Modern Vespa

Ok, yes I have heard all the arguments against this, but momma didn't raise no quitters so after discussion with the minister for war, foreign affairs and finances, the project has a green light.

Hi, I'm Daz and I run the Rude Aussie Garage, a small home workshop where I build various project bikes.
In my intro post to the forum, I mentioned I bought a 2007 GTS 250 that was stolen and thrown into a river, as in totally submerged. Yeah.

Anyways, I have a knack for implausible projects.
I turned this:


into this:


and this:


into this:


Yep, I love to tinker. So where am I at?
Last night I removed the ECU as my buddy is an EFI guru as well as being a 1st class engineer with a fully equipped workshop so he is going to crack it open and see if any water got in and messed anything up.


There was no water/mud in either the air box pipe or the intake.

The same cant be said for several of the relays...

But relays are cheap and easy to deal with and then for the connectors, some spray cleaner, blow them out and add dielectric grease and you have a clean connector ready to use. Done it many times so that stuff is child's play.
There is zero rust in the body of the GTS, no dents and the paint is still in excellent condition but I am going to change the color anyway. So it's on with the show!

Last edited by R.A.G. on Thu, 29 Jun 2023 03:18:59 +0000; edited 6 times

I'm looking forward to this! Hi Daz, I think I remember reading about your KLR600 project over on the adventure site. Welcome to MV, I'm new here also.

Hey Bearcat, good to have you along for the build! I have learned quite a bit since the KLR project, had several bikes since those days!

Daz.

Today I removed the Glovebox panel to get at the ignition lock.


I managed to remove what was left of the old ignition lock and a couple of very bent tumbler pins but couldn't get the solid lock block out so I asked the hive in general comments and am waiting on a reply.
* EDIT *
Yay! It seems it can be removed once you take out the fork which is something I will be doing.
I have also purchased a used ignition lock, rear switch with immobilizer keys and matching ECU that has a lock block attached so I will have what I need to reassemble it all.




As you can see, still lots of mud to clean off but that's simple to do as I strip the bike down and assess what other parts I need. Speaking of parts, today I scored an almost new GTS 250 exhaust for just $30.



The bonus was also discovering that the previous owner had left the Torx bolts needed to secure it on the swing arm!
I have a batch of parts on order to see if the bike will at least power up and I have a lead on a complete motor/transmission with less than 3k miles on it as a potential back up but I'm confident the current motor will be ok.

Last edited by R.A.G. on Wed, 14 Jun 2023 15:50:58 +0000; edited 1 time

Today I got to the job I was dreading, dropping the oil to see how much water content was in the motor.

The oil filter screen was clean, no metal particles or dirt to be seen, the main oil filter was also very clean inside and the oil appears to be semi clean, at a guess I would say it's probably half way through its use cycle.




My $400 investment seems to be paying off!

Today I removed the spark plug to check its condition.

Dirty and slightly rusty from sitting in the water and mud, but the tip shows it was burning cleanly when last running.

So I gave it a clean and put it back in.

No sense wasting money on stuff if it doesn't need replacing as this is a budget rebuild.
Next job was to get the floorboard up and off the frame to see what the underneath looked like. Not pretty...

To be fair, I kinda knew it was going to coated with mud like the rest of it.


I used the big shop vac to get rid of the bigger bits and then it was time for the power washer.




Then it was time to take a peek under the transmission cover...

Not too bad but the inside of the cover was a mess.

A bit of elbow grease, some paint and result!

I have a new bearing coming for it tomorrow.
The only real bad part was the clutch bell.

It had water sitting in it too long and the steel has pitted in places so I will replace it but the clutch looks ok, just needs a grease on the bearing and a bit of a clean and it should survive.

Nice to see what a lot of love can do

I'm appreciating all the scooter gear head porn. If I lived closer, I'd show up with bevies and moral support. But it seems you have it well handled. Looking forward to the next set of pics.

It's cleaning up nice. Fun project. Nothing like the challenge of drying it out and working through each issue as they arise.

I removed the gas tank today and after taking out the pump/sender units, I drained out maybe a 1 and a half liters of gas that looked fairly clean. There may have been a little water in it but nothing significant. I gave it a thorough clean inside and out including the electrical connections and the end result was worth the effort.



Then I got on with the task of cleaning all the remaining mud residue and dirt from the rest of the engine bay and engine.


The shocks were coated with grime...


After..


I also took off the rear brake caliper, pulled the pads to inspect and they are about half worn so I gave them a scuff and refitted them. I also gave the bolts and the pad retaining pin a bit of a clean up.


The swingarm plate, mounting bolts and rear wheel bolt were looking a bit scruffy so I hit those with the wire brush drill attachment.




I then did a clean up before reassembly and had the thought that the final drive drain is a right pain to get at and would be easier with everything out of the way.
I cracked the drain bolt and had the biggest "Oh Shit" moment of the build so far.
Water, clean, clear water came out, followed by some very sad looking transmission fluid.
Fearing the worst and removed all the bolts and got the cover off...

Phew! All is well. What I think happened is the river water got in via the breather tube that runs from the top of the final drive to underneath. Sitting in water it made it its way up, and not being under any pressure the mud didn't go with the water (thankfully!) and everything is clean inside and all the bearings are in great shape. I will let the water dry out overnight then hit everything with some high pressure air to clean it all and reassemble with clean fluid.

Some news!

It would seem that we may have the Vespa running shortly. Today I finished cleaning all the electrical connections and hit them up with dielectric grease for good measure. I worked out how to install the new ignition switch (that small retaining clip is a son of a.....) and hooked up the new battery, turned the key and...nothing. Zip. Nada. No go.
Then I remember that the rear part of the ignition needs to be connected with a power clip so the key can talk to the immobilizer. Rookie mistake lol.
Turned the key and I was then greeted with full dash lights and the digital side also works! How the f... is that possible after total immersion? More good news, mileage is 6949 so it is indeed a low mileage scoot.



Next step will be to hook all the clutch/variator/belt up (waiting on parts at the moment), finish the oil and filter change, put some gas in it and see if it will run. More soon.

While I wait for some creeping oil to make it's way down the now suspended throttle cable (dirt got in and it was sticking), I decided to turn my hand to some bodywork. This is the hole that the person who stole the bike bashed into the front, looks like maybe a screwdriver was used?


Hard to tell what was used but all the edges were jagged and twisted.
Using a small 1/4 lb hammer and an assortment of other hammers, metal chisels and punch tools, I managed to get it back into some kind of flatter profile but as the metal is all torn up, I will be cutting this section out and welding in a new steel patch. The square hole is the location of where the original front horn cover got screwed on to the leg shield so will have to add a nut to the patch.

Work progresses but currently hampered by slow parts deliveries.
I cut out all the bad mashed up metal from the front in readiness for a new metal patch piece.


When it is mobile again I will take it to my friends workshop to have the repair done.
The engine is now totally clean, not one speck of dried mud anywhere and I have refitted the air box after doing a couple of internal mods to make it breath better and adding a new oiled filter and I also added a new radiator fan as I am sure the old one would not have worked, having being underwater.


I also have the front end disassembled and on the workbench.



I will be replacing the steering bearings, a couple of lower seals and greasing everything properly as I noted (as has been reported elsewhere), the factory did not add enough grease in a couple of vital areas.

Looks good! Are you planning to crack open the engine, or run as is? Did you get a camera in the cylinder to have a look?

Thanks! Havn't tried the camera yet but we will before we attempt to start it. Then if it runs, we will run new oil through it for an hour or so then dump and replace, just to be safe.

Finally getting to the last stage of cleaning, today I have the switch gear on the workbench, everything has been cleaned, sprayed with WD-40, blasted with air to get everything tidy and wiped down.

The switches all worked when we tested the instruments last weekend so I'm not expecting any further issues but individually they are inexpensive to replace if needed.
I also stripped down the main dash panel and yep, mud inside that as well which puts paid to any notions that this bike wasn't completely underwater.


This was also working so all I am doing is gentle cleaning of any mud reside on the outside and I have the gauge face and needle removed as I am going to replace the water spotted polarizer film on the LCD and painting the main plastic facia matte black as the current silver/grey looks very dated IMHO.

The LED panel polarizer replacement went well,(no more black spots!) and looks good in the new matte black surround.

In other news, I had a change of heart and have everything disconnected from the motor and it's coming out.

The motor is out and on the bench as someone recently asked if I was going to stick a probe camera into the spark plug hole to take a look at the engine interior.

Well we did just that. What we found was a clean bore with zero evidence of any water sitting around the piston top, clear cross hatch pattern on the bore BUT...there was mud caked in the spark plug gallery and I already removed and put the plug back in so just to be on the safe side we are going to take the head off to clean the valves and underside of the head and fit a new plug and clean out the thread.

It's an easy tear down and a top end gasket kit was less than $60 so pretty cheap insurance.

I also fitted a 140 section rear tire, went with a Pirelli Angel this time as the almost new Hidenau K80 that was on it had some strange longitudinal cuts that may have been knife marks and although not deep, why take any chances? A new rear tire was just $63 from Revzilla with free delivery.

I'm also going to clean up the engine casings, remove any corrosion marks and surface rust.


Apart from that, I have all the transmission gear back in place as you can see, it now sports a new Malossi Belt, a clean and rebuilt clutch, Dr. Pully sliders in the variator along with the "fuzzy washer" mod as recommended on some of the online Vespa forums. This thing is gonna be a fun ride!

Nice work Daz! As you already know, but I'll say it anyway. It will make riding it all the more fun knowing that you loved it back from the death bed. It's turning out great. Drive On!

Engine work.

Before starting, I took a bunch of photos (getting old lol) to remind me what goes where. I took off things like small brackets, buffed them up with a wire wheel on drill attachment to remove any rust or corrosion and then reinstalled them. With the easy stuff out of the way I moved on to the starter motor.


This was always one of those "did it suffer water ingress?" items for me so I got it off and found that there was mud around the outer end but due to close tolerances and a great o-ring seal, nothing got in through that end. Then I removed the 2 long main body bolts and pulled the armature out and again, everything was water/mud free. Yay!

Or maybe not yay, as getting the last part back in and holding back the two brushes with only 2 hands was freakin' tricky but I eventually I swore at it enough that it capitulated to my desire.

I cleaned up the engine surface under and around the starter while it was out so then it time to remove the head.

Now for anyone wanting to do this or adjust vales etc, I highly recommend watching and follow along with "Robot" from Scooter West's videos on YouTube. It's what I did and they are well filmed, informative and he makes doing this type of work so easy.
I got everything torn down with minimal fuss and yep just as well as yes I did push some dirt into the cylinder when I took out and reinstalled the spark plug.

That cleaned up it was time to look at the head and those valves.

The motor appears to have been running well from the color of everything but I was concerned with the condition of one of the exhaust valves as it had been exposed to water and looked rusty.

I was going to take it down to buddy Gordon's workshop but I had a think and decided I wanted to see if I could do this myself so I ordered a valve compression tool online and a couple of days later, I had the valves out and on the bench. Go me!
I got stuck into cleaning everything up and it turned out that the valve I was most concerned with actually had hard scale fuel deposits on it that had to be scraped off (actually both were like this) but I soon had everything cleaned, new valve stem seals installed and got the springs and those tiny mongrel collars back in.

I cleaned up the piston and inspected all the rings.

Then it was just a matter of following along with yet another great video to reassemble everything, some more clean up and here is the end result.



Time to get it back in!

IT LIVES!!! Nicely done!!!

How long was it in the water?

Vidya says 3 settimane

Painting is complete.

I also added a new front tire to match the new rear as well as applying some reflective decals to the wheels.

Only a few tiny jobs left to finish it all off.

Here it is folks!


We nicknamed her "Roxy Waters", given her unfortunate past but all that is behind and it's fun in the sun going forward and today she served perfectly as a grocery getter.

Got the last few pieces of trim back on including the new leg shield top covers which were just $19 for the pair on closeout but they were grey. A touch of plastic paint soon sorted that issue out. Beats paying $46 for black ones!
My buddy Gordon welded up the hole in the front so everything is done, just waiting on a rear rack to arrive from overseas to complete it.

It turned out great, nice work! Now ride the wheels off of it!

Great story - thanks for documenting...

Rack finally arrived. I didn't like the usual huge ones you see on most Vespas, I only want to add a small tail bag to it so this one is perfect.

Well done!

OFG