Evaporust, Lloyd's Polish, & Restoration blogs

I came across a new restoration blog. It's a P-Series 150 resto. Bike looks in good shape. I would not touch with paint -- won't recoup that money in value; therefore bad investment. It can be a mechanically sound bike fairly easily I expect. There is some body rust, but I read on a Lambretta USA forum there is some great solution that removes rust and leaves the paint and metal alone on body parts. It is called Evaporust. That's what I'd recommend and then sealing up the rust to prevent spread. For cleaning up the paint and making it all pretty again I recommend looking into Lloyds WolfsHead Polish Detailer & Waterless Wash -- I read about this product and saw photos at Scooter Scoop posted on Dec. 10th, 2007. This way the paint looks at its absolute best. Before and after photos are posted for you to compare the differences.

Hell, I admitted that if I bought my SS180 in one piece, we'd leave the dents and dings and clean up the rust and give it a good wash and let it be.

Does anyone know of detailed blogs that are out there? If so, please post a comment and I will link them to this blog.

I am really interested in blogs that go into great detail on the resto and don't just have a paragraph and ten photos for every major step in the process. I want a blog I can really learn from. I want to become good at restorations and I aim to do all work myself on my Lambretta TV175, including paint with my uncle (who restores vintage cars).

I want to be like this guy.

Vespa folks talk with Lammy folks. They are SUPER nice and many know their #$%t. I find them to be very helpful -- weird coming from a Vespa restorer?

Damn, I am fired up to get this SS180 done so I can start saving money to begin my TV175. I daydream about how great it will be to hear the VSC fired up for the first time.

I just want to learn!

Rear shock spring

It is time to rebuild the rear shock so we can install the engine in the chassis. Just back from Christopher Markley today is our stock MeCur spring powder coated black to match the color the factory would have produced for this bike originally. It cost $12.50 for the paint and it looks great (there is some dust on it in this photo, but the paint is perfect)!

We will use the same motorcycle shock oil in the rear shock as we did in the front. It may help stiffen the ride a small amount and help cut down on drifting.

I was so dead-set on using a performance spring, like TaffSpeed, and I am glad I learned that drifting is not entirely due to the shock.

Lesson learned:One side on the shock was NOT powder coated and I asked Christopher why that was the case. Here is the answer I got:

"You beat me to the e-mail. Put those ends facing down. When powder coating,
you can suspend the part on wires or let it stand on its own if it has a
flat surface. Regardless, wherever it touches, no powder. Seems on the
springs that shortly after installation, the powder or paint if you use
paint will quickly wear away as the spring seat grinds around against the
shock spring support. So I opted to not suspend the parts on wires, since
the suspension points would have been on a visible surface of the spring.
This way, they look pretty and the part without powder would have lost its
coating anyway in use. If you're worried about it, a smear of thick axle
grease where the springs meet the shock could postpone corrosion, but it is
inevitable at those mating points eventually."

Need a title?

We were lucky. Our VSC came with a clean title when we bought it, but many barn yard finds don't or maybe you lost your title. That's an easy fix at $80.

Look into International Title Service. They're the most frequently used service for old motorcycles and cars.

In a nutshell what you do is sell your bike to them and they resell it back to you with a clean title.

Easy as 1-2-3.

Alternative ways can be found on Scoot.net's Wiki.

Of course these approaches are for the USA.

Maisto Vespa SS180

From time to time, when my wife or I see a good deal on models of scoots we buy them for decoration purposes -- plus for our next child we'd time to do a scooter theme for the nursery. This VSC is made by Maisto and I'm gonna keep my eye peeled for it -- sentimental reasons of course.

Walmart (evil corporation) is selling a 4 pack of Vespas for $9.00 currently. Two vintage and two modern.

Rally floor rail kit install instructions

If you already have paint on your scoot and you're installing a new floor rail kit . . . Paul C. emailed me a great suggestion for not screwing up your paint and retrofitting the SS 180 with Rally 200 floor rails.

From Paul C. . . .
pascoli kit are the correct width ,the rally ones are a bit narrower and the rubber has less ribs in them,if youre carefull the rally kit can be fitted without paint damage (if youre carefull, ) cover the paint in gaffa tape and bolt them down to take shape leave them for a while , then use the kit rivits one at a time to replace the bolts, make a tool fron a punch and use a die grinder to make a small circular bowl in end then spend some time polishing the bowl to avoid leaving marks in the end cap rivits .hit the rivits gently 20-30 times to spread the heads, they will go eventuly,but dont wack them , two people make the job much easier, dont bolt them down as a final fit, it looks like you dont have the guts to hit youre new paint with a hammer, you could use skate board sex bolts at a push. good luck

THANX PAUL C.