Final Assembly

I had put the engine in a while ago. Here’s some pictures anyway.

Gas Tank

I had ordered this gas tank from a guy in Uraguay. I can’t even believe how much rust was in the tank. It was a huge job just to get it clean. I haven’t had time to do much else for the last few weeks and it was killing me. As soon as I got this tank clean I could kick it over. I shook a bunch of bolts and nails inside it with some gasoline. Every time I poured it out (5 times) it was the color of mud. On the advice of a friend, I dried it out, put some nuts and bolts in it, and put it in my clothes dryer (no heat) wrapped up in blankets. When I dumped it out, a whole pile of rusty powder came out.

But it still wasn’t clean.

I did the gas again, but It still just didn’t seem clean. So I dryed it out again and put it back in the dryer. By the way, I actually “dry it out” for days by setting it in the sun. I’m not putting a gas tank with gas in it in an electric dryer. That’s part of why it took so long.

After the second go in the dryer, I poored in some naval jelly. Now that got it clean. But I had to rinse it out with water.

Flash rust.

But there are not big chunks in the tank anymore. It’s time to just say “good ’nuff.” I will have to buy a special inline fuel filter for lambrettas because a normal one won’t fit in the two inches of fuel line (one little surprise when I mounted it). 

I also had to clear off the 5 or 6 layers of paint representing about 45 years of use that were on this thing. Maybe I should have gone with a new stainless steel tank from ScootRS.com…

Headset

It took forever, but I finally got the old lock out. It must have been painted in there. I had to drill a bunch of holes in it and brake it apart.  Once that was out I painted it and mounted it on the bike. The cables are on and set, but still need some fine tuning. I also have to paint the little pieces that hold on the brake levers.

With this thing finally on, the Lammy is actually starting to look like a scooter.

Back to Work

I had been out of town for a few weeks touring the south. I’m coming back tomorrow and am geared up to finally kicked this thing over.

I finally got the fuel tank from Uraguay. I think it took three weeks to get to me. That day, I was so excited to get it together that I ran down to Casa Lambretta in Denver to get a fuel tap and a few other needed but unrequired items. I ended up spending $150 down there. I was like a kid in a candy store. I got a new set of brake and clutch cables, a couple plugs, the fuel tap, fuel tank straps, and a used horncast. Everything seemed a bit overpriced except for the horncast, which I got for $40. These are $100-150 new. I think the take-away from this little trip is that Casa Lambretta is a great place to scrounge up less expensive used parts. They usually cater to people who want their bikes restored to show room condition. If a part has a slight blemish or defect, you can get a smokin’ deal on it. At least, that’s my impression.

I had also got my headset in the mail. It had an old lock with no key stuck in it. I had to drill it out, piece by piece.  It came out, and the new one is in. I had run out to buy all those parts so that I could get the bike back together and try to kick it over before I left. After it took a whole afternoon to get the lock out to paint the headset, I realized that it wasn’t going to happen so soon. I didn’t want to cut any corners or leave a whole bunch of work for later that would necessitate taking the bike apart, so I just let it be.

But I did get a few accessories painted.

The paint I bought from a place called Auto Body Supply in Orem Utah. The paint is a dead on match. It looks great. It doesn’t have the same hardness of regular automotive paint, but It came out looking very nice. Durability may be another question. If you need aerosol cans of paint matched to a specific project, I would HIGHLY recommend these guys. They even worked with me to get the paint out by 5 pm because I was leaving that night.

I also picked up some fuel line and stella gaskets from the Scooter Lounge, the prime scooter shop of Utah Valley. They deal with every scooter even POS scoots from China, but they usually have to order lambretta parts from lambretta shops.

Under recommendation, I also took a look inside the chain case at the clutch. I hadn’t quite figured out how it worked before I started, so I pulled out the retaining ring without putting pressure on the clutch springs. All five went flying as soon as the ring came out. Lesson learned. Use a puller to put pressure on the springs to take the clutch apart.

My clutch had been sitting so long that it had fused into one piece. I pryed each piece apart then cleaned off the all metal plates by sanding off the little cork bits that had stuck on them. Once they were clean and smooth, I soaked the cork plates in 80W90 gear oil to restore a little life into them. I picked up this information from conversations and various scooter and motorcycle boards (the word on the street). It might have been better to buy new clutch plates, but they looked like they were in decent shape. I might as well get all the use out of them I can.

The cables seemed to be in manageable shape except for the front brake. For those who don’t know, 75% of your stopping power is in the front brake, according to the book I had to study to get my motorcycle license. That means having front brakes is pretty important. Anyway, as soon as I get the bike running, I’m going to want to ride it. It will be nice if it is actually safe to ride once it runs. Having functioning brakes is a definite start in that direction (note to self: check the drum brakes before riding). The only cable that I managed to replace before I left was the front brake. The other cables look like they are in there pretty tight. I’m pretty sure you have to take off the legshield to get them out. I was going to take off the legshield anyway to paint it. I wanted to make sure that I got everything under the rubber floor strips. So now it’s a twofer.

Stella Adventures

I bought my ‘03 Stella (Vespa PX150) a few months ago and was able to get it for a good price. This was in part because it had been laid down. It will just break your heart to hear the story: The guy I bought it from had just bought it that day. He was showing it off to a friend when the friend asked to try it out. Reluctantly, he agreed.

The friend gets on it, revs it up to like 1/2 throttle and just lets out the clutch. I mean, he just let it go. Well these are pretty high torque machines and even a wary rider can be surprised, so you can probably guess what happens next. The bike pops a huge wheelie, throws the kid off (not sure if he was thrown off or bailed out, but the effect is the same), and the bike barrels down the road by itself. Bikes don’t balance so well on their own, so this one fell on its side and skidded to a stop.  The side panel absorbed most of the brunt of this exercise in stupidity. Oh by the way, your new vintage scooter is not the bike for your idiot friends to learn on.  Poor Stella.

So I thought it would be nice to restore her to her former glory (and then some).

First, I sanded off the affected area. Unfortunatly, I didn’t take any pictures before I bondo-ed, so you will have to use your imagination:

1. Picture the side panel really jacked up.

2. Picture the side panel having a giant dent in the side, but the bare metal is shiny from being sanded.

Next, I slapped some bondo on there. I also had to put some glazing putty on some bondo trouble spots.

Then I masked it off.

 

Then primered and sanded smooth.

I had a can of Krylon Pumpkin spray paint, but I decided it wasn’t a close enough match. The Stella came with a little can of touch up paint. I decided to use that even though I’d have to sand it smooth.

First Coat.

After it was all painted and had set drying for days (yah, this took a while), I wet-sanded with 400, 800, then 2000 grit paper. I was dissappointed that 2000 didn’t actually get it shiny, so I had to buy some Turtle Wax polishing compound. I went over it with that and got it pretty shiny, but I think the paint is still not entirely dry. The newly painted part shines up a lot faster than the old. I’ll wait a week or so then try it again. It looks pretty good, but it’s not perfect. 

 

A while back, I had also put on Sito plus custom exhaust on this thing, which bolts right onto the Stella without any modification.  But whenever you make an upgrade like this, you need to change the Jetting (carburetor settings).

I didn’t.

I thought that because it was jetted to Denver and I live more than 2000 feet higher than Denver, it should be ok to leave the jetting alone.

I was wrong.

I didn’t even take it that far. I took it out for a four mile ride to do a plug read (test how the bike is running based on what the spark plug looks like after a ride). I rode it pretty hard and the plug was nearly white. That’s very bad. The engine wasn’t getting enough fuel so it was burning hotter than it was supposed to. Combine that with the NGK B6ES Spark plug (burns too hot for this kind of riding) and you get burned up engine seals in just a short time. I had to rejet the bike (96 main jet for you techies) and replace the flywheel side oil seal.

It is running great now–like a top, as they say. I’ve had it up to 65 on west Laramie highways. The performance exhaust makes it so much zippier. I don’t see how somebody can own a vespa without one.