Fork it!
Given this was the first dry weekend in as long as I can remember, this was my chance to get out in the yard and address some paint spraying that’s been on the to-do list.

I had stripped down and thoroughly cleaned up the front fork assembly a couple of weeks ago after removing it from the bike. The majority of the fork either sits inside the body of the scoot, or is covered by the front fender. The lowest six inches or so that meets the front wheel hub is however exposed and had gotten rusty. The dry day gave me an opportunity to address this with some aluminum Rust-oleum spray paint. Again, kitchen foil and masking tape helped keep the paint of any area of the fork that didn’t need paint. In total the fork needed about three coats, with me alternately turning them over to paint both sides of the fork evenly.

Spraying the exposed section of the front fork.

The next step for the fork before re-assembly will be replacing the front brake cable which had frayed considerably where it met the front hub and so had had to be cut free when it was removed from the bike. While I have the fork free of the bike it makes sense to replace all the cables so I also have a speedometer cable on order and will replace that while I’m in there. Again, Richard Hoar’s excellent front assembly tutorial at VespaMaintenance.com has some tips on the best way to thread through new cables. We’ll see how this goes next session. For now, I can’t say I’m looking forward to re-threading new cables. Come to think of it, I’m not sure if replacing the speedo cable will require opening up the front hub. If it does, I might think twice about it although it wouldn’t hurt to get in there and take a look at the front brake shoes.

Big wheels keep on turnin’
Next up – tidying up the wheel rims. Both wheel rims are in reasonable shape but a re-spray with paint would make them look all the better. The spare-wheel rim is another matter. It had been been sprayed partially black in a former life, and all that time under the cowl has aged it with rust. I must remember when I put it back under there to give it a wipe down with oil before storing it.

I had originally planned on simply masking the tires and spraying the rims fully assembled. However, once I started attacking the rims with Comet and hot soapy water to removed the copious amounts of grease that had previously been applied to each wheel nut, it became clear that the only way I was going to get them thoroughly de-greased prior to painting was to remove them entirely.

Using the thin end of a small wrench I pushed the valve pins in to let out as much air out of the inner tube as possible and then removed the nuts and grip washers around the rims. Even with the inner tubes half-deflated, the pressure of the tire rubber pushed the two halves of the rims apart. Getting the rims of the tires was another matter however. No amount of pushing, pulling and levering the tires of with either a crow-bar or claw hammer would get the damn things loose.

Fortunately the Haynes manual has a handy trick. Place the wheel flat on the ground and then stand on the tire with your foot as close to the rim as possible. Gradually working your way around the wheel a few times, the pressure of your foot releases the tire from the rim until it pretty much pops free on it’s own. Then it’s a matter of rinse and repeat on the other side of the wheel.

The rusty spare wheel was another matter. Try as I might I couldn’t get the rubber tire loose. Eventually I realized that by raising the rim off the ground a few inches by placing it on a brick, I was able to clear more room to push down on the tire rubber. This was precarious but it worked, and eventually the rim came free.

To completely remove the deeper half of the two-part rim you need to thread the inner tube valve through the hole. Some more deflation of the inner tube freed up the room to do this. At this point, it’s just like dealing with bicycle inner tubes, so it’s all pretty straightforward.

I hadn’t originally planned on replacing either the tires or the inner tubes, but now that they’re off it seems to make sense to do so, so while this is more expense (tires are anywhere from $30 to $45,) at least I guarantee that when I re-assemble the wheels it’s the last time it’ll need to be done in a while. I don’t know the age of the current tires. They’re certainly not original to the bike and have some tread left but at least if I replace them I’ll know I have a fresh start. The inner tubes could be good to go back into the wheels but all the wrangling to get them loose could have caused a fine puncture and with new inner tubes costing $8 a piece, I get the peace of mind of putting in new ones cheaply.

The rims after cleaning but before painting.

With the rims completely removed and the nuts and washers bagged up for later reassembly it was a matter of going at them with a sponge and de-greaser to finally remove the last of the grease. When I re-assemble them I’ll need to add some fresh grease. With the wheels spending so much time near the ground, they’ll need some protection and while WD-40 or oil is cleaner, it won’t last. Grease will.

Once the rims were clean of grime, dirt and grease, painting them with the same aluminum spray I used for the fork was straightforward. I gave them about four coats in total, waiting ten to fifteen minutes between coats. With the spray that I had left I sprayed a little on the inside of some of the rims where there was some small amounts of rust in the hope that this will prevent the rust from spreading. In total, one large can of spray just about made it through all the rims and the front fork.

The rims after four coats.

Coat #5
Finally, it was time to turn my attention back to the body of the bike. After a wet sand with some 400 grit wet and dry paper I applied another thin coat of the Rust-oluem mix. Coat number 5. The coverage is looking really good and I’ve managed to avoid drips and runs so far by making sure that each time I apply a coat I squeeze almost all the paint off the roller in the tray before applying. I’m going to aim for 8 coats altogether, adding a coat a day for the next few days. This should mean that providing my current spare parts order of front fork bearings, grease and one or two other tings comes in by the end of the week, next weekend I should be done with painting and be able to re-assemble the front of the bike.

Five coats using the $50 paint job method. Looking good.

I should add that I haven’t currently put any paint on the bottom of the head-set. With the brake calipers, grips and switches, this component is so fussy as far as paint application is concerned I’m going to address it later. My plan is to re-assemble the front forks, cover my leg-shield with a bag or some other kind of mask and then paint the bottom of the head-set carefully with a brush with it in place before I reassemble the top of it. It just seemed too much hassle to keep swapping between the detail work of the headset and the relative ease of the body each painting session.

Until next time…

Work accomplished:

• Wheels disassembled and rims cleaned and painted.
• Front fork painted.
• Coat #5 on the body of the bike.

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