1952 Vespa Allstate Restoration Blog

2009-05-21T12:56:00.000-07:00

Paint is done!!

The main frame and cowls are painted - now just the little bits and I can start reassembling!!

2009-05-21T12:55:00.001-07:00

Thanks Ross and guys at K-Tec!!

The conrod is new and now this beat-up old crank should work fine

2009-04-18T12:02:00.001-07:00

I have ordered the paint and Vince will be painting the frame, cowls and fender soon. I have also taken the motor to a shop for rebuild. I have also found a stock NOS exhaust and conrod. I will have to get a machinist to redo the crank with the new rod.

Here is the new proper exhaust as compared to the farmer bodge one that was on there

Great News!!!!

2009-03-06T04:37:00.000-08:00

I am getting a wicked ass tax return this year so I decided to get the motor professionally rebuilt because now I can afford it. Off to Toronto I go today. I am excited because the serious problems with the engine(ie - totally messed up stator plate and a very complex gearbox) were making me procrastinate on the whole project. So now with the paint happening this month and the motor getting done things are moving along.

2009-02-16T15:19:00.000-08:00

Here's another oldy in the states

2009-02-16T15:11:00.000-08:00

Well its been 2 years and a bit and I'm getting there. Final coat of epoxy and then paint and reassembly. Can't actually believe I've come this far.

Hopefully I'll get farther along soon. Off to body shop this week

2008-02-22T09:25:00.001-08:00

Now that the side cover is fixed it can be tig welded to repair holes from previous owners. Then it will be primed like the rest of the body. Then it will all be hand sanded and primed again. This process is repeated until it looks as smooth as a babies bum. Then we Paint!!!!!! Hopefully soon this is over a year after I started.

2008-02-22T09:22:00.000-08:00

Once it was attached I realized that the 55year old aluminum was warped and bent in ways I hadn't noticed before. MOre metal bumping and reshaping until it finally fit and worked properly.

welding arms

2008-02-22T09:15:00.001-08:00

Making the arms to match the origionals was not too bad but welding them at the right angles was.

This was the hardest part

2008-02-22T09:11:00.000-08:00

I had to repair the side door from scratch as someone had broken off the two arms that allow the side cover to swing up. This was about a week of fabricating and fitting and swearing and finally succeeding.

2007-11-13T14:04:00.000-08:00

Back in the game

2007-11-13T14:01:00.000-08:00

Okay work is slowing down and my camera is fixed. Here's some shots of all the friggin sanding I've been doing. The steel has been made very straight and required little bondo but he 55yr old aluminum fender and side cowls were pretty mushy. They had to be bondoed more for reshaping and smoothing purposes.

update

2007-08-10T03:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry no updates. Camera is broken and I have been working non-stop since May. Will post when I get some time to work on bike.

2007-05-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

After doing all the hammer and dolly work a couple a very thin layers of filler are added to smooth out all the small ripples and imperfections.

2007-04-15T17:11:00.000-07:00

The frame is starting to look very nice.
I can't wait till it is painted!

2007-04-15T17:09:00.000-07:00

After we repaired the tears in the front
Vince showed me how to straighten it all out.

I can't belive I actually got it staright with the hammer and dolly

2007-04-15T17:07:00.000-07:00

Notice Vinces ride in the back. A fairlane with a racing engine.
It gets less than 2 miles per gallon. It cost him $20 to back it out of the garage(hahaha)
Notice the sweet paint job.

2007-04-15T17:02:00.000-07:00

The rear wheel well had a bad crack that repaired with two screws and a plate.
It was repaired and sealed.

That ugly lead patch on the floor was removed with a welding torch

which revealed a couple of holes and a tear. This whole side was damaged by a crash

as all the sheet metal is warped. Vince straightened it all out!

2007-04-15T17:01:00.000-07:00

Here are some close ups of the filled holes

2007-04-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

We started the body repairs and they decided to teach me a few things and let me do it myself.Awesome. Saves labour cost and I get to learn. Vince did all the hole filling with a brazing rod and then showed me how to file it all down.

2007-04-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

These are all the small bits after they have been etched. It's not primer like I thought it would be. It simply gets sprayed on and it burns the metal until it is sealed. Then the corrective work is done like dent removal, straightening and hole filling. The frame was worked on today and man is Vince ever freaking good. He straightened out the legsheild by finding a weak spot on the floor!. He pushed it around and whammo - the legsheild goes back to where it was pressed in the factory. Unreal.

2007-04-01T10:30:00.000-07:00

Evrything is sandblasted and ready for paint now.
Look how clean the seems are. no sign of rot anywhere.

2007-04-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

This was a pig of a job but the labour was free

2007-04-01T10:18:00.000-07:00

Well I gone back at it hard and this is by far the worse part so far. Trying to use paint stripper on such a weird curvy surface is super tough. The fumes nearly killed me. The metal is in awesome shape though.

2007-03-04T09:33:00.000-08:00