NineMeister

Work managed to progress once we finished the 9m Speedster, although it took until Friday evening before we found the time to shoot the final three coats of clear ceramic laquer, hence why the Vespa was not finished in time for the Speedster launch party although we did have the fully laquered shell on display.

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Since the shell was still not finished, as the new gearbox cover arrived on Friday, since the weather was cold and wet I decided to get cracking on preparing the parts for refit.

The first job that I got down to on Sunday afternoon was to sort out the cleaning and reassembly of the gearbox, here's the new & old casing together; the gearbox internals showing the double reduction gears consisting of input shaft, layshaft & output shaft; new casing with orange loctite 574 sealant (same as used on 911 engine cases); new casing in place.

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Next stage was to fit the cluch mechanism onto the gearbox end with the drive belt, then fit the outer pulley of the variator & the transmission cooling fan onto the crankshaft. Here I got the chance to use my special tools again, although I'm afraid to say that the piece of wood split at the final torquing of the clutch cover so when I do ever need to change the belt I'll have to make a better one.

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All that was left to do now was fit the engine anciliaries: the airfilter housing (with new foam filter) and mudguard on top; the freshly painted centre stand on the bottom. I also treated the engine to a new spark plug whilst it was on the bench - no need for an oil change because it runs on fresh 2 stroke oil.

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On the grounds that it is a public holiday in the UK today, me and the wife had planned to do some painting of the outside walls in our garden, but again the weather prevented us from making a start so rather than waste a day, we dropped in to work to bring the Vespa bodyshell home in the back of the works van.

To make it easier to work on, I made a support frame for the shell by screwing a plywood platform on top of my father's old saw horse. I sat the shell onto a folded towel, then held the shell down with a lightweight tie-down strap around the reinforced section of the chassis.

First job is to fit the wiring loom into the back of the frame, followed by the plastic petrol tank and two-stroke oil tank which live under the seat.

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Next up were the rear light & indicators, chrome grab rail & seat lock panel which surrounds the battery tray.

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The end of play tonight: front wiring loom routing; rear mudguard; engine mounting; front steering shaft, mudguard & handle bars; handle bar cover & instruments.

Nearly there!

NineMeister

Time to resume the story so far.....


Remember the state of the wheels? Here's what they looked like after getting the 9m Fuchs treatment; at the stage of the photos we've painted the whole wheel with a black basecoat/primer mix, masked them off and then painted silver base coat onto the rims. Next stage is to hit the wheel with clear basecoat to stabilise the black primer and then finish off with clear ceramic laquer (which is harder than standard high solids laquers that we would typically use on a panel).

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I left the front tyre on the wheel for painting because it was in good condition, we just removed the valve and popped the tyre off the bead in a vice to give us the clearance to paint; once the paint has dried a quick application of the airline will pop it back again.

The rear wheel is actually a used spare one that I bought because the original had some of the factory plastic powder coating missing off one of the spokes; bought the other wheel for less than the cost of recoating (can't do that with a Porsche rim!). The rear tyre is almost worn out, so I'll just get a new tyre to put on this rim and fit it to the scooter when the other one is done.

Engine installation next.

sbmfj

thanks for sharing!!

NineMeister

Remember the story so far?

I'm picking up the thread at the point of installing the engine & transmission assembly and the wiring loom. The installation proceedure meant that I had to get the scooter on the floor, so because the front & spare wheel were down at 9m Panelcraft waiting on paint I had to fabricate a support for the front end. Nothing that a crafty bit of woodwork could not sort out - amazing what you can do with a bit of old kitchen worktop!

I sat the middle of the frame on a plastic toolbox whilst the engine rested on the rear wheel & mainstand. I fed the control cables through the cavity first, then hauled the engine forward into place.

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So, just like all good aircooled vehicles, the engine goes in from underneath and up into place. One bolt through the engine mount and the nut at the top of the damper are all that holds this in.

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With the engine in place and the control cables routed correctly with the wiring loom it was all plain sailing.

I tackled the handlebars first, fitting the throttle twist grip and rear brake cable to the lever, then on with the headlamp & front cover.

The rear chrome crashbar came next, where I interestingly found that the mounting bracket (which clamps underneath on the edge of the floorpan) had been made wrong by Vespa, so I had to redrill the clamping holes on the opposite side of the bracket so that the screws were hidden above the floor rather than sticking down underneath. Ho hum. Looks good though.

The front end was a breeze in comparison, just used lots of spray grease on all the slip joints to make assembly easy and protect it from future corrosion.

I then returned to the back end to fit a Vespa mudflap which would come in handy for protecting the learner L plate. Up above the top box & mount were fitted.

All left to do now was to drill the horn cover panel with clearance holes for the frame mounts, fit the cover & L plate and finally fit the freshly painted wheels .....

evoderby

Hi Colin,

The Vespa looks great (especially those 'Fuchs' wheels)! Here in Amsterdam they're considered the ultimate accessory for the fashion conscious 16-35 yr. old girl / woman. For some reason over here the rear luggage bin is not considered cool at all, so you might want to check with your daughter on that one ;-)

-the ultimate in coolness currently is €€€ alligator skin buddy seat covers!!!-

Lots of safe (s)miles!

Rgds,

Harald

NineMeister

I agree that the topbox does not look cool, but I gave JJ the choice and she wanted it fitting - making some comment like "where else would I put all the shopping bags??"