All but done - bodywise

Like most people who start these blogs i have alomost stopped posting, in fact my plan to do little every week on the blog gave way to working on the scooter.

The Viet parts showed up and overall the plastic parts are horrible. The metal parts are excellant and was very impressed with their metal working skill. Notably the seat i ordered off Saigon Scooter i took it back to bare metal like the rest of the scooter and the quality is superb.

So somethings i have done since last time:

• Metall all back to bare metal then clear coated in rustoleum flat clear.




• New indicator body and lenses




• T5 horn cast flat black




• Flat black wheels and fork




• New cables




• New Bulb (headlight)




• Handlebar cover flat black




• New seat bare metal and clear coated

Still to do:

• black cushion on race seat




• Clear tail light




• fit 180 kit to engine and remove pre lube

That $%$#@$ paint....

Who ever painted this scooter with that black paint needs a kick up the ass.

I retured home and started to get into the swing of it again. I had sanded the scooter back to smooth finish after many hours.

I decided to give it a good coat of primer and sand again. Well as soon as the primer toughd any remaining black paint it bubbled. What a night mare. It looks like a lot of work ahead.

I bought a stripping wheel for my grinder to get rid of some heavy bog on one side panel. This worked very well at taking EVERYTHING off. I was impressed the look of the bare steel so decided to test a patch on the body. Well lets just say it looks great. It is the look i want for this scooter. A rattle can job is a lot of work and sometimes looks like crap. I am planning on stripping this back to bare metal and clear coating it.

I tested the front legshield by taking it back to bare steel, each sectioni then rubbed back further with fine grit paper followed by a rub with 70% alcohol. I bought two cans of flat clear Rust-o-leum paint from my locll mitre ten. Rust-o-leum is a great paint from the USA that is a rust preventitive sealant like kill rust but better.

I am really amped that this will look great for next to no cost aside from a big investment of time. It is a crap job to get it right back metal but it can be done in patches and if ever in an accident repaired easily. I justy hope it looks as good as it did on the test patch.

It will also show how much metal these scooters have, they are modern but still a classic..

METAL!!!!!!!!!

Away but still dreaming.

School holidays had me put this aside for a week while i went up to Qld. While i was away i had some time to think about the direction i would like to take with this one.

As i have previously stated i am wanting to keep the overall costs and value of this bike to a minimum. I had been tossing around a rattle can paint job and cheap parts. I had some time to consider my options and decided to buy and try parts from, wait for it....... Vietnam.

I have a high disregard for the shite that is often produced from these places but as a frequent poster on the BBS i thought i would give Randals (SCOOTRS) exhausts a try. He has some good reviews from the Pommys about some of his stuff so i logged on and ordered up.

At this stage i have ordered the following:

Stainless Expansion chamber pipe (performance boost)

T5 horn casting (i broke a tab off the one on it when i removed it)

Battery strap (missing)

Stainless grips

Trunnions (for spares)

Air filter cover (missing)

Horncast badge (has thick black fence paint on it and wont be able to be recovered)

Legshield badge(missing)

Grey floor matt (prefer colour over black)

Grey glovebox rubber (see above)

Stand feet (missing)

Upgraded progressive shock/dampner sport (thought i would try a stiffer set up)

Clear indicator set (mine had two broken lenses and a housing - plus i like the modern look of "iced out" lights and indicators)

Orange bulbs for said indicators

Seat pin (missing)

As you can see there was quite a bit to order and while i was away i missed the old scooter so surfed a lot of sites. the bad news is that spent a bit of money and have these following orders also pending.

Saigon scooter centre - Two side panels (originals) and a sports seat, rear hub (original) stainless floor runner caps, and some legshield trim.

Scooter Parts Direct had a 30% off sale and i bought a DR 180cc kit and a malossi race clutch. My order went through their online system but i got no confirmation email. I revisited the site and they said they had closed down. Being an American parts supplier i am sure they will not charge my card without sending the stuff so we will see. I am super keen to bolt that kit on it, those DR kits are supposed to be bulletproof and fast. The DR kit was $199.00 usd less 30% so should be $140.oo or so. Nice!

Over all i am happy to try the Viet parts as i have always avoided them. This scoot is about going fast, looking good and costing nothing. I am happy to use this scooter to try some of this stuff and see if it is as good or as bad as they say. I really liked the sound of the pipe on the scootrs website.

http://scootrs.com/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=242

Cant wait to get back.................

Tuesday 6th- Its alive!!!

Well today was a good day.

After a rough start the last two days it was nice to have some success.

The battery was charged overnight, oh i forgot, Supa cheap is a long way from my house so i tried to buy some sulphuric acid to put in my battery, IMPOSSIBLE! I had to go all the way back there but they were good enough to give it to me without my receipt, saved me a trip home.

I spent the morning running a new gear cable and adjusting the shifter about, all good with fresh grease and a decent positive shifting feel.

I mucked around with the ignition barrel as the key was not with it. I wanted to to still use it as the electrics are all quite good and look to be hooked up correctly. I decide to pull the barrel and remove some of the pins out of the ignition barrel so it would be easy to pick but still require some knowledge of what you were doing. I did this and put the pins in a ziplock bag in case i want to get a key cut later. BTW i have learnt from prior experience and am putting all bolts and small parts in zip lock bags with labels!!!

After running errands for the missus i snuck out to the garage and hooked up the freshly charged battery. I pushed it up the drive and went around the corner switch her on with the fuel and oil (its autolube) and after a few chugs she fired up!! You cracker..

I did a few hot laps and must say I am impressed with the performance of the 125 at this stage. It isnt as quick as my smally 130 but its got some legs.

I spent the rest of the day removing parts and getting it ready to paint.

Some photos are from last night in the rain. This thing i think must have originally been red, then a bad white respray then a decent respray in Blue, nice royal blue before this brothel of a fence paint job. See pics to see what i mean.

Am currently think of a nice silver blue (Max wants it that colour).

At home - the can of worms opens...

Well it was raining like all hell on Saturday when i got it home. I couldnt be bothered getting her off the ute overnight. If someone wanted this ugly ducking and they could see the beauty in it they could have it if they were prepared to steal it.

On Sunday i got her off the back of the truck and gave her the once over. It was just as bad as yesterday but once i took a few of the more metrosexual items off it (top box) it started to look better.

I took a trip to supercheap and picked up a battery, came home and realised that the battery was empty, no fluid. Went to the store to get some distilled water but then realised this thing needs sulphuric acid. The things you learn from working on scooters.

Here are a few pics from Sunday after a little clean up.

Inspection and condition

Well after a long drive out to Cassells Marine I met with Dave. A top bloke who did his best to help me get her loaded up on the old F150. After a bit of man handling she was on the back and tied down tight. Dave asked if i wanted to just lay it over in the tray, by the condition of it it wouldnt have made much difference.

It was as described, painted black with a house brush and house paint, fence paint i think. It was thick and slapped around everywhere including the rubbers and compliance plate. It wasn't daves fault but the previous owner who was a neighbour. Dave bought it to do up but running your own business doesnt leave much time so he passed it on to me.

The kick start would only engage sometimes, thats a bad start but the compression was fairly good. The clutch worked but it felt like a cable was broken and would not go into neutral. Thebattery was gone and i had a feeling that when Dave said the neighbour had it going 18 months ago that perhaps his neighbour was having lend of him. We will see.

Did come with two helmets a top box , a raincoat, and some free marine carpet nicely donated by Dave. All in all i am happy but she really is ugly.

On the way home i was dreaming about drop bars and kitted top ends... ahh

New purchase - 1980 Vespa PX125

Well I just picked up this little gem. Quite a looker....

It is an Australian delivered 1980 Vespa PX125. Not my favourite scooter but i really liked my old Px and for the price will be a good one to ride to work. Hell if it turns out bad i could part it out for more than i paid. My cousin has also expressed interest in getting cheap scoot to ride to work, this ticks all the boxes.

So what did i pay? I put a maximum bid of $701.00 on ebay and was at the beach with my son at the time. I was using my iphone so tried to do my best with the slow upload times. Happy to say i snared it for $665.00. Bit of a bargain really. I edged out a few buyers most from interstate, guess the freight is not worth it for those people.