So Long

I sold the GS and am working on another scooter. I really enjoyed this scooter. The wide powerband of the GS makes for a great ride.

I finished up pretty much everything on my todo list and have been riding it for the last 18 months. The floorstrips were riveted in, the speedo was fixed, the fuel valve was adjusted, the horn was fixed, it has been reliable and a lot of fun. Now that it's gone, that's it for this blog.

It runs!

After a little over 4 months, I got it all together except for the speedo and floor strips. It’s running pretty well and the list of things to do/fix is short.
-Fix the fuel valve – it’s too tight.
-Fix the speedo right. - I couldn’t get it to look good enough and I let the needle end up on the wrong side of the limit pin.
-Install the floor strips
-Find out where the rattle is coming from in the mid rpm range
-Tweak the carb so it’ll start easier when warm.
I also have some polishing to do. Some parts of the body have a little too much orange peel in the clear coat. I polished some before putting it together, but I’m not satisfied so I need to polish more. Also, I repainted the left cowl again after getting too much dust in the color coat and finding another dent. When repainting I got the clear perfectly smooth … until it ran. I need to sand/polish out the runs.

I’m pleasantly surprised that rebuilding the front end including the shock made for a well behaved fork/front brake. It’s smooth, progressive, and powerful.

The engine runs better but has a little less power than before the rebuild. I haven’t messed with carburetion or timing much so hopefully a little tuning will help. I was able to take the GS out to the Spring Scoot and ride out to Estacada with the group. It did well on the 70 mile round trip thrashing.

Floor Strips

I was able to have a friend weld up the broken floor strips so I can use the originals. The alloy welds but doesn’t want to fill so they’re a little finicky to weld up. I cleaned them all up by filing the welds, bead blasting, then brushing them. I manually bent them back into shape.

I borrowed a rivet squeezer that should make it easy to install solid aluminum rivets quickly and easily without messing up the paint. It’s a TATCO rivet squeezer with a 5” yoke from Brown Tool

The next step is to actually install the strips and see how it works out.

Putting it together

I've been putting it together. The fork, headset, engine, gloveboxes, .... are all on. The dark blue badge doesn't work well on the dark legshield so I beadblasted and clearcoated the original badge before riveting it back on.

The troublesome engine strips are looking good. The slats are all the correct length and straight. I'm very happy with how well they turned out.

This is how it started. The slats were bent and not all the correct length. Someone had welded a section in at some point.

Cables

I brought the primed body home to tweak a few more spots before color and clear. Some spot filler is getting added to various spot welding dents all over the joints. I am also using the opportunity to replace the cables and wiring harness before I put on the last primer, color, and clear.

The cables to the headset installed relatively easily. I didn't pull the old cables without first attaching them to the new ones. I then pulled the old ones out though the top which pulled the new ones right along. The wiring harness is another story. Still working on it.

Also, the rear brake cable didn't pull out. When pulling harder, it uncoiled as it came out. The coil came out but the plastic sheath and the ferrule stayed in the tube. I used a coathanger wire in a drill to pick out a bunch of the sleeve. I tried some allthread but it won't snake around the corner inside the tube. I got a small plumming snake from the hardware store. It is just the right size. I put it in the drill and pushed it down the tube. It hooked onto something in the tube, but woudn't pull anything out . I still have about 6" of junk in the tube. I'm glad I didn't do this before the paint but wish I had done this before the primer. Maybe some heat would help remove the sheath.I'm going to work it some more, but if it's fully jammed in there, I may shorten the new cable sleeve to accomodate all the junk in there.

Lovin' the paint

I put color and clear on some of the panels today. The body still needs another round of touchups before it gets color and clear but the gloveboxes, front fender, handlebars, and engine side cowel all got shot with the spartling graphite metallic. I've been nervous whether my bodywork has been "good enough". So far, so good. I'm still witholding judgement on the engine cover until it is all done and on the scooter.

I painted the insides of the gloveboxes with the lighter silver of the rims/engine/suspension for a little pop when the doors are opened.

Painting

I primed the main parts today including the fenders, body, and glovebox. Everything is primed. The body needs a couple more minor touchups that I didn’t see before the primer, but the rest is ready for sanding and color. We’ve picked the color finally. Sparkling Graphite which is a warm charcoal color that’ll work well with the light gray rubber and chrome/aluminum accents. It’s not stock, but a nice neutral color that will emphasize the Vespa hips.