FInally The Time has come

So I finally got the flywheel puller in and I can split the cases. All i have to say is thank goodness for my printmaking degree. You might be confused so let me tell why I say that. I got the flywheel puller and ran into the garage like a giddy little school girl but to my dismay it didn't thread right in. The threads on the flywheel were all covered in dirt so I clean it out and it is a no go and it damages the first 2 threads on the flywheel puller. So i get all frustrated and look closer to see that the threads on the flywheel had been gnawed on by a beaver or someone had used a hammer and some medieval tool on this before and the metal had been bent in a bit as to cause damage to my brand new flywheel puller. Also the threads in some places were crushed together and in some places totally missing. So since I don't own a tap and die set that are 1.0 mil and almost an inch in width i had to call upon my printmaking skills. I went to my studio and grabbed my burin (an engravers tool, its what is used to carve the filigree and faces on our money, its made for detail line work) and carved the threads on the flywheel as well as the flywheel puller by using the previous traces of the threads as a pattern. And it went right in. Man that feels rewarding.


This is a burin. (Thanks to James Ehlers for teaching me to use one properly during my time back in undergrad.)



So I took off the flywheel and the magneto and split the cases what I found pleased me. Nothing majorly wrong as far as I can tell. There is some wear on the kickstart gear and on the shift cross (man I sound like I know what I am talking about). So I am most likely replace the kickstart gear and send the image of the shift cross to someone who could answer if I need to replace it. So here are some images from the cases being opened. The entire thing is now in its smallest parts possible and I am going to clean clean clean then replace what I need to and throw it all back together and cross my fingers, say a little prayer and see what happens.








Here is the wear on the kickstart gear.


Here is the wear on the shift cross.

Surfacer and Horncasting

Here is where the horncasting (the black thing) is going to go.




So here are some images after the hammering, the etch, and the body filler. This step in the painting process is the surfacer. It is a coat to help even out stuff i guess. So you can see all of the dents removed and PK is starting to look sharp. I have also epoxy painted the gas tank white with three little dots masked off to keep some of the original body color. The underside and engine cavity is all done in black. If you take a look at the last picture here and one of the first pictures posted of the condition of PK you can see some of the serious metal heating and beating that had to take place. Next step will be to spray PK with a sealer to harden everything and then comes color and clear coats. I am very excited and quite nervous.

i little bit of frustration never hurt anyone...except that dude you threw the chair at

So i have learned that PK is a real "special" Vespa and by "special" I mean NOTHING I BUY FITS THE DANG THING. I finally got the horncasting (the thing on the front that covers the horn) in after it has been on back order since what feels like my 3rd year of life (see picture below). My original intent was to make a custom horncasting but I figured since a pre-made one is under 20 bucks that is well worth my time and materials to make one that fits just right...The horn casting that is supposed to fit does not fit. So i had a good long talk with myself and said "Self, should you make one or modify this one?" So i am modifying the pre-made one and later if i want I will make a custom one and keep this as a spare. In all of my excitement I cut it a little short so I have had to come up with some custom creative solutions to my issues at hand. I swear I measured 8 times and cut once. I also finally got in the floor rail kit, which are the little rails where your feet go. When I got PK he only had 1/2 of one rail and their are supposed to be 6. The original one that I took off of him had a raised tongue sticking out of the bottom to fit the groove on the edges. That is why i took so much time in prefabricating that groove on the edges, because I assumed the floor rail kit would fit in that groove. Funny that the new floor rail kits that should fit PK are flat on the bottom...So i have to either rework the body (which is now so far along in paint i am not going to) or modify the floor rail kit. Grrr...


Me on the left and my sister Abbie on the right.

On a more positive note. I did finally get in the back ordered flywheel puller so I can start to split the cases and hopefully find out what is going on inside the motor.