Modern Vespa

I'm in the process of rebuilding a Rally 200 and wanted to sandblast it and then paint it. Since the blast/paintjob will cost me a good bit, I wanted to do what I could to improve the body, which is generally in good shape but has a few troublespots

I've never done anything like this before so I'm looking for a little advice on how (or if) to address 3 areas on my Rally. First, I've got a series of holes on both sides of the legshield. What would be the best option for filling these before painting? Second, I've got a crack in the corner of one of my cowls, and I want to either repair it completely or fix it so that it doesn't get worse. Finally, I have some substantial rust on one side of the floorboard. I suppose I could just blast and paint it, but I think it will look odd compared to the other side.

I've got pictures of all three areas if that helps...I had some trouble sizing those pictures so these are clickable thumbnails in case theyre too big:







Any thoughts or advice here appreciated. I've been putting this off for way too long!

In regards to the rust on the floor-boards....it looks like just a bit of surface rust that will be taken care of when the bike is sand-blasted/primed/painted.
As for the holes & crack.....if you don't know how to weld, your Vespa is not the best place to start learning. Don't cheap-out on these 2 items! Have them done properly, or they will show up again.....after you have spent your cash on a nice paint job. Any auto body shop can fix those 2 items up and it won't cost much. Ask the guy that's doing your painting.....if he's a "quality" tradesman...he will help you out with what has to be done & who can do it.

Good Luck

+1.
Those need to be welded up and grinded.

or you could just grind................ grind the legshields down a little then grind the panels short too .....
..... in short .. build a cutdown

You need to have the scooter blasted before you start doing body work. Who knows what else lies beneath that paint?

Blast it, prime it, then do the body work.

Surface rust should be gone from blasting, but there may be pitting left. You'll need to use body filler to smooth those areas out.

The holes and crack should be welded up, then ground down and sanded smooth. Body filler may again be necessary for the final smoothing of these areas.

Any rot rust should be cut out completely and replaced with sheet metal patches welded in, ground down, etc.

Knock out any dents then smooth over any areas that need it with body filler.

Sand, sand, sand, then prime again.

Wet sand smooth.

Paint.

On Edit: I should add that all of these things will affect the overall quality of your paint job. If you tackle these things on your own, without guidance or quality materials, you might just end up making more work for the painter fixing your mistakes, or end up with a paint job that doesn't make you happy.

If you want to cut costs, see if the body shop will allow you to "apprentice" with them on your project. I did 95% of the labor on my Not Another P Rebuild Thread! project under the watchful eye of my body shop owning neighbor. I only paid for materials and provided a bunch of beer to my neighbor for his time.

Good idea, thanks.

I would disagree slightly with the order.
I would Blast it, do the body work (filler included), then prime it.

Priming first would make more work becuase you would need to grind away the primer to weld and when you started hammering out dents the primer would chip. Which would nessasitate another coat of primer.

Depends on how long you let the unprimed frame sit in your garage before you get all the body work done. Rust begins pretty quickly, and if your project stalls, you're back to square one. If you do an etching primer first, at least the rust is at bay.

Right, but a better play is to use a product that inhibits the rust, but can allow body work without removal. There are a couple products on the market, well worth a look. Those products not only inhibit rust, but promote better adhesion between metal and primer.

I stripped my P and applied PPG Epoxy Primer to inhibit rust while doing body work.

Primer, Rust Inhibitor, whatever you call it - you want to cover the bare metal as quickly as possible.

Do not sandblast it will cause little dents . Mediablast (walnutshell,pelets etc. ) then first retard the rust that same day . Also that other person was correct about welding some of those spots . But first mediablast it to find any other trouble areas. A good place to go for blasting is a good powdercoating shop .