll be crushing it!

Yeah…You're doing good. I always make a huge mess with paint no matter how carefully I set everything up. I end up wearing a lot of it, bumping into wet painted stuff. Last time my frame fell from the fancy rigging I set up.

Still have a big splatter on my patio as a reminder of the time a full cup of activated primer dumped out of my spray gun. I'm impressed your floor is as clean as it is.

I'm sure there's more mistakes to come! There's still plenty of time for me to cock up

I even put a dropcloth down when I paint, and I *still* wind up with paint on the floor. It's inevitable.

I've bumped into stuff, had massive paint run disasters (why I named the GL "Sweet Roll"), dropped freshly painted pieces into paint flakes, left glove prints in semi-dry paint, etc., etc., etc.

And that's before I even get into the stuff I just flat did wrong, like orange peel and pinholes.

Ah yes, I remember reading through your thread. Tough work for sure. There appears to be a knack of getting the right amount of thinners and gun control to lay down a nice shiny coat of paint but not get runs.

I ended up burining through getting runs/drips out again so just shot the cowl again. Much better this time with limited runs and the runs I have got will be covered on the cowl. Seems to be on a knife edge getting it right and lots of luck involved!

Yeah, successful paint work seems to be a serious black art, even for those who do it as a profession or in an industrial (e.g. automobile manufacturing) environment.

Personally, I've become a big fan of single stage paint because wet sanding lets you overcome a multitude of sins.

Yeah absolutely. And yes the stuff I'm using is non-iso 2K single stage.

Have now reshot the cowl for the 3rd time 😂

When is the best time to sand dust nibs? I feel like I did it too soon last time and ended up with sandpaper scrathes that I couldn't easily remove. Want to avoid that this time if possible.

I saw a YouTube video where a guy sanded dust nibs fairly soon after the paint kicked off, but it really depends on the state of your paint in the conditions you're in. The best way is to try it on a spot you can't see…like 1000 grit wet as soon as the paint will cooperate if you are recoating the whole thing. If you have enough coats on, you might be able to flat out or razor down runs and nibs without recoating and it will all come out in the cut and buff. I have also used a cheap air brush for touch ups rather than drag out the whole shitshow and recoat. It seems that when I recoat to make it perfect is when it all goes to shite and I really wish I hadn't. I would rather work out the imperfections than tempt fate.

Thanks Orwell. Yeah very true that and have done the trying to perfect things many times in many hobbies over the years but never seem to learn the lesson 🙈

What little airbrush do you use?

Well, a mixed day today. I actually had time to finish prepping and then spray the rest of the frame which was good but what wasn't good was bashing in to the frame while wet and then trying to sort it out and making it far worse

Going to have to wait 24 hours, sand this area and then reshoot.

Oh yeah need to sand and make good anyway because I have multiple runs to sort 😂🙈

Another issue was that my old, cheap air compressor starting to pack up during the second coat of four which made an already challenging job a lot harder. God knows how I even got through the last two coats. If I was smarter I would have stopped and just binned it all off until the new compressor came but I'm not and had tunnel vison.

And some for some reason the same amount of thinner that worked great on other days decided that would not be the case today I started occasionally shooting cobwebs again. All in all a massive ball ache!

Does this just about sum up what spraying at home is like?

Yes. That's exactly what it's like. Every time. Walk away. That spot won't look so big tomorrow. Flat it down and fix the spot tomorrow.

I think I got a bit cocky after managing to spray the cowl with fairly good success, eventually. There I was thinking I'd nailed it and was ready to spray a bus. Well that cockiness got well and truly slapped out of me today!

Sons football in the park now so that's a good couple of hours out watching that and running the dog. A needed break in some decent sunshine 👍

Pretty much. And as soon as the first accident happens, the rate at which they occur just keeps compounding. It's weird how that goes.

Right? And the thing you do to fix the first mistake makes it worse, so you try something else which you know is really bad idea but you just can't stop yourself. Then you back up and kick over some paint and step in it as you run out of the garage screaming, tracking it into the house and the missus is like, "what's that smell "?

More trials with painting over the last couple of days.

Sundays session started badly. Got everything ready, started to shoot and the the gun started spluttering and spitting paint out rather than spraying so that was great fun. I couldn't find anything wrong so I had to pull everything apart and clean it mid job. I must have missed something as doing this got it going again.

Yesterdays session started well but during my second coat I heard much hissing and leaking which dropped my pressure massively. Turns out this was coming from the water trap. I must have got some thinners on the plastic cup and this had damaged it. Big crack and getting larger. Again had to stop mid session to try and sort. I was going to by pass it and just rely on the compressor trap but that didn't work because I didn't have the right fittings so had to bodge it together with electrical tape 😂 and spray the rest of it with air hissing all over the place 🙈

Not sure why but these last couple of sessions appear to have been for me to practise my award winning orange peel. Apart from underneath of course. That's mirror finish 😂 Hopefully I can knock most of it down after.

Either way, most of it's done now thank ****!

Nice! It scores hi in visual appeal and probably durability too. Don't sweat the 'interesting' texture in a few places your first time, just more sanding. Remember what Meatloaf said:

Haha thanks 👍

Yeah shouldn't be too tricky to correct to a decent standard. Got the cowl looking pretty good and shiny. Actually makes the green at the front look like a slightly different shade because of how textured it is.

Looks great. Pretty sure you could color sand the leg shield if it bugs you.

I really must know if the left cowl is indeed red.

Not right now! Was silver. Now half blue as a paint I tested. Getting ready to strip it.

Siam? As in Thailand?

A tiny bit of correction! Had to go down to 1000 grit very wet to sort this but it's turned out well 👍

Did you respray that or just sand and buff the peel?

Either way, sooooo much better.

Cheers 👍 Just a sand and buff. I do have some experience in that area and the right tools and equipment so that helped.

I've now ordered a better spray gun and compressor so I'm hoping for a less orange peel future for the remaining parts!

It looks perfect now. It's given me hope in case I can't find a painter.

When I have painted in the past, the first coat is great but subsequent coats aren't, because I can't see the paint flow out as well. That's a lighting problem.

I usually end up with peel or dry spray from overspray hitting paint areas where the paint has already flashed off. It has been fixable with sanding and buffing. Kind of like buffing is to painting as grinding is to welding.

It surprised me how well it did correct.

The trouble I have with correcting is that I end up focusing too much for 100% perfection. I have to pull my self away from literally being 6 inches from the paint and critiquing it too much. Once I step back to closer than anyone would ever look at it, it looks close to perfect anyway.

No one else would notice what I know are the micro faults unless they are a paint/detailing geek and they are a few inches away 😂

When someone else does it, you don't notice the flaws nearly as much. I have to walk away from any detail oriented project I do for quite awhile before I can be remotely objective. Almost drove myself crazy the first time I did my own flooring and finish carpentry. Took some time to get a feel for flaws that no one else would ever notice.

Yes.

Yeah, same. Touch of OCD that. My wife is annoyed my OCD isn't the cleaning type. All my areas of the house are a shit tip 😂

nomadinsiam Awesome, I love the place. Lived in BKK for 9 months around 25 years ago and have been back lots of times since. Took the family there last year and heading back this year as well. You a native or expat? How's the Vespa scene over there?

I'm an expat. I've been here too damn long, but it's a relatively good country to live in long-term. Short-term is probably better. The Vespa scene here is good. There are a lot of enthusiasts of very nice original vintage bikes and also plenty of delivery riders around riding dilapidated Sprints that never die.

Your paint job is cool.

Thanks, hoping I don't get mistaken for the Italian food delivery driver too often 😂

I'll be looking out on my next visit. Didn't take it in at all last time as had no interest in Vespa's then.

I'm toying with the idea of a Thai style modified wave for one of my next projects. Always loved scooting about on those on the islands.

You have fully embraced the Italian theme. Well done. No half measures. You're turning it around pretty fast too. Good work.

Why not hey! Thanks. I have to be super quick and organised to grab a few hours here and there between work and kids stuff. School holidays since last Friday for a week so things slow down considerably.

I'm getting a little bogged down at the moment trying to finalise a SIP order. I keep remembering one last thing 😂 I just know I'm going to send the order and the next day remember something else. I may have to admit defeat and concede to multiple orders I guess. Any one else do that!?

You can order through scooter mercato and save a bit on shipping.

https://www.scootermercato.com/Scooter-Parts/Vintage-Vespa-Parts/SIP-Part

I have similar work conditions, also because of work and kids and up until recently have been a full time single parent. Most of the work gets done in short focused efforts of 45 min to an hour. It works quite well if I know what I'm doing and have a plan. Much harder for open ended trouble shooting or jobs that require finishing what you started.

Painting is the worst for that, followed by certain stages of engine building. If I am closing up an engine case, I need to see it through to avoid mistakes.

There are Saturday morning jobs when my brain, eyes and hands work best together. Sanding primer, cleaning parts and other brainless tasks fit into 15-20 minute slots as I find them.

Finally, there are stretches of ocd avoidance and hand wringing where I can't get much done because it's unfamiliar and I'm afraid to mess it up. I always get the willies before the first start of any kind of engine.