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.

Bodywork

Pounding, putty, sanding. Lots to do on the frame and the cowels. The other parts are pretty much primed and done. The engine slits are getting closer but still need more time and attention. The picture above shows that they're getting better.The plan is to get some solid progress done this weekend on the sanding and smoothing. All the sanding makes a huge mess so I'd like to get as much done as possible at one time.

Engine Rebuild

I got the case sealed up. When replacing the bearings and trying to put the crank back in, I figured out that the old flywheel side bearing inner race had a larger OD than the new one by about .030" . The overall dimensions were identical, but it's a bad idea to mix and match parts within a bearing. The .030" difference forced me to do what needed to be done anyway. The inner race is pressed onto the crank and needed to be pulled. It took a bearing splitter, heat, and pounding to get the old race off. I heated the new race to around 400F and it went right on with a little pounding. I used spacers and the clutch nut to pull the crank into the clutch side, no pounding required. After discussion on the GS Yahoo group, I put the clutch Belleville washer on the crank with the cone pointed out. The outside edge presses against the inner race of the main bearing while the inside edge presses against the clutch.

More Shocks

I rebuilt both of the shocks with a new main seal and thicker (20 weight) oil. I followed the directions from scooterlounge.com. Filling the shock with oil was a mess, but eventually it worked. If all was done right, I now have two fully functional front shocks.

The mechanical parts are all getting painted with PPG paint. I picked a slightly darker silver than stock. When the stock color and the dark silver are next to each other they look like they match, but as the pictures show, the shadows get darker than the stock color. The red tape below are just ID tags so I can tell which shock is which.

Lambretta

I just scored a 1965 Lambretta TV200 in pieces. It's quite a distraction, but I'm holding off on the TV until I finish the GS. That's the plan anyway.

Front Shock

I have TWO front shocks that I'm rebuilding. I expected the one that came on the scoot to be blown so I got another one a while back that looked much nicer. When pulling both apart, I found out that the one from my scoot was not blown but the other one had a lot of leaking fluid. I pulled both apart and am replacing the main seal on both. They're both getting blasted and repainted with new seals and new oil. Then I'll pick the better one for my GS and either store or sell the other one.
I made a tool to spin open the top of the damper cartridge. Two 1/8" dowel pins in a steel block. Later I found out that a pin spanner also works well.

Bearings, clutch, etc

I pulled and replaced all the main bearings. The seals and bearings that I pulled out all appeared to be good, but the new ones are better :) The rear axle bearing was maybe starting to go so replacing it was definitely a good idea. I made a spanner for the rear axle nut. A cutoff wheel, some steel tube, and an hour was all it took to make a nice tool. I replaced the axle bearing with a sealed bearing . (Bearing # 6304 20x52x15) to prevent any oil getting into the rear brake area.

I heated the cases with a propane torch. A couple minutes with heat on the cases allowed the bearings to tap right out, and in.

The flywheel side main bearing is a roller bearing with a removable inner race. The old and new inner races have different outside diameters by around .040 so the race needs replacing along with the rest of the bearing. I didn't catch this at first so I'm getting a bearing splitter to pull the race off the crank. That's all I'm waiting for before engine reassembly.

I rebuilt the clutch. The steel plates were flat with no measurable dish when placed on a flat plate. Some say to orient the dished plates in a particular direction. Since mine were flat, I put them back in the same orientation they came out.

The cruciform was a little worn, but not too bad. I replaced it anyway while I'm in there.

Primer

I'm still working on the main body, but I've primed several of the other parts. The left cowl needs a lot more work before it's ready for paint. I smoothed it out a lot, but with the smooth primer coat, it's clear that it needs to be smoother. Here's a shot before priming. The spot filler covers a lot of the fender but it's very thin (.030 max)

Here's a shot with primer. In this photo it looks smooth, but in person, it still shows a lot of ripples plus some dents I couldn't see before. Butterfingers! I dropped the front fender when priming with the second coat. It was looking so good. I had noticed two dents that still needed attention before dropping the fender. Now the count is a bunch of scratches plus a couple brand new dents. At least they're small.

ADD

I’m focusing all over the place on the Vespa right now. The frame just came back from the media blaster. They use walnut shells or similar which takes all the paint off but none of the metal or rust. Mostly, the frame looks really good. There are a couple of heavier rust spots on the right floorboard under the rails, and the inside of the rear glovebox is rusty enough to have some pinholes. It’s hard to get in there to clean it out or even to see the rust. I’m using Rust Mort which has phosphoric acid to convert and stabilize the rust. Then it’s time to weld a couple of spots on the floorboard. The engine is apart. I need to heat up the case to remove the flywheel side main bearing. I bead blasted the outside of the cases after everything else I tried didn’t do anything to clean them up. They’re not perfect but look much better. They’ll absorb some oil this way but they’ll be much cleaner and consistent than before.
I’ve been filing and working the engine side cowel. It still needs more work to get the slits looking consistent. It’s just about ready to get touched up with glazing putty.

I’ve been polishing small aluminum and zinc parts. The aluminum parts polish well. Not so much with the zinc parts.

Deep into the engine

I've been digging deep into the engine and most everything is in great condition. It's getting new bearings, seals, cruciform, and clutch. The original bearings all look good except the rear hub bearing. The cruciform has a little wear.

It hit me how simple these motors are. The engine has so few moving parts and it's all packed so tightly.

Also, the body went to the media blaster today. I blasted all the other parts myself and have been doing the dent pounding and spot filling. Most of the parts except for the body are ready to prime.

Still need to pick a color.

No new piston

I pulled the cylinder and found out that the piston/cylinder/rings are all in great shape. No blowby at the exhaust side or signs of seizing. I won't need to rebore which is a nice surprise.

First component done - Seat

Here are a couple of before pics of the seat. Notice the original thick shaped pad.
The seat frame was beadblasted and painted black. I was going to take it completely apart, but the blasting did a good enough job cleaning everything up that I didn't bother. It looks great and was an easy restore.

I got a Pascoli Mk2 black seatcover to replace the hand sewn cover. The original seat had the original padding which is cushy and comfy. The Pascoli is nice but has thinner foam between the vinyl cover and rubber base. The original foam is thicker and shaped to fill the space between the seat springs and the cover. I tried to put the original foam under the new seat cover but needed a structural backing to prevent the foam from squeezing between the springs. The original rubber backing was too thick so I tried a sheet of black polyethylene. It had the right amount of flex and was much thinner than the original rubber. When dry fitting, it looked like it would work, but when attaching the clips I found out that the stack of padding was a little too thick. So I backed up and put the original rubber (no padding) and the polyethylene under the new seat cover. This made for a good reasonably comfortable seat. Not as cushy as original, but better than the bare Pascoli. I can try again with the original pad if this setup isn't comfortable.

Three coats

Three coats is what I pulled off the body parts today. The original primer and white, another coat of primer, bondo, and white, and a coat or rattle can silver with some more bondo. The second white coat was the most tenacious. Whoever painted that on used some good paint. It was tougher than the original stuff and way tougher than the lousy rattle can paint. With the fenders all taken down to the metal I can see all the ripples and flaws. The front fender will be easy to fix. The cowls will take more work. There were bits of bondo all over and lots of small dents and ripples. Very little rust and no rot though.

Engine grill

As typical with GS engine cowls, the grill was damaged. On this cowl, the grill was cut out and replaced with one out of another scooter. Check out how the slats don't form a parallelegram. The lower three slats are too short at both the front and the rear.
The plan is to cut out the slats to the correct length. If that doesn't work well. I'll need to find another donor cowl with similar slats and weld the set in. Other than the slats, the cowls are straightening up nicely. I've done initial shaping, but still need to get them stripped.