Hand Grips

Piece by piece the bike is coming together.  I am now able to work on some of the small odds and ends.  I recommend that you keep a small box of everything you aim to polish and clean on your restoration and take it inside when you are watching TV and such.  Polishing is tedious no-brain required work.  I wish I was not wasting my time with it at this point in the game.  I move back West in 26 days and my painter needs time to touch up the paint.  The bike was due in 3 days, but I bought myself an extra week.  I hope to have the bike no less than 95% complete if not 100% before it goes to the painter.

Before you install your hand grips thoroughly clean the headset bars and you can even sand with very fine sand paper the rough or rust of it. Sand perpendicular to the grips so that grips grab better. You can heat the grips up in some hot (not boiling hot) water to make them more pliable. That was not necessary for me. Use a good and rubber friendly glue and bead it from the half way point back around the whole circumference. This way you will have little to no excess glue as the grip comes to the end. Once it's al the way on check to make sure that the logo is centered in Neutral on the clutch and idle on the throttle. Now working from the midway point to the inside corner work the grip like an accordion so it will stretch out properly . Repeat for the full length of the grip now.

Note: make sure that your throttle grip does not have glue on the inside end, because it needs to spin freely.

Transmission Oil

This is the easy way to install your transmission oil. Heck, it's an easy way to run anything through these bottles, since the caps are universal. Just make yourself a cap, tighten it on the bottle, and cut the bottom off of the bottle and you're good to go -- you have an excellent funnel now. Pore your tranny oil through your funnel and it's as easy as 1-2-3 and no clean up required.

Through the funnel was pored SAE 30 non-detergent oil.

Horn

A while back, before I was scooter shop snob and became a much more picky restorer, I ordered a horn gasket from Scooter Works. I know that Palmog ordered a gasket (from who I don't know) and the rubber was poor quality and actually ate away at his paint. I am going to keep a very close eye on this gasket to be safe.

When I look at the original gasket (pictured left) verses the new gasket (pictured right), I am bummed. They clearly look different. I need NOS for this. The stock one is much more intricate and pleasing to the eye-- not to mention the diameter is larger and fits 100% perfectly in the frame is was designed for. Luckily, this is something that is easy for me to replace later on.

Using a very mild abrasive pad I polished the rust off from behind the screw and made the horn shiny. I used compressed air to clean it out behind the horn grill. I decided not to sand the rust behind the grill too much because (1) I need to get the bike to the painter very soon for touch-up and (2) I didn't want to scratch up the exposed grill by reaching sand paper down there. I did use a tooth brush to clean off the surface rust.
If memory serves me correct, when sitting in front of the horn, I attached the white wire on the left and green on the right (pictured at the very top of this post). And I also covered the terminals in a protective connection grease, which will protect the terminals from the elements and also improve the electrical connection.

I used fine grit emery paper to clean up the pitted tops of the hardware for the horn, but I will replace the hardware to shiny stainless steel after I move back West this summer. I leave in early June. At this point, my take is I won't loose it if it's installed on the bike and if it's easy to replace late . . . then no big deal.

Sealants and Adhesives

I cleaned up and polished the emblems with a very mild abrasive pad, tooth brush, and Mother's Chrome polish.  They cleaned up well, but show their age in scratches and chips if you look very close and stare at it.  (They are plated, not chrome.  You can have them replated with excellent results, I've heard.)  I opted not to wet sand them as I worried it would dull them.  I used 3M's Plastic and Emblem Adhesive.  It is messy stuff (like a silicon that is usually liquidy) and it comes out fast -- so be CAREFUL.  You are to press it on, remove it for 10 to 15 minutes, and the reapply.  I did not do that because it was so messy.  I ran a fan on it all night to get air around.  I only had three studs on the back that were way to short to put the emblem on correctly, plus one hole was filled in my body.  So instead of drilling it, I chose to file it off and use the adhesive.  So "NOT" the purist technique.

I used a small file to clear out the two holes in the legshield to install the front emblem.  This photo is of the file on the floor rail, but it is of the same principal so I am showing you.  Don't drill stuff out.  It's messy and screws your paint.  Take your time and hand file EVERYTHING!  You will regret it if you don't.  I do.  Learn from my mistakes.

To install the gas tank cap seal I used another 3M product designed for seals and gaskets. It dries super fast and does a great job.

Things really came together on the bike last night. The headset is on and all the wiring is labeled. One recommendation I have for running the clutch and front break cables is to remove the inner cables and run them down starting from the headset. It's much easier that way. Pictured below you'll see blue painter's tape over the Vespa emblem, which holds it down flush to the frame while the 3M Adhesive dries.



Here's the next HOT items to tackle:
1) Determine why the gas tap flows so poorly and replace if needed.
2) Connect the electrical.

  

First Kick Bike

We made real progress yesterday and we were able to fire up the bike for the first time (with gas).  She ran great!  Christopher Markley rebuilt the engine and carb and it was pretty much tuned perfectly (no surprise).  Hearing the bike run was confidence-builder and an inspiration to continue on.

Sadly, the fuel tap assembly is clogged even though it has been cleaned with carb cleaner spray and blown out with pressured air.  It's on my list to fix or replace ASAP.  We used a make-shift gas tank.>

Make sure to tape up all stator wires before kick starting it. If your kill switch is not connected, just pull the spark plug to stop the bike.