The SS Minnow - Vespa PX200E

[Nick Jones]

2 hours ago, GT6MK3 said:

I reckon almost all of that also applies to 1960' and 1970's Triumphs, no matter what we do to make them more reliable.  The Sideways' alumni are an equally giving bunch!

Yup….. There have been some fairly heroic roadside repairs on 10CRs. TR6 clutch swap in a lay-by for example. And I handed out three sets of plugs on one event to suffering PI owners in the mountains. In case anyone is wondering why I was even carrying 3 sets….. me too. I thought I’d brought one. The others turned up stashed in the hood bin when I was looking for something else. You can get a lot of spares in Vitesse hood bin.

1 hour ago, GT6MK3 said:

If you're ever in this situation, with mostly liquid rubber based glue still wet and just starting to cook off, and the whole cylinder sealed off ready for testing, I highly recommend you don't get curious about whether the cylinder is at TDC or BDC and turn it over with the flywheel. If you do, expect to hear a pop and a hiss, and see a dribble of sealant running down the outside of the reed housing...  This will be followed by the sound of you cursing (ahem) yourself.

Ah…..   some of this then  

[PeteStupps]

1 hour ago, GT6MK3 said:

If you're ever in this situation, with mostly liquid rubber based glue still wet and just starting to cook off, and the whole cylinder sealed off ready for testing, I highly recommend you don't get curious about whether the cylinder is at TDC or BDC and turn it over with the flywheel. If you do, expect to hear a pop and a hiss, and see a dribble of sealant running down the outside of the reed housing... 

Oops!

Edited August 13, 2021 by PeteStupps

[GT6MK3]

Lockdown in winter isn't very conducive to wanting to play with spanners outside, but springtime and daylight savings have finally hit, so I headed outside for a weak top up of vitamin D.

The Minnow needs some work before she gets her heart transplant, the very least of which is a wash or two.

Wash #1 was comprehensive, and mostly effective

And when dry, a bit of a stripdown commenced.

Before we create, first we must destroy.

[GT6MK3]

I'd been meaning to weld up a tricycle frame as an engine replacement dolly, but haven't been able to get out to buy steel,  so I knocked one up out of some wood and wheels I had lying around.  That let me cut some cables and whip out the old engine.

With that done I was able to clean down and start inspecting the frame prior to transplant.

 

There is a point where you think "I may be going a bit far"...

 

And there is a point where you absolutely know you have.

Poor old girl.

But, she's about to get shoved along by a _lot_ more horsepower than she was originally designed for, so prudence demands some inspection and rectification.

Point in case.

This

and this

That's where the stand bolts to the frame, and there are broken spot welds in the join of the spine to the floor, and creases appearing in the floor.   Not good for a pressed steel unibody.

The beginnings of these were there when I got it, and it's been exacerbated by putting on a sidestand.  Time to fix it before it needs really major work.

I hammer and dollied everything back into line, and at that point could simply have welded it back up, but that would always have gone bad in short order.  So I waited.

Lockdown has been pretty harsh, and I couldn't get far enough out of town to go to an industrial are to get sheet metal.  I also didn't want to mig the repairs, 'cos I knew the abused almost 40 year old legshield would probably just blow out. Luckily for me (but unluckily for him), my buddy who runs the metalwork shop (genuinely!) needed me onsite to set up his remote security camera access after an internet provider change.  I don't think he was happy to see another Vespa wheeled through his door, but the barter system still works well. 

With his cameras live again, I was able to find a spare worktable.  I short time I had the under side of the legshield ground clean, and a suitable piece of reinforcing sheet measured, cut, notched, joggled on either side,  and ready to reinforce the underside of the legshield between both brace bars.  By joggling the leading and trailing edge, I was able to have it ready to be puddle welded hard up against both braces and the underside of the floor.

Primed and ready to drill and weld.

As I said, I could have mig'd the welds, but the legshields are from the early 80's, and have had a hard life, so Mat Tig'd them for me.  

There was a lot of swearing, but no blow throughs on the legshield side, and the couple of runaways were all captured on the side no one will ever see.  Nice to have talented friends.  Even nicer to be able to legally visit them.

Much like the Minnow itself, the results aren't pretty, but they are effective

Time for some grinding and some SikaFlex

 

[Nick Jones]

Good to see the OCD saving your ass in advance and the mates network paying off once again 

And also that you are managing to fit in just a little “playtime”!

[GT6MK3]

No one will ever see it.  But, ground where necessary, seam sealed, primed and 2 coats of colour matched  paint (rattle can, I'm not going overboard!).

Then today's job, where this drum brake fork got ready for a new life

For which it's been stripped, but is still in need of a serious cleanup.

[GT6MK3]

Fork, Cleaned, sanded, masked, primed painted.

Body surface rust treated on one side

And the other

Currently tossing up if I sand and paint the affected areas, or just hit them with rust protection and let her wear her scars.  She's no beauty queen, more of a work truck than anything, so battle scars on show are currently the more likely than not.

[Nick Jones]

I’d say paint , but without any concours intent!

[thebrookster]

1 hour ago, Nick Jones said:

I’d say paint , but without any concours intent!

Errrmmmm, have you forgotten who you are talking too, Nick?

As soon as Craig starts painting, he'll decide that something doesn't look good and before you know it he's completed a concours paintjob!

Let her wear her scars Craig. Failing that, give in and make it concours!!

[GT6MK3]

After a bit of thought, and a close inspection, I decided that (a)the paint was going to quickly disintegrate where there are fresh welds on the other side, (b), trying to keep bare metal patches on the running boards rust protected will be tricky, especially under the floor strips when they go back on,  and (c), she's already had 3 different whites in various places from previous owners, so what's one more.

So out with the dremel to knock down he welds, then the orbital sander to knock the affected paint off.  

After a wipe down with thinners to get some tack, out came the masking tape and film.

Out with the rattle cans, and on went 3 light coats of primer, and 3 of enamel.

I've done much better paint jobs, but the speed of this one was satisfying enough to quell the urge to go all concours.  She's still got plenty of dings and scrapes, but the danger zones are repaired and protected, so that'll do.  The rattle can from the local hardware store was even a reasonable match.

[John I]

Can’t even see the join

[Mark]

Looks good. Does the job. I used rattle can red primer on a new rear wing and inner arch on my mk2 gt6 as a temporary measure. Been parked out on the road and used in all weather's since,  that was 10 years ago, very surprised, but no signs of rust.

[Nick Jones]

2 hours ago, GT6MK3 said:

I've done much better paint jobs, but the speed of this one was satisfying enough to quell the urge to go all concours.

Your self-control is impressive (or the urge to ride is strong!) 

Looks fine too.

[GT6MK3]

I think we can all agree that having cleaned up the top of the floor, my OCD wasn't about to let me off that easy knowing what was on the other side.

So I had to peek.

 

Yurgh.  I already struggle to sleep at night, this would have been the end.  So various nuclear options were deployed.

Till a state of of clean this bike has never seen was achieved.

Which led (of course) to this

And (it was inevitable), to this

It's a pug-ugly paint job, but it everything important has been rust treated and properly protected, and that's what really counts.

Let the dopamine flow...

[Nick Jones]

10 minutes ago, GT6MK3 said:

Let the dopamine flow...

Sleep well 

[GT6MK3]

I've got a pet hate about riders leaving their indicators flashing after corners, and I'm regularly guilty of it, so I wanted to include some self cancelling smarts for this build.  Problem is that every solution available needs momentary switched, not the clunky 80's rocker the bike came with.

So a little brushing up on my Solidworks was in order

Then a little resin got exposed to UV light

and voila, a reasonably nice prototype.

[GT6MK3]

Phew, there’s 6 hours I’m never getting back.

[Nick Jones]

 Slide-in rubber strips….. just slide ‘em in…….. right? Errr, no, not quite!

Looks good - now get that new power plant in there. 

[GT6MK3]

The loom in the Minnow was designed and delivered before Apple released the original Macintosh, and shortly before The Boss unleashed "Born in the USA" on the world.  You can do more efficient things moving electrons around a moving vehicle these days.

So out it came.

Which I instantly regretted.  Fair to say it's taken some work to map it out.

p

 

Out with the old, time to plan the new.

 

[Nick Jones]

1 hour ago, GT6MK3 said:

Which I instantly regretted. 

Yeah…… are you mad? Do you enjoy pain? 

[GT6MK3]

29 minutes ago, Nick Jones said:

Yeah…… are you mad? Do you enjoy pain? 

Hello Pot.  This is Kettle…

[Mark]

Any thoughts about integrating sensor alarm/immobilser deep within the loom? Probably me being paranoid.

[Nick Jones]

4 hours ago, GT6MK3 said:

Hello Pot.  This is Kettle…

Guilty m’lord…….

[GT6MK3]

There are some interesting options out there for adding smarts like self cancelling indicators, auto brake lights under heavy deceleration, and other more complex electrics.

A company called Smart Turn Systems had a number of offerings in this field.  Unfortunately they pretty much went south during the pandemic, although they have bobbed up under another name having  gone through a classic corporate post crash phoenix.  Their offerings are reasonably well priced, and don't take a total re-wire to install.  They're the logical choice for a build like this one, and don't need much work to graft into the existing loom.

At the other end of the scale is the Motogadget M-unit and M-unit Blue.  The M-unit replaces all the relays and fuses, and allows you to run a digital controller over all the electrics.  It adds an alarm, auxiliary in and outputs, and a horn and starter relay.  The Bluetooth version also adds keyless go, trip recording, and control over the systems from your smartphone.

I'm deleting the starter motor on this bike (too much compression), have no room for a horn, and want to keep the key so the steering lock keeps working.  The M-unit or the M-unit Blue would therefore be total expensive overkill, require a total re-wire of a loom that need to keep its almost 40 year connectors due to packaging constraints, and add complexity adapting it to work with a CDI type ignition.

So, of course, I'm going with the M-unit Blue...

There's hoops to jump through before this can go in, the first of which is getting the push button switches for the controls to a standard I'm happy with.

After a few proto runs, I'm getting there with the Horn/Lights/Kill side

Next up is to print and finish the indicator side, which has had more revisions done, and is also ready to control the new speedo.

While thats in the printer, I'm going to start doing the impossible with the loom and connectors.

 

[John I]

5 minutes ago, GT6MK3 said:

 

So, of course, I'm going with the M-unit Blue....

.

 

So you really are a glutton for punishment