Modern Vespa

I cleaned the airbox & airfilter with petrol, then washed out the filter before re-oiling. The airbox is held on by three screws, two of which also hold on the splash guard.

I had already drained the old engine oil and cleaned the strainer in the oil drain plug, so the final job on the engine was to fit a new original Vespa oil filter and refil with a litre of fresh oil. I chose to use Millers synthetic 5-40 XSF which is designed to meet long life specifications for Porsche, Audi, Mercedes & VW.

With the belt cover in place, pouring oil into the engine from a can is likely to result in oil getting between the filler neck of the sump and the belt cover casting. To avoid the mess I borrowed the filler spout from a litre bottle of gear oil which made the job a cinch.

Final job of the night (other than uploading all the photos to MV!) was to fit the new bearing into the swingarm. Again I warmed the arm up carefully before fitting the bearing although when it was half way home it tightened up & hence needed to be tapped down into place. When you have no choice but to use a drift, be absolutely sure to only tap the bearing in with the punch located on the outer race, NEVER be tempted to hit it in with the inner race as you will damage the bearing and dramatically reduce its life.

Since the wife was busy painting the garden shed yesterday I managed to sneak back into the garage and do a little bit more on the mechanicals.

Here's hoping that your garden shed will take your wife quite some time to paint Loving the progress.

Finished wheels in satin laquer with tyres as arrived. I will have to get them rebalanced at some point, although I may replace the front tyre with a matching Heidenau since it is now at least 4 years old. Is the Heidenau any good or would I be better off with a Continental or Pirelli?

awesome job mate....now where did i put my bag of dosh

kids money box robbed....first instalment in the bag!!

you do some amazing work on vespas, this projec might top you GB theme scoot! really quality work, really shows when you put your heart into something and do a good job.

love the color

Thanks for the thumbs up boys.

Gadge, I'm glad you're entering the true Vespa restoration spirit. My missus has now given up on me and booked herself a long weekend in Spain with a friend from Wednesday, so it looks like I'll have the GT(S) finished by this time next week!

Back to the build. I had been suffering with a bad cold at the end of the week which eventually laid me up all day Saturday, however after a good nights sleep I managed to find enough energy to get back out into the garage today and take a few more steps down the line. Here's the progress I managed to make:

That's all I can do for now: the engine can't go in before the swingarm bushes arrive - the headlamp cowl is waiting on the rear brake pipe which is attached to the rear caliper and the footboard / glovebox are also waiting on cables & wiring. Stalemate.

great pics as always. hopefully i'll be able to put come on myself one day. my resto would be nowhere as good as yours but at least i'll be back on the road

Great pics !!!

Nobody's perfect, it's only a slight typsing error:

"Hopefully I will be able to put some (photographs) on myself one day"

Hurrah!!! The swingarm bushes arrived yesterday so at last there's nothing holding me back from fitting the engine.

Today I managed to put the old Boxford lathe to good use again by making a couple of insertion pins for the bushes. The plan with these is to use them as guides and draw the bearings into the arm by using a length of 10mm studding up the middle of the assembly, thus gently pulling in the bushes without risking damage to the outer housing. I'll take more pictures later to show you what I plan in more detail.

whoops!!!! i meant some!!

I know I know sometimes it can crack a giggle....

Update on last night's efforts:

You are building quite possibly the most beautiful modern vespa on the planet.

Why thank you, Stinky.

You are perhaps a tad too kind, but in any case I really do appreciate the sentiment. Shall we leave the final judgement for when it is finished?

Bearing in mind the colour (and the sponsorship on the Porsche shown earlier), will sir be fitting some of these?





Seriously, though - great work and a gorgeous colour!

What, like this one I photographed last year???

I can't remember the Jagermeister colours being bad on any race car that they've sponsored - the Porsches always looked good though.

Complete dismantle and meticulous restoration combined with the absolute most perfect color for a Vespa. I am drooling over this thing.

If anything ever happens to my GTV, that's the color I'm going with.

Seriously, you do beautiful work.

I chose the Continental Orange only on the basis of it being a classic Porsche 911RS colour and seemed to be the perfect choice for the retro look that I wanted for the Vespa. Originally it was going to be the new GT3RS orange but that was just too modern. Hence I have to be honest in that the link to the Jagermeister race colour scheme is purely coincidental, although perhaps it was my subconscious thoughts leading me down the road I chose?

More the point, I'm really pleased that everyone likes it, because I love it!!

So, with the wife away in Spain until next monday, there is nobody stopping me from visiting the garage after my supper & burning a few more midnight hours:

suddenly I feel
useless
small
and as if I have two left hands...


Props to you Sir, this project is A+

"should be ready to fire up on Saturday if all goes to plan."

WooHoo

we wait with baited breath,you are a genius my friend. 8)

Saturday did not exactly go to plan as had to go into work for the day, however Sunday was better so in between watching the F1 Grand Prix & Superleague playoff I managed to get out in the garage and do a bit more:

Just thought that I should also comment on the colour of the seat. The bottom line is that I am not a big fan of black seats unless its on a black, white, red or silver bike, hence I bought a new tan one as a first choice between the two standard Vespa colours of beige or black.

In all probability I will have the seat retrimmed at a later stage, at the moment an orangey tan or possibly brown vinyl (rather than leather) are favourited - however there is also a pretty fair chance that I may just learn to live with the beige....

With the LX top box repair nailed it was Dad time again today and I managed to get some more work done on the GT(S). First up was the front wheel, or more specifically the front tyre which had decided that it would no longer hold pressure.

I removed the wheel from the bike and headed off to work to break the bead in one of our large vices & soon discovered that the leak was being caused by corrosion on the inside lips of the wheel. Working one side at a time I managed to hold back the tyre in the affected area, rub down the corrosion with 200/400/800 grit wet & dry paper & clean it with a cloth soaked in WD40. The airline popped the tyre back on the bead, pumped it up to 40psi & tested for leaks in the sink. Sorted the problem on the second attempt - little tip in that if you get a tiny leak from the rim try bouncing the tyre on the floor as the additional pressure shock effects a better seal.

Back home I fitted the leak-free wheel and then turned my attention to the other leak I had discovered:

Wow. Seriously, a big WOW.

Amazing work - simply amazing!

love the last photo with the union jack in the mirror,nice touch if you meant it. 8)
fantastic job from start to finish.my hat comes off to you.

Love your work on the scooter!
Just wondering, is it red or orange? It changes with every pic
I think, after finishing the scooter you deserve a new camera! (or just turn off autowhitebalance...)

Good luck on finishing it!

Since I was still on a roll from yesterday, it wasn't a difficult decision to make this Sunday morning to get back in the garage on what I thought would be the last day building my new GT(S). I eventually made lots of progress but it was not without its frustrations, one problem I'll have to revisit but in the meantime here's what I got up to:

It's painted Porsche Continental Orange.

I'm taking the photos as I go along with my Nokia N97, mainly because it's always in my pocket. I appreciate what you say about the colours & for that reason I normally take the pictures with the flash turned off, however given the hours I am working on it there is a heady mix of daylight, fluorescent light and flash shots so you will just have to make some allowances until I can get the finished Vespa out into the sunlight.