Modern Vespa

Hello all, I'm a newbie to Vespa ownership and I've taken the plunge with this 1960 VBB. It's a little rough. Here are the first pics from when I picked it up last week:

















I did a bit more stripping this week and will post some more pics tonight, including the big rusty holes that I have found in the bottom!

I paid £250 (around $400) for it. It was running but was making some strange sounds apparently. The loom and cables are new, most of the body looks OK but a little tired and it's absolutely filthy.



Charlie[/img]

looks canny, the body should come up well, rust doesnt look terminal.

if you have any bigger holes, its a good time to learn welding, buy a little clarke 90amp gas mig and teach yourself (i did when welding up my mini)

Welding is not for me. I'm going to get it stripped and then find someone to do the welding underneath. It may need structural work but just in the one area.

Charlie

thats a nice vespa u have there for a rebuilt, i can't wait to see how u will make her beauty again keep up the work and cheer.. wish u the best

ebeth

How do I get the ends out of the bars:






How bad is this rust? Anybody tackled underside holes like this before:




How do I get this cover off:


Thanks all!

Charlie

Hi Charlie, Mate remember the horn housing on the handlebar stays put, just the tube gets removed.

The gear selector side might just be retained by the clutch cable, it should pull off as you have already removed both linkages (gear and throttle sides).

The rust does not look bad. Though it will need to be cut out. You can also buy and entire new foot pan for your scooter. This might be a better option depending on your level of welding skills

This will be a nice wee project for ye, enjoy.

Cheers, Jim

cut and reweld the bottom pan, wash off the dust, get the engine rebuilt and ride. leave the patina and that awesome original paint.

+1

i think i'm gonna like this thread

I plan to rebuild the engine, clean and de-grease everything, strip the paint, get the body welded then paint and re-assemble.

I know what you mean about the patina and the rat look of it but the rust and general state of all the body mounted chrome and trim is crap and I want to make it good.

I'll document it on this thread.

Charlie

I hear ya. Rust is so insidious, It is best to nip it in the bud. One option you might consider is sanding around the rust spots, giving the rust a good treatment with por15, priming, and repainting with a color match to the non-rusty spots. It's HARD to do so it looks nice, and it's a pain when there are lots of little rusty patches, but FWIW that is what I am doing right now. I'm getting lazy on the undercarriage and won't bother trying to blend the new paint with the old. No-one's gonna be looking down there anyway.

If I had the whole scoot stripped down like you do, though, I'd probably blast the bastard and go with a repaint. Of course I don't have original paint. But it's an option you shold be aware of if you want to save some of the original paint.

Rust treatment is a bit more than rubbing down - I'll have to weld in a structural section underneath.

Can anybody point me to a tool to undo the Fork bearing? I have tried the screwdriver and hammer method and it's too stiff.

Thanks,

Charlie

, on ships we used a US product called "blaster" let it sit on seized nuts, etc, works great,,nice bike i`m looking @ the final once over on my `74 p90
nice color btw

Quick update on the resto. I stripped the body and sent it off for blasting. Then got it back from the blasters. It's looking very battleship grey at the moment!



















Charlie

Nice! get some paint on that sucker for me to oggle

looking good there

Stellar job on cleaning up the rust on the bottom there! Looking good!


man...i love to see a blasted bike. It has that "new car" smell to me.


And the smell of all the poisons coming off of a fresh auto paint job ...... probably the best smell in the world.

I'd love to leave it matt grey and build it up but I don't think it's weatherproof. Such a pity.

Can anybody direct me to a source for parts that are good quality? I'm looking for bits of metal that will last, rather than crappy components made of tin or plastic with thin plating.

Charlie