Modern Vespa

Howdy. I'm trying to resurrect a barn-find 1963 VBB. The small door on the left side cowl is locked and I have no key. Is there a standard procedure for this? Drill it out, like Robot shows on the Scooterwest video for the column lock? Any trick or approach that might be easier?

Thanks for any help. Staring at it is not working, so far.

They are not that hard to pick open with a pick set and a very little experience.

Once unlocked it can be removed and a locksmith can make a key for it.

Many thanks. Ordered cheap pick kit and clear "practice" lock. Years from now, you may be able to say you started me on my life of crime.

Will post results, one way of the other. Merci.

The above option sounds much more attractive than brute force drilling. Plus a range of skills for a second career, whats not to like 🤣

Vintage Vespa locks are trivial to pick. A Brazil Rake or a City Rake will open them about as fast as the key.

Hmm. Not surprisingly, the lock doesn't want to turn. Put heat and Blaster on it, and got a tiny bit of movement when I jammed a screwdriver in and twisted. But it requires a fair amount of force, and the little swing "twister" that came with the pick kit sure won't do it.


Got the city rake in there anyway and felt the pins. Could feel locations, but couldn't detect any movement of the pins. A real chance this is just frozen solid. I got where I could open the lock that came with the kit using the rake, but this old, real lock isn't responding at all.

Incidentally, when I tried heat with a torch, the area inside the fender started to smoke. Maybe mouse nests; scared the hell out of me because I had really no way to get to it if it turned into a fire inside the cowl. Got the garden hose and sprayed through every seam and the smoke stopped.

I'll try a bit more with a small screwdriver as the twister, and more PB, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope.

Can these be drilled out? Any other solution??

Thanks as always.

You can always drill it out. If you get the hook, you can use it to press on the individual pins and try to work them loose.

Alternately, you could pull the gas tank and grind the heads off the cowl bolts and just pull the cowl off.

Or you could drill the lock. That's actually a lot harder than you'd think, because you're going to need to do a lot more damage to even that shitty little lock than you're probably expecting.

Pulling the tank is the way.

My gut says chandlerman and Steely Dan have got it there - tank out and a few minutes with a dremel and it will be sorted.

Thanks! Okay, sounds great. But WHERE do I need to grind?? Tank is out, and I see only one little bolt (in pic, below).

(My only other Vespa is a smallframe, so I'm really unfamiliar with how these cowls attach.)

Sincerely,

Poised & Ready with a Dremel

that should help, at least you can see where the tabs are

some are in the wheel well area, not inside the tank area

Ha! VICTORY!!

Cowl off, lock out, the world seems a brighter place!! THANK YOU, everyone, for guidance!

Now to get that motherlovin' headset off.

This thing keeps me guessing. Can it be revived? Is it worth it? I'm beginning to think yes, but it's right on the edge of my skills. If I can get the headset off, the big challenge, for me, is going to be hammer-and-dolly work on the right leg shield. Hoping I can make it look decent.


Onward!!

dude that's awesome but there's no way you can tease that something was smoking then not tell us what it was after you freed up the cowl!! we need to know - was it really like chandlerman dangerous or just something small?

He was posting from his house and not the emergency room, so not chandlerman dangerous.

Seriously, glad you got it solved and looking forward to seeing the project move forward. 😃

I was going to make up a story about the PO storing his tree-stump dynamite in the cowl—but . . . no. Area was empty. Must just have been burned paint smoking under the lip. There were old mouse nests and hay in the well, and rodents had even journeyed to the carb box, so that's why my mind went to mice.

Now it's all about getting the headset off. If/when that gets solved, I'll strip it and start tapping dents. Had a little practice with my smallframe and bondo—it worked OK. Would like to do better this time out; that was a "make it run" rehab; this time I want to see if I can make it pretty.

Any advice gratefully received. Have many dollies and a few hammers. Will go slow. Was thinking of asking a pro, but a Vespa guru told me it's hard to find people who will do metalwork on Vespas. True?? Thoughts??

Having now done three bare metal teardowns on Vespas, you can absolutely do adequate work yourself with a decent hammer and dolly set and a $100 paint gun.

I've documented my projects with build threads here. The first one is the most detailed: 63 GL: M1XL motor rebuild adventure.

Thanks Chandlerman. I had hoped to do powder-coating—my friend's bike looks great and is powder coated—but looking over the dents I don't think I can get this to where it needs to be. So, very likely will now to go the hammer-and-dolly, bondo skim, and paint-it-myself route. How big a compressor do I need?

Looking forward to looking at your build diary. I will, uh, likely have a few questions down the road.

Thanks for all your help. As noted a few minutes ago in the other thread, I just got the headset off too. So . . . it looks like this is happening!!

Yes!

Looking at your pictures from the headset thread, your starting point is well ahead of any of my bikes, dent and overall metalwork wise. You can totally do this.

That's very good to hear. Still, I'm curious: Did any of yours smell like mouse piss? Not a problem I anticipated!!

LOL!

No, I managed to avoid that one. Nothing that power-washing the tunnel won't fix, though.

Okay, a serious question; the mouse piss created some serious rust—not structural, but deep surface—at the bottom of the well, on the left, under the plastic cover. What's the best way to address that? All other rust seems surface and easily manageable.

Last question of the day. I promise!!

I'd start by getting the worst of the piss out by power washing, then get after it with a wire wheel.

Once you're as close as you can get to bright metal, hit it with Ospho or some other phosphoric acid product of your choice to get rid of the last of the rust as well as galvanize it.

Ospho is thinner than water, so it can get into cracks and crevices that you might not be able to reach mechanically. It'll create a residue that you can get off with a wet rag, then you can prep it for paint normally from there.
Get it cleaned off as best you can with a

With a WHAT?!??? Leaving us hanging here man!

paint how to thread

Here's the paint thread you can check out.

Not sure why it left that last bit in there. That's where I was starting with the wire brush, then remembered that you really want to start with the power washer so you're not breathing mouse piss dust.

Sorry to disappoint

I worked for 40 years as a writer and editor. So I'm at the point where I find special delight whenever I encounter a word or phrase I have never heard before.

To day's winner is "mouse piss dust."

Thank you.

I actually tried multiple wordings to get that right, so I'm pleased to know my efforts paid off!

Don't give up on powder coating, you can use JB weld as bondo and powder coat over it. I've done it for years to great success. Just with any body filler situation, less is more.

But paint is repairable.

Just like anything else it's personal choice, but having painted and built many Lambrettas over the years and I always powder coat the frame for longevity and ease. Not to mention the crazy amount of painting real estate involved in those machines.

I think I'm going to be painting a lammy in the semi-near future, but the guy I'll be building it with has painted a ton of them, so it'll be interesting to see how that goes.

It does seem like it'll have a LOT of awkward parts to paint, though.

SO MANY PIECES OF SCOOTER! Just when you think you're done.... oh, carb box, oh, my hubs, oh, inner front fender, it never ends. Currently in that process with a S1.

Thanks again everybody. Now that all the pieces are off, I'm stripping off paint and tapping out dents in my backyard. If anyone is interested, I'll be starting a new thread, called "If I Had a Hammer."

Get it started! We love nothing more than a good project thread around here.