Anoraks vs. Soul Builders vs. Kitters

The way I see there are three types of restorers and we all fall somewhere along a continuum with Anoraks at one end and Kitters at the other end with the Soul Builders somewhere towards the center. I am no Anorak -- not because of a lack of dedication or interests, but because of a lack of money for the most part. I am not a Kitter, because I believe in the "soul" of the bike. I guess that makes me a Soul Builder? I restored my wife's 1967 Vespa SS180 from the ground up. It has only one modern item -- PX HT Coil. I rebuilt the shocks for God's sake. The colors are not true per an Anorak, but exactly what my wife wanted. I left the speedo completely original to honor the history of the bike -- the soul if you will. There are two holes in the leg shield, I jokingly said were for a gun rack on the farm, and those were accidently not filled when the body work was done. So I chalked the lesson up and convinced myself, that's part of the soul of that scoot. Now I am not saying our mistakes in restore can be called "soul capturing," but I can understand how and why restorers leave the body as-is with original paint and a ding here and there. The patina, if you will, tells the history of the bike and honors the "soul" of the scoot. I get that and see that argument. Plus, fully originally is more desirable and valuable. To be honest if I did not buy my scoot in pieces and if assembled as-is it would not be three different colors, I would skip painting it and honor the original bike. Unfortunately, that is not what I bought. If I had, it would save me thousands of dollars in my restore and produce I more desirable scooter than I will have in the end.

So where is post going? Per my previous Vapor Blast post, I was really pissed about the ground down area (not chipped after all) on the NOS chain case I bought. I couldn't just get over it. It does not look good and it was a bad financial investment as well. So I wrote Gene M, who I bought it from. I "HIGHLY" respect Gene and all of my mentors do too. He is knowledgable and shares his knowledge freely. He helps so many of us. He is honest and trustworthy and all around a good guy that I will continue to do business with on my Vespa and Lambretta.

With that said, I wrote him and asked if the wrong chain case had been shipped to me by accident, because my case had a chip on it and I expected it to be cleaner as an NOS case and he knew that I was going to vapor blast it as well.

His response was insightful for all NOS parts:

"We only had 1 NOS Chaincase cover - which is the one you got. In the 25 years I have owned and been working and selling parts and scooters I have never seen another.

NOS means, New Old Stock. So it is an original, unused stock item. That means it has had 30 years of sitting around on a shelf. Even back in the 60s when they were making these things new, they were never treated in such away as to prevent minor blemishes and chips. They were literally just stacked on top of each other - I've seen videos where the complete engines were piled on top of each other in the factory waiting for install into the frames.

Check out the movie "Mafioso" - the first 5 mins shows a man walking through the Innocenti factory while they are assembling the scooters - it's a real eye opener.

We tried to take the best possible pic of the cover as well, if you look at the original pic, versus the nice vapor blasted cover now you can see it looks miles better now, originally it was a bit scuffed.

Check out that movie though - it’s a good mafia movie as well but the factory images are amazing!"

So what does this mean for my Lammy? It means, this case is here to stay at least for now. It's cool that it will sport an NOS case and if the blemishes took place in the Innocenti Factory, then am I honoring the "soul" of the bike am some way?

Replace kick start shaft

For the past year or two I have looked for the original kickstart shaft. Mine was welded on my engine. I have the early Li style -- aka the weak one. After hunting and hunting I found one.Mike in Portland, Oregon sold me his. The teeth look good, but I do notice some difference and wonder if that could be a problem or not? For example in the photo below -- my original is on the left. The one I bought looks like it was ground down and is missing the lip. Is that a problem?
Here's another view of the ground down area.

When you look at that area closely, you can see that the lathe left perfect circles in my mine a then with use, I assume that mine was worn down on half of the area.

As you can see the teeth are much better on the replacement kickstart shaft, but when you look very closely at the geared area you can see very subtle differences as if these were not cast from the same mold.
Continuing with the idea of different molds for the casts notice the difference in thickness of the bases pictured below and the overall slopes of the raised areas. Could this mean these are different shafts? The measurements are almost dead even and the later type Li and the GP styles measure totally different as per Stickey's Manual.
Looking at the two side-by-side you can see differences.
I will ask my mentors to make sure I did not buy the wrong kickstart shaft.

Follow-up:

My mentor Mike said:
"The replacement kick start shaft will be fine. Remember to replace the locating pin on the plunger when you install it in the new case. Make sure all is clean and well greased.

The grinding is so the shaft doesn't rub on the clutch basket. This happens when the bushings work their way in to the motor,an incorrectly shimmed clutch or an incorrectly shimmed kickstart shaft. By grinding it, it gives the motor a little bit of room for error when things wear out. Don't over grind because it will weaken it.

As long as the dimensional measurements are the same on the kick shaft you are OK."

Vapor blasting

If you are having trouble viewing the above slideshow or to see the slideshow in a larger format watch it on YouTube.

Individual photos can be seen here in a large format thank you to Peter.

Today, I received photos from Peter of ModsRockers. Peter provided quality service throughout the entire process -- even so much as to create a gift certificate when my parents gave me the birthday gift to fund this vapor blast project.

(

I started this process off with two chain cases to choose from.

The first chain case (slides 2-3) had a crack that was recommended to be repaired using JB Weld by mentor Stu W. Peter's response was: "I did some light work on your primary cover crack today and just wanted to let you know what to expect. That is a really bad crack and although I can jb weld it from the inside to prevent any leaking, you will always be able to see it from the outside. I knocked the rift down quick and vapor blasted the crack to give a better perspective as to what it will look lime when it's done. Please remember that I would still need to finish sand it but that will have no bearing on the cracks look when it's all done. I've attached a before and after picture for reference.

Now I'm not going to tell you what to do but I just want to know that you will be happy with it when it's all done. I could get it welded up for you by my super welder buddy but that's risky because if the alloy is of a low quality it will get all funky from the heat and not look any better. Not to mention the cost which would probably fair between $30 and $50.
It's your bike so just let me know before going forward. Thanks! Peter"

The second case (slides 4-5) has a chip/ding. I reached out to my mentor Mike A. and he told me "I was able to look at the first photo on the part 2 email. The kicker stop is damaged and should be repaired or replaced. Why not have it welded? I have had a couple of case covers that cracked there. It happens when the front sprocket comes loose or was not tightened correctly when the cover was installed."

At this point, I decided to spend $50-$70 for a new chain case in better shape -- worthy of being vapor blasted. My research showed that used cases can go for as much as $100 in good shape and they are not as easy to find as I expected. A fellow LCUSA member was willing to sell me a case, but he was hesitant to split a complete engine. I eventually found a NOS chain case at Scooters Origanli and paid $100 for it. I shipped it directly to Peter (save shipping costs and time) and in the photo it looked so clean. I had Gene confirm it was NOS and again Peter confirmed it. What I failed to ask is if it was worthy for vapor blasting. Sadly, in my opinion, it was not. If I had known I would have purchased a used one that would have cleaned up better and probably saved some money and the fact that every time I see my case (even in a photo) I get pissed off, because I screwed my chance to have near perfection, which is my goal for a restoration. Damnit!! Hell, it would even been better to have known and welded it. At this point I feel like I have to settle for imperfection, because I have a modest budget and can't correct my mistakes. I can't afford to make and correct mistakes. It will cost another $50-100 for a decent case, $30 to blast, and $20 to ship. No one is going to pay $130 for my case if I tried to sell it. I lost money on this one. Damnit!! Please learn from my mistake. I thought NOS meant it would be clean. I thought it was clean. Ask. Ask for details before you pay. Avoid feeling pissed off and sad like I do. I don't want to look at my bike and have this feeling when I see the case chip.

My mentor Mike agreed with me:
"The thing I have found with vapor blasting is the better the surface the better the end result will be.

I would have had that case cover welded first but that's the way it goes. Too bad the marks are where they are. There is no hiding them unless you run an expansion chamber."

Peter said that the blemishes will be hidden, which helps a little, and informed me they may feel wet when I receive them:
"It definitely looks a bunch better now than when it arrived. The blemishes are all pretty hidden so you wont really see it. Parts will be greasy to the touch but they will dry out over time and brighten up again. If they are not completely dry when you fire it up the first time, they will be after a few minutes so don't worry about it. Enjoy!"

Without a doubt the product that Peter sells is high quality and many other restorers agree with that and furthermore his service was excellent and advice was helpful. He was very hands-on. Beyond vapor blasting he treats the parts with a clear coat that helps keep it clean looking for a long time after use. I recommend using ModsRockers and wish it was available when I had my wife's SS180 engine rebuilt.