The Vespa Crash Project III (4/28/2010)

My parts came in, or should I say just enough parts to assemble the scooter and make it test rideable. I have the #1 most important part; a straight handlebar. Now we can bolt up the cylinders, replace the brake levers, re-route the wiring and --- OH NO --- I was sent the wrong starter button!

No matter. Keep going. The ECU code lamp is behaving correctly, but still no starter switch. The seat latch switch is similar, so I removed it and tried it on the starter button connector. No luck.

So (don't try this at home) I ran a 12 gauge wire from the battery to the starter and --- yeah baby --- it fired right up. Of course this is not a permanent solution, but at this stage of the repair, we are simply trying to get the scoot running and make sure the frame/fork/etc isn't bent. If it passes the test ride, which may actually happen tomorrow, the fixing will continue.

The Vespa Crash Project II (4/15/2010)

This section is about how to straighten steel and then make it fit to malformed plastic. The upper leg shield on this Vespa GT was crushed on both sides. A plastic glovebox/radiator housing screws into the leg shield with sheet metal screws and u-nuts. The sheet metal body and the plastic glovebox are mated to a chrome-looking bit of plastic edge trim. The chrome leg shield trim acts more or less like a gasket, so if the steel leg shield OR the plastic glovebox/radiator housing are mis-shapened, there will be unsightly gaps and assembly and disassembly of the scooter will be a struggle at best.

As you can see, I am using special visegrips to force the plastic glovebox to mate with the steel body. It cannot be seen in the photos, but there are cracks in the paint of the plastic glovebox/radiator shield that indicate stress, prior to disassembly. I straightened the steel first, mating it to the plastic glovebox/radiator part and I had to judiciously decide if the steel required additional work or if the plastic needed reshaping. If this project (the budget) could afford new plastic parts, we could have placed a virgin plastic part over the steel parts and made a decision about the reshaping of the steel parts, but this is not an option in this case.

We will reshapen the steel first, fit the plastic parts to mate with clamps and a heat gun if necessary, tweak, pound, tap, adjust and refit the parts several times until the steel and plastic parts assemble and disassemble nicely. Then we will do body work to the steel parts, regluing broken off bits and refitting the plastic parts and repainting as needed. You will quickly understand why this repairable scooter was TOTALLED. No sensible evaluation of this scooter's value (about $2,500) and the time and money required to save it from the salvage yard would make economic sense.

I am talented, unemployed and I need something to do with my time. So the scooter will live.