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PHOTOS:
Steering Lock and keys

(26)

Wheels

(22)

Seats and luggage carrier

(23)

Taillight

(6)

Front fork

(35)

Handlebar

(10)

Body/Frame

(25)

Motor/Engine

(31)

Before and After

(7)
Wheels

1

 The wheels were a disaster. Fortunately an easy task to restore. You can see the original color, metallic green, but the rims have been painted in blue, black, and the last time, white.

2

 Man, it was really hard to separate the tires from the rims. Plenty of rust in the rims. Had to cut off one of the tires.

3

 The tires were completely worn. In one of the tires i could see the wires inside, another one had a tear of 15 cm! The idea was to replace the tires with new ones. Garbage with these...

4

 One detail I liked was the inner tubes, or as they say, the air chambers! They were red rubber, a rare thing today. For this reason, I will use them again. After a washing, just as new!

5

 As for tires, I bought three new ones. Back in 1951 the tires were completely black, but I like the white wall tires. I think it gives the Vespa a certain touch (bling bling). Three Continental 8x3.50 tires was bought in Germany (www.ebay.de) €150

6

 The rims were stripped. Blast is a technique where grains of sand, or tiny metal balls until grainy nutshell, that when hitting the object, it peels the paint or rust.

I love this technique because it is quick, only few minutes is needed, and leaves the object clean. I used metal spheres wich leaves small holes on the surface to tie the ink.

7

 Yet, it always remains paint or rust. I used my Dremmel with a small brush to clean the remaining paint/rust.

8

 As for the screws, I had to protect them with nuts before sandblast not to damage the threads. Unfortunately, I had to clean all the bolts or screws by hand, a total of 15 screws. The remaining nuts, i´ll buy new ones.

9

 Notice that the threads were a little dammaged. Easy to repair. The threads on the image was one of the best I've found in tne rims.

10

 To clean or rectify the threads, i used those tools, square for bolt, and round to the nuts. I have several models.

11

 Restoration of the threads. It´s quite easy, just screw the tool on the bolt and the threads are like new...

12

 As you can see, the threads are like new. You can also replace the original bolts, but welding and a lot od work is needed...

13

 Something i usually do is to round all the corners before painting, so the ink can cover the corners. See next image...

14

 As you can see in the picture, the corner of the plate is darker because it has almost no ink. Of course, over time the rust will appear in that corner that has little protection.

15

 Primer and filler painted.

16

 Removing the nickel from the screws using sandblast will not matter. The paint covered well and the nut will just screw around half of the bolt.

After the final painting, I´ll clean the threads and gonna use grease made of copper and aluminum that leaves no rust on the threads. For the washer and nuts, I´m gonna use stainless steel.

17

 Rims ready for final painting (not sanded yet). In this box, I will save all the pieces/parts that are going to be painted with the final color.

Don´t paint piece by piece, but all at the same time ...

18

 I've blasted all the nuts and washers for the rims. Cleaned the threads. Next thing will be the nickel plating.

19

 The brake shoes had worked really hard on the brake drums. There were deep grooves.

20

 I turned brake drums and got a good braking surface.

21

 The same applies to the brake shoes. They were cleaned and leveled for best break performance.

22

 Got some painted details to check the color. It was perfect. The original color is pretty neat. Could not ask for better results.