Modern Vespa

On an MP3 500? If you know what you're doing?

If you know what you're doing, you already know how long it takes...

For me, thru trial and error first time, took me about 45 minutes to properly remove all the front and major side tupperware, setting all fasteners in a partitioned box with labels (recommended). Remember the upper outside corners of the front side panels have screws in them that only attach to a small plastic L bracket that is actually attached to the vertical panel (above knee when seated) with a phillips head screw... I think these are shown in the manual. Also beware the locking tabs on the front side panels... and start by removing the top wind fairing and then the center portion between the headlights. Defintiely search this site for more details on this work!

Good luck!

I find the windshield the longest time wise, fingers to big to grab nuts. Agree 45 -60 min. would be reasonable for the front end. Think a person of xp could likely cut that in half. Would say 60 minutes to stripe front and back, but not foot area. Now how much plastic are you reffering too? Guessing the foot area would take another hour, but no xp for that part.

ok, I figured it was about that much work. So a couple of hours to R&R the plastics.

I can do the whole lot in about half an hour now. Once you know which screws to undo and which to leave alone, and use a powered screwdriver it's very quick really. I use egg-boxes torn in half to keep the screws and bits'n'bobs in.

I'd be expecting a shop to charge one and a half hours for all plastics off/on disregarding any other work. It takes longer to re-assemble, that's for sure.

now it's decision time... leave it with the scratches or buy new plastics in black...

Hire bike? Leave with scratches. Or just use a bit of touch-up paint.

Own bike? Hmm... depends if you mind about scratches, and/or you may want to sell in the near future.

exactly the things I'm thinking about... with one added thought. Buy new black plastics and take my red ones in for some different paint. To be decided.

As it is/was a rental and I didn't drop it myself the replacement parts are to be paid for by the person who dropped it. Which, by the way, wasn't the renter. It was a co-worker of his who was monkeying around on it while the renter was inside the office. He is likely to be quite bummed when he receives the invoice for the parts that he damaged.

As it sits I would still need to purchase some of the other parts... namely the front and right side plastics.

Selling it now with the scratches would reduce the value by at least as much... so I'm probably going to keep it for myself. I only have this and the MP3/250 left and I've already removed the 500 from the rental fleet. The 250 is for sale but I'll rent it till that happens or it gets wrecked... whichever comes first.

Remember - you can buy unpainted panels far cheaper and then get your own personal paint-job done.

I was a little confused by the codes for the parts. I figured one of them was red and the other black... more to think about then!

For what my experience is worth(4 cents maybe? )...I recently removed all panels, including the lower ones and had the whole thing repainted gloss black. I've got more custom work in the process right now, but it took me about 1 hour to get all the major top panels(front and rears off) and about another good hour to get the lower ones(they're a bugger!). My paint job was $300, and I got a deal cause I found a local auto guy. One trick I learned was that a partial reason for the cheaper work was that I was lucky and found an auto guy who was painting a car "Mercedes Black" in a few days, and thus didn't need to buy extra paint. If you can get that lucky and shop around, you'll probably save some too. Here's a link to the pics during the process(look toward the bottom of the thread):

https://modernvespa.com/forum/topic51098?highlight=begun

I'm confused (not unsual). Is this the flat (colored) plastic that protects the body work? Is this a scratching problem?

I am not too bothered by scratches...but I did cover a couple I had with a well placec Vespa of St. Augustine decal

3M makes a very good black reflective tape. I put a piece on each side (for symmetry) to cover a scratch on the left. Looks like it's suposed to be there!