R & R -- Scooter Camping

One part of the restoration process that I have not covered yet is "taking care of yourself." There have been plenty of times that I have gotten frustrated or even pist-off and I am not even doing all the work myself. Newbie restorers make sure you play a bit along the way and keep it "light hearted!"

One way for me to relax during the late spring/early summer (before it gets too humid) is to back up my daily rider with all my gear and meet some buddies and camp for a couple nights and have amazing rural road rides during the day.

In the video above, I loaned Dave S. my daily rider -- black Chetak -- and I ride my wife's, Lisa's, butter yellow Chetak. David C. rides his silver Chetak. It's kind of like those old Saturn commercials, right?

I also think it is helpful to have two bikes when restoring, because you still need a daily rider. Heck, I hope to pick up a second daily rider, a P200, at some point.

Buying a project SS180

I received an email the following email this morning and I am hopeful that many viewers of this Blog will read this post and view these pictures and help me help Nico make the right choice -- should he buy this SS180 or not?

PLEASE POST COMMENTS FOR NICO & RESPOND TO WHAT OTHERS HAVE WRITTEN. MANY THANX.

********** EMAIL *********

Hola jeremy!!! My name is Nicolás, I am of Argentina. One wanted to tell you that I am for buying a Vespa ss 180 1968, here my alone country there entered 40 units, by what it is very boasted and the only one that I know is the one that possesses ROY (which(who) this registered in your page) my major(bigger) disadvantage it is that has true lacking that I could not locate them in any page and that they are vital for his(its) good restoration. The lacking important mas are an air filter of the carburetor, it(he,she) covers cylinder and the front parafango that I believe, does not correspond(fit) to the model!!! It(he,she) wanted to know if you might verify your me where I obtain cough lacking, and if I can obtain them gladly(willingly) it(he,she) would buy and begin his(its) restoration, though the price is very raised for my, and mas that at all(nothing) because here in my country we are with the devaluated currency, or 1 dollar = 3,15 Argentine Weight. But as your you say, I want of this scooter something for the whole life that to never sell!!!!

!!!! I wait for your response!!! And sorry for my inglish, I had to use a translator since I do not understand very much the language … Many Regards!!!!!!! Nico From Argentina!!!

PD: here since you can see, some photos in order that you think and tell me that it looks like to you his(its) condition(state)!!

Tank's (Muchas Gracias)


Nico.

**** Sorry . . . I rotated pix before saving, but Blogger is not accepting ****

Restoration: Front Shock, Fork, & Hub

A friend & co-worker of mine, named Ted Witmer, is an old shop guy turned middle school guidance counselor. He's of the ol'school when it comes to shop work, like Christopher Markley (he's also a bit older than Christopher) he believes in the way of least resistance. Ted's passion is KTM motorcycles and his wife and he both ride and own multiple bikes each. Ted has love the scoots too, but likes the bigger bikes. Because he is a super nice guy, he is rebuilding my front fork assembly and restoring the front shock (a detailed post to come on that later) -- my son, Hudson Rogue, is 7-months and to be honest my time is limited and I'll take help where I can get it.
After Ted disassembled the front end, I busted butt stripping the paint and naval jelly'ing the rusted areas. First I applied a degreaser and used a brush with plastic bristles to degrease it and get the goo and gah off of it. Then, I used a stripper brush to apply aircraft gel stripper and a copper brush to scrub the paint off. It took a couple hours.
After that I applied PPG metal cleaner and conditioner. I then delivered the parts to Christopher Markley for powder coating. Christopher explained to me that the front fork would NOT take a powder coat well because it was too pitted. Here are the options Christopher gave me, "The shock housings have pitting and damage. If you would very carefully sand
and polish them, they would be a good base for a very smooth, mirror powder
finish. As they are, the powder will not fill in the chips and pits. I'm not
interested in prepping the metal on those housings. The time I'd put into it
would be more than you'd want to pay for, and it's easy no-brainer work that
you don't need to pay me for. Tell me if you'd like to finish those shock
components before I powdercoat them, or if you're OK with me doing them
as-is."
Before I had a chance to respond, in the usual Christopher fashion (this happens way to often -- this guy has so much good karma stocked up that if he kicked over our completed SS I couldn't get mad at him) he emailed me a witty note, which basically stated he polished and powdercoated the front shock already and would NOT charge us for the polishing. He put the shock housings, upper then lower, on his milling lathe and they polished up nicely. They even look better powdercoated.
The front hub was a mess too, but fortunately did not require polishing.
Due to the abuse, from road debris, these parts take, Christopher laid down three coats -- one color & two clear coats (it may have been four with some sort of primer, but I need check that with Christopher, because I don't remember him saying that to me). The outcome as you can see nothing less than gorgeous.
The front fork itself was too large for Christopher to powdercoat; therefore he baum sprayed it (multiple coats as well I believe) and it has a little *sparkle* to it.
I opted not to try to save the rear shock because it was terribly pitted and I can purchase quality repros easily. The reason I had the front shock restored is because the reputation of the repros for GS/SS sucks, but according to Motorsport (for $90) and ASC (for $70) there is a new GS/SS repro front shock available now that is "quality" -- I can not confirm or deny this. It has some sort of black rubber around the middle of it. I wanted to post a pix of it here, but I can't copy the image. I like the way the original one looks more.

Progress Feels Great

While cleaning out my basement, I built a couple alters for the VSC and TV. I can't seem help myself -- I keep going down into my basement and staring at my wife's Vespa SS180, with a perfect body and fully rebuilt engine. We're so close to being done (need more funds first). The front shock is being rebuilt and then the entire front fork/hub/shock will be assembled. I am really happy with how it is coming along.

Here is a sneak peak of my 1962 Lambretta TV175 S3 which will be restored after my wife's Vespa is 100% complete and on the road. It will be a year or two until I begin the Lambretta I guesstimate, not-to-mention that my wife, Lisa, prefers Lammys too and if we find a good deal on a S1 or S2 we would likely pick it up for her. I would like a S1 frame breather as well. I have a couple more posts I'd like to get up on the blog over the next week so keep your eyes peeled.

Paint: Complete

From rags to riches!

As I have said this bike is my wife's scoot. It is a semi-custom bike and it being restored to her liking. We have no intention of ever selling this bike and it would be ideal if our son (or any future child we have) loves scoots and can inherit this bike. Lisa chose to have the bike painted Jaguar British Racing Green.
When you pick up your bike from the painter, as I learned from Stuart Werner, there are five things you should look for:
1) Is the color uneven any where? (maybe the paint was not spread evenly)
2) Is there any fogging? (this would be a problem with the clear coat)
3) Are there any bubbles?
4) Are there any drips? (easy fix if it's on the clear coat)
5) Are there any dust nibs? (an easy fix your paint guy)

Look at the scooter under florescent lights (worst possible conditions you can create) as they will make it harder to "hide" flaws in painter's work and then take the pieces out into the sun to see the "true" color and "depth" of the paint.
For anyone who has ever worked with or met my mentor restorer, Christopher Markley, you know they guy knows his shit and his anal retentive / detail oriented. When ever I ask him a simple question, I get a thorough response with several options for my problem solving. At times, I feel like an expert on specific topics he talks to me about. I asked Christopher a question about paint prep and a bondo-like substance used on the VSC (see previous post), because some people wrote in with a concern that my shop used too much. Christopher wrote such an awesome response, that I am stealing his words to share with all of you on the topic "prepping and painting" (beware it's a long educating response). . .

"It's likely that they sprayed it with a spray-on filler, which is an ultra thick variety of primer/filler -- sort of a super-thin Bondo that you can spray on as if it were a very thick paint. It flows a tiny bit and spreads out and fills in small imperfections in the metal. It is a very standard product for metal that has been hammer/dolly corrected and if applied well and if it is a good quality and designed as a system with the epoxy primer/sealer coat, the primer coat, the base coat, and the clear, you have a perfected surface that should like fantastic for many, many years...
Unless you are laying out an enormous amount of money on this paint job, they are likely to not hand color-sand the paint when done...
Show cars get a hand sanding when finished, then polishing. This removes any orange peel and imperfections in the clear coat. No matter how good the paint and painter, you get some peel and imperfections...(Note: the louvres on the engine-side cowl have been replaced -- see previous cowl repair post below)

Look at brand-new car paint. Lots of peel. My brand-new BMW has quite a bit of orange peel. Shame on them for not doing better...
You can color sand the paint after getting the bike back from the shop, but it is best to do it with 24 hours of the application of the clear coat... (Note: color sanding was included in our price! We have NO orange peel at all)
Tell the shop you intend to do so and ask them to hit it with plenty of clear, since you'll be removing clear as you sand it. You'll work through several grits of wet paper, or you can use 3m Finishing Film on a random orbital sander. Then you use successively finer polishes until you have a mirror surface with no peel or imperfections...
You can find plenty of good advice on how to do this on Len Stuart's paint BBS . . .
http://autobodystore.com/forum/index.php?index

As you work with your painter, make sure you don't suggest that they use products they normally don't use. Painters get used to the characteristics of the particular brand that they like to work with. Don't make them learn to work new materials...

Trust their experience and reputation, and realize that spray-on filler isn't a ghetto technique. It's legit stuff and you'll be happy it's there to hide the metal imperfections," wrote Christopher Markley.














Price: $1,060 grand total (for paint, body work, engine cowl louvre work)
Shop: K&K Auto Body / 620 S. Enola Rd. / Enola, PA 17205 / (717) 732-2173 / ask for Karl.
Recommended by: Stuart Werner & Roland Henry


Karl has painted close to 30 (thirty) scoots, many of them for Stuart Werner and a few for J. Roth (I've heard). He is VERY easy to work with. I left a few items with him to be touched up or cleaned up and I know Stuart once sent a bike back and they repainted the entire bike at no charge to Stu. They are perfectionist and want to get it right. They take scooters SERIOUSLY when painting and they are reasonably priced.