Modern Vespa

I'm about to start (attempt) to cut the seat down on our S50. The reason for this is my shorty is, well, short! She can just about 2-foot it but literally with toe-tips. She's not confident enough to 1-foot and lean, and just too damn stubborn to listen to my footwear suggestions.

Since March I've put a few hundred miles on and she's driven it once. We need two vehicles, but don't necessarily want/need to spend out on 2 cars at the moment...

...So I'm armed with: a brick, a chunk of wood, a mini-blow torch, a couple of long saw blades, a stapler, and of course a roll of duct tape and a sixer of beer. I've read quite a few helpful posts (thanks MVers) and I'm ready.

Will try and remember to take pictures. Wish me the best of British

what's the blowtorch for?

And the brick ?

im guessing the blowtorch is for lighting the bongs
and the brick is to duct tape to the miss'es foot so she can reach the ground

The blowtorch was intended for a bit of melting and reshaping, as was the brick. What is actually did, was scare the crap out of me, nearly burn my face off, and melt my seat foam by having an inferno on it. I threw it there. Four foot-long jets of pro-pain flame coming out of the sides of the nozzle thing was enough to make me not want to hold it any more.

'funny' thing was, I was lighting a cigarette with it when the spontaneous rocket show started

I gave up on the melting. Hacked the big humps out of the seat base instead and very unprofessionally *ahem* trimmed the foam down at the front and sides, then taped up the mess into a vague seat shape and pulled the cover back over it. It looks ok...from 10 yards away

I was feeling like I'd ruined the Vespa until my shorty came home from work later that evening. Although not the nicest-executed mod I've ever done to a vehicle, wifey can now 2-foot reasonably well and is much happier with low-speed manoevring which was one of the main reasons she didn't ride it. She was very happy with my efforts and may make a scooterist yet 8)

In the winter when it's not getting used as much, I will get a proper seat person to do a nice job of it. Semi-success for this one.

If you want to give it another go, there's a thing called a heat gun. It's like a blow dryer on steroids. It gets hot enough to melt paint for removal. It's a much better alternative for reshaping plastic than a torch.

For reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_gun

Thanks Killo I considered the heat gun at time of purchase - after careful consideration I went with FIRE because I'm a thinly disguised caveman

Good choice eh

Anyway, with a couple of days reflection, I think the base is ok and needs very little in the way of further, ahem, modification. When the proper person does the job properly I think it's enough just to shape the foam nicely and alter the cover so it sits right. Functionally, the mod was a success. It just looks like hell. Poor scooter.

Where I hacked away at the front and sides allows my lady to get her feet down, so good. Where the torch incinerated the foam i.e where I sit, further back in the seat, has lowered my seat height also No need, I'm 6 feet tall...

Is the foam part available seperately, does anyone know?

The lesson I learned is, if at first you don't succeed, give up and pay a professional to do it! I'm happy to try any project but in the case of this seat, it was doomed as soon as I bought that mini flame thrower

I found the pictures I took last summer on that fateful evening...

Peeling back the cover and foam, the problem my wifey had riding the scooter with her short and cuteness is she was lifted clean off the floor by this hump, this hump this hump this hump! Check it out:


Weapons


Managed to hack all this plastic off and still have 8 fingers and 2 thumbs


Melting time! I lit the torch, put the flame to the tip of the unlit Lucky Strike between my stupid lips (one of those Darwin moments) and...


After the panic of one had died down, I'd extinguished the flames, lit it again, extinguished it again, stripped the nozzle down, inspected, put back together really tight to no effect, melted a big arse-cheek sized dent in the seat foam...I fucking gave up and started hacking


I actually re-trim priceless classic Rolls-Royces for a living, honest


The waste from the lipofucktion:


The empty saggy end of the chair


Note the lumps and bumps, only the finest ducktape can acheive this sought-after effect


It looked ok from a moderate distance...

...but I knew it looked like shit on toast!

Now it's nearly March the next year, I'm nearly 32 (last birthday I bought a scooter) and the temperature is creeping towards double figures, and I reckon I can get a couple of weeks in before wifeycakes robs me of the Vespa for the rest of the year so it was time to sort that effing chair out!

Found a local trimmer who had a good reputation, and took the seat along. The workshop smelled of glue and leather and was full of vintage furniture in varying stages of repair, an 80's 911 and a '58 Corvette 8)

After a brief chat and my parting words being "no hurry" I got a phonecall 4 days later saying my seat was done! A mere EUR71 later, I'd got exactly what was requested!

Which was a standard S50 seat, only a good chunk lower and not looking like some bodging pothead ruined it:


Nip, tuck and tauten


No cellulite!


I have nothing else to say, which if you've read this far may come as an anticlimax. I'd just like to say I'm very happy with the seat and if just one of you laughed, it was worth doing.

I did indeed get a chuckle, and I applaud you for your courage.

If you ever get the urge to hack at a seat again, I'd suggest that the best amateur tool for smoothly cutting down foam is an electric meat carving knife. They are inexpensive, easy to use, and do a great job.

Then it was worth doing! Thanks for the tip 8) if I ever try that again that is...

And I might, but not that particular seat though, it's seen enough in its short life already. All it will see from now on is...well I don't need to spell it out

nice job , next time you need to cut foam use an electric carving knife I borrow my mums all the time, works a treat and is easier to shape foam too

Cheers Bill do you really think an electric carving knife is a good idea seeing what I managed there

you did a great job , i use it to shape styrofoam too lol

You'd possibly need to re-do the finger and thumb count afterwards, but kudos to you for having a go in the first place.

thats the funniest thing i have read for ages well done

tip for anyone wanting to remove foam ELECTRIC MEAT KNIFE the same principle as an industrial foam cutter

I had never reallly imagined a Welsh bastard trying to re do a seat in Germany as a Monty Python skit but I just did!!!

P.S. You should try converting the extra seat material into crystal meth and sell it to G.I's

About halfway through the job, it certainly felt like a fuckin' Monty Python sketch

The smell of the burning seat material got me high, but it was far from a pleasant one...if I'm going to be responsible for the mental health of GI's in this area I'd rather not start them on crystal seatfoam...they've got fighter jets and proper Humvees and all kinds of shit

10 fingers and toes still! My little envelope from SIP scootershop arrived this morning with a selection of roller weights and a holding tool; now I've already had the variator out using half an old chisel and totally the wrong spanner and it still works; let's see how badly I can fuck things up now I've got the proper stuff