Modern Vespa

Hello all,

Made my family travel 12 hrs in the car (2 of those hours were spent in stinky gas hell due to the fuel tap being stuck on reserve and leaking gas the whole time). Ended up having to remove the seat and tank in a mall parking lot.

There is a really ugly rattle can paint job but it seems to be mostly there. A couple good dings but runs.

Nice find. Looks like a decent amount of wear and tear on the mudguard and cowl, but if it's mechanically sound (or capable of being made sound), that doesn't really matter.

If you're so inclined and don't mind some effort, you can get that rattle can off and take it back to OG white for a patina bike.

Thanks. Front mud guard has definitely taken a beating. Hopefully I can get it back in shape later.

As far as removing the paint, I'm all ears! Looks like it was also painted blue at one point.

The TL;DR: is that the original paint is TOUGH and will completely resist chemicals that will cut rattle can paint, e.g. Acetone.

See this thread for an example, plus discussion: Unpainting a scooter

Awesome. Thank you!

I almost went down and snagged that this weekend. I'm glad it went to a MV member.

GL is such a cool bike. Transitional model with some edges making an appearance but still with the swooshy trim. 12" wheels. Dead simple engine and electronics.

You mean 10", right?

I was surprised no one picked it up! It's a sweet ride. Hopefully we can bring it back!

The rattle can job was over the top. Dude went crazy

She's white underneath everything. Trying gasket remover.

All US GL's were that ivory color.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the motor side cowl and front of the mudguard look since they have the most visible body damage.

Nothing you couldn't hammer out if you wanted give it a shot, I think.

That's what I'm hoping as well. The front mudguard does look quite bumpy 😳

Front legshield got some dents but I don't see any folding on the center tube.

Does any of the damage look structural?

Nothing from the pictures you've shared so far, but we really need pictures of the bike front-on with the wheel centered and another one of it from the side in the same position. That will reveal if there's any bending.

Based on the pictures you shared, it all looks pretty straight. The mudguard on these things is basically the crumple zone in any sort of crash and that damage is pretty typical of laying the bike down rather than hitting something.

Here's what I got. The mudguard is out of wack. Hopefully everything else looks good.

I did notice a small crease on the horn casing. It looks bigger in the picture 🤞🤞

This is the bit that might be worrisome. No evidence of lateral bending in the fork, which you see when the bike gets hit when parked and the wheel is over, but there should be a visible gap between the mudguard and the legshield.

It *could* just be that the mudguard is bent, but combined with the rest of the damage, the fork could be bent, too.

If you can do it yourself, a fork swap is not a big deal, just need a replacement fork.

Ok, is the fork on the GL interchangeable with the VBB or is finding a replacement fork going to be a PITA?

If the fork is bent, you're better off trying to straighten it than swap one from a VBB.

Yeah, especially if it's just bent back a little and not twisted. SIP have replacement forks in the catalog, but they're all out of stock.

Ok, I'll search the forum on fixing bent forks but I'm guessing I will not really know until I pull it off.

Since you said it doesn't look lateral, is this the way it might be bent?

Ok, for some reason I was thinking they were interchangeable. Darn.

Is there any way to rule out a bent frame in the meantime? I can't find anymore folds or bends (other than the small one on the horn cast). I don't see any signs of bondo but who knows what this spray paint could be hiding!

It's hiding some stickers. Nice of the previous owner to just spray over them😂

That gasket remover works great removing spray paint and even house paint, but be careful leaving it on too long or it can get after your original paint too. After it's wrinkled good, you can wipe it down w/ lacquer thinner or acetone.

Fork doesn't look bent enough to put the mudguard so far back.

I believe it was your post where I got the recommendation and inspiration! The blue under the red was actually nice but it was super hard to remove the red but leave blue. Original white it is.

Yours started out yellow. How much time do you think you put in to remove it all?

For the fork, the alignment of the upper and lower fork sections should be parallel to one another.

The frame looks straight so far. If you want to be sure, get a laser and check that the seam over the tank and cavity lines up with the center of the fork tube.

Easier to do with a bare frame, but still do-able, just not as certain, by taking the seat off and doing it as-is.

Then I need to check the frame?

It could still turn out to just be a bent up mudguard. The frustration is that you won't know until check it.

Fortunately, I doubt the frame is bent since you don't see any wrinkling or warping of the tunnel. I'll measure the distance from the horn to the fork tube on mine so you can measure that and be sure about the frame.

There in lies the rub. I already got a VBB that I'm trying to put back together! My garage is too tiny.

The measurements would be awesome. Anything that could help me rule out issues would be great.

From the looks of your sketch for the parallel lines, it would seem as if the lower portion of the fork could be bent inwards from the bottom? Like they could have hit a curb and pushed everything lower back?

That's definitely a thing that happens to these bikes.

A guy hit a parking stop at Lammy Jammy last year and bent his fork too bad to ride...immediately after he unloaded it before the rally.

The maybe even more common fork damage is when they get backed into while parked, which can gives it a nasty twist to go with the bent back-ness.

What a crappy thing to happen at the start of a rally. I had someone on a scoot crash into the back of my Stella, broke my tail light plastic. Still riding it broken😂

Fingers crossed it's something on the less extreme side. I got to hurry up and button up the VBB engine so I can start working on this beast

Yeah, it sucked pretty bad. The one bright light to it (for me at least) was that he sold me the front disc brake off the bike for cheap.

I got hit pretty hard by another rider at a rally several years ago now. Sent me flying and him sliding through an intersection next to his scooter. Wouldn't recommend the experience to anyone.

Any chance I could get those measurements when you get a chance. Thanks!

Doh! Sorry! It's 14-5/8" from the collar on the neck to the tip of the horn.

(I actually used a piece of cord, but both ends of that plus holding the camera meant more hands than I posses at the moment)

The distance from the point on the frame under the seat to the collar on top of the steering tube should be about 14 5/8".

14.5 inches on my gl, measured same places as chandlerman.

Well, I guess we got that covered..... I sent before seeing CM's.

Thanks everyone. Went out and measured. This is the results, maybe a hair over??

Ok, when I first saw the replies I read it as column to seat instead of collar to seat. 🤦‍♂️

Seat to collar is exactly 14 5/8

Also, the only other large frame I have is disassembled and I cannot remember:

Do the front tires stay on the ground when it's up on the center stand? My small and Stella both have front tire ground clearance.

Depends on how bent the centerstand is, but generally, the front tire is off the ground on the stand. Mine is off the ground.

Mine has a side stand, but most stock stands should raise the front wheel off the ground.