2 scooters, 1 garage

Who out there thought we'd stick with just the one scooter?

Go on, admit it, you all thought we'd struggle to get the mighty Verucci Veneto up-and-running and would end up with her parts strewn all over the place, cutting a forlorn figure of her former glory, while we gave up and moved on to the next fix-it-thing.

Well, our blog wouldn't be so-named if we weren't a little skeptical of our own ability, but as we've made excellent progress so far, we decided to buy another one.Cheap scooters are hard to come by: first, running ones tend to be out of our budget (not such a big deal as we are trying to restore here); second, many are without a title (some are even without keys and have been "acquired"); and third, anything that's actually worth restoring isn't "for sale" for long and tends to also be out of our budget. Did I mention we were looking for really cheap scooters?

Jason found a post on Craigslist advertising a working Yamaha Qingqi for $250, with title and all. The guy was getting rid of it because it wouldn't go fast enough and needed to reliably get to work. Slow and unreliable - exactly what we're looking for.

We rocked up to his place and, having just got out of bed it seemed, he showed us what he was selling: a pale-blue, slightly-scratched-and-cracked-but-working Verucci Qingqi with a step-through frame. Wait! It's not a Yamaha, but... a Verucci? Perfect.

He pulled out a handful of papers ranging from the bill of sale to the user manual, but unfortunately there was no title. (note to those reading who are thinking of selling their scooters: hand-written piece of paper with the VIN <> title)

Despite that, we knocked him down in price a few bucks and went on our merry way. Once home, we put in some fresh fuel, gave her a kick or two, and she purred into life. Well, I say purred, but this one's a 2-stroke.

Check out the pics:

Financial Update

I know you've all been waiting for this, and who could blame you. Keeping track of the money is probably the most exciting part of the project. I mean, it's far more fun than getting to ride the scooter, you just fixed, for the first time. Right?

Well, probably not but here it is anyway.

There's still plenty of work to be done, but I'm happy with our expenses so far.

Thanks for reading!

-Jason

She’s a runner!

Well folks, we recently had a very exciting day. When we got the scooter, the chain wasn’t included. Fortunately, the guys at Barney’s Motorcycle & Marine were able to get us the correct chain based on the size of the front sprocket. They actually opened up a couple of chains to make sure we got the right one. Turns out it was a 428-120L. It was just 2 links too long so we used the chain breaker we just purchased to pop out a couple of pins. After that, we were able to fit the master link. At this point, though, we still weren’t ready to ride. We still needed to fit the sprocket bracket for which we’d been so patiently waiting. It always amazes me how a little $2 piece of metal is all it takes to keep you off the road. Anyway, here’s what it looks like installed:Thanks to this little beauty, the chain will stay on. Once the chain and bracket were installed, it was time to put the exhaust back on. I have to say, I’m really please with the way it looks.
With that, we were off. James was kind enough to let me take it for the first spin. It was glorious! I can’t describe the feeling of accomplishment we had at taking something that hadn’t functioned in 2 years and getting it back on the road.
After my quick spin, it was time for James to have a go. Unfortunately, we were so excited, we didn’t notice that the inner tube in the rear tire and almost completely given out.
Once we put some more air in the tires, James was able to take it for another ride, before the tire when completely flat. It was great day and it mades all the hard work well worth while.

Thanks for reading!
-Jason

The long pole in the tent: building our paint booth

Have you ever seen a "portable" gazebo tumbling over and over propelled by a mild breeze in a park or at the beach causing havoc as people try to avoid being speared by its flimsy pole legs?

That's the look I'm hoping for when I eventually take my not-bought-for-the-scooter-project-at-all-darling gazebo to said park or beach.

For now, though, with some plastic sheets to fill in the sides, it'll be used as a makeshift paint booth to turn our faded, flaky scooter body into a gem.

I picked up the cheapest gazebo I could find at Target and we started assembling it inside the garage.

If you've ever erected (stop sniggering) a tent, you'll find this gazebo a breeze to put up. There are approximately 500 million pieces to it, but they all fit together logically.

Our biggest problem was the sheer size of it (that's what she said). Fully erec... umm, assembled, it's 8.5' tall (at the peak) and 10x10' square. Plenty of room to maneuver inside, but it won't fit in the garage.

We shuffled it out the garage door until it was sort of half-in-half-out, then set about taping the world's thinnest plastic drop sheets to the "tent pole" legs.

Fortunately, last Saturday was a hot, humid, windless day, so we taped one side of our booth without any trouble. Unfortunately, 30 seconds later a butterfly flew past and apparently farted (it's the only explanation I have), causing the entire sheet to billow out like a sail and peel off our pathetic attempts at taping.

Having built the workbench at the start of this project, we luckily had some 2x4 off-cuts, so set about using them as weights to keep the sheet pinned down as best we could, before quickly putting up the other sides in a vain attempt to block the butterfly farts. It worked well enough for us to hang the exhaust and give that a second coat, but soon fell apart.

Not wanting to experience "death by tumbling gazebo" just yet, we simply moved on to other project tasks. If at first you don't succeed... give up, is my rule.

Actually, our plan is to remove 4 of the 500 million pieces from the legs to lower it sufficiently, so it will fit in the garage. Then we'll try putting the sheets up again and hope for the best.

We'll see...

Working with Fiberglass is HARD!

The first step was to prepare our work area. We laid out the pieces we intended to repair, the Bondo brand fiberglass resin and hardener, and some fiberglass cloth. We then cut some strips of fiberglass cloth to the lengths we needed. After putting on our masks and gloves, we began mixing the resin and hardener. From the directions on the can of resin, we figured about 12 drops of hardener to 1/8 cup of resin. Once mixed, we began dipping the strips of cloth into the resin. Once a piece had been saturated, we placed the strip over the crack on the non-visible side of the body panel. Using a small paint brush, we smoothed out the strip and added or removed resin as necessary. Once the resin/cloth combination set, the repair was hard as a rock.

Wow, that sounded pretty simple, right? Well guess what, it was just about the most frustrating process I’ve ever been a part of. First off, this stuff is messy. The resin gets all over your gloves and will stick to anything you touch. This isn’t too much of a problem, unless you’re trying not to get it on a piece you weren’t intending to paint. “Ugh! It looks like we’re going to need to put a sticker over that piece.”

Another frustration is that it takes just as long for the resin to harden on the piece you’re working with as it takes for the rest of the resin you mixed to become hard as a rock in the container where you mixed it. Don’t even think about working with this stuff if you don’t have a way to hold the cracked body panel in position while you move on to your other pieces. If possible, I would recommend tacking things together using some sort of super glue and then laying the fiber glass over that. This is especially true when trying to fix a price that’s broken completely off. Use the glue to get the piece in place then use the fiberglass to give it some strength and structure.

All in all, I’d call it a successful first try. However, we did learn a few things:
1. Preparation is IMPORTANT. We thought we were prepared, we weren’t.
2. You have to work quickly and efficiently. Plan out every move you’re going to make or the resin will harden before you’re done and you’ll have to mix more.
3. Make sure would work area is big enough. You don’t want this stuff getting on tools, the floor, your work bench, etc…
4. If possible, fix the cracks with some kind of glue first and use the fiberglass to add structure.

Of everything we learned through this experience, this is the most important thing, “Working with fiberglass is not the same as working with glue.” Get your pieces attached first and get your cracks glued together before you even open the can of resin. Trust me; it’ll save you a lot of headache! The happy ending is that the repairs are super strong and are going to hold up really well.

Thanks for reading!
-Jason