1952 Vespa Allstate Restoration Blog

2008-02-22T09:25:00.001-08:00

Now that the side cover is fixed it can be tig welded to repair holes from previous owners. Then it will be primed like the rest of the body. Then it will all be hand sanded and primed again. This process is repeated until it looks as smooth as a babies bum. Then we Paint!!!!!! Hopefully soon this is over a year after I started.

2008-02-22T09:22:00.000-08:00

Once it was attached I realized that the 55year old aluminum was warped and bent in ways I hadn't noticed before. MOre metal bumping and reshaping until it finally fit and worked properly.

welding arms

2008-02-22T09:15:00.001-08:00

Making the arms to match the origionals was not too bad but welding them at the right angles was.

This was the hardest part

2008-02-22T09:11:00.000-08:00

I had to repair the side door from scratch as someone had broken off the two arms that allow the side cover to swing up. This was about a week of fabricating and fitting and swearing and finally succeeding.

2007-11-13T14:04:00.000-08:00

Back in the game

2007-11-13T14:01:00.000-08:00

Okay work is slowing down and my camera is fixed. Here's some shots of all the friggin sanding I've been doing. The steel has been made very straight and required little bondo but he 55yr old aluminum fender and side cowls were pretty mushy. They had to be bondoed more for reshaping and smoothing purposes.

update

2007-08-10T03:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry no updates. Camera is broken and I have been working non-stop since May. Will post when I get some time to work on bike.

2007-05-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

After doing all the hammer and dolly work a couple a very thin layers of filler are added to smooth out all the small ripples and imperfections.

2007-04-15T17:11:00.000-07:00

The frame is starting to look very nice.
I can't wait till it is painted!

2007-04-15T17:09:00.000-07:00

After we repaired the tears in the front
Vince showed me how to straighten it all out.

I can't belive I actually got it staright with the hammer and dolly

2007-04-15T17:07:00.000-07:00

Notice Vinces ride in the back. A fairlane with a racing engine.
It gets less than 2 miles per gallon. It cost him $20 to back it out of the garage(hahaha)
Notice the sweet paint job.

2007-04-15T17:02:00.000-07:00

The rear wheel well had a bad crack that repaired with two screws and a plate.
It was repaired and sealed.

That ugly lead patch on the floor was removed with a welding torch

which revealed a couple of holes and a tear. This whole side was damaged by a crash

as all the sheet metal is warped. Vince straightened it all out!

2007-04-15T17:01:00.000-07:00

Here are some close ups of the filled holes

2007-04-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

We started the body repairs and they decided to teach me a few things and let me do it myself.Awesome. Saves labour cost and I get to learn. Vince did all the hole filling with a brazing rod and then showed me how to file it all down.

2007-04-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

These are all the small bits after they have been etched. It's not primer like I thought it would be. It simply gets sprayed on and it burns the metal until it is sealed. Then the corrective work is done like dent removal, straightening and hole filling. The frame was worked on today and man is Vince ever freaking good. He straightened out the legsheild by finding a weak spot on the floor!. He pushed it around and whammo - the legsheild goes back to where it was pressed in the factory. Unreal.

2007-04-01T10:30:00.000-07:00

Evrything is sandblasted and ready for paint now.
Look how clean the seems are. no sign of rot anywhere.

2007-04-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

This was a pig of a job but the labour was free

2007-04-01T10:18:00.000-07:00

Well I gone back at it hard and this is by far the worse part so far. Trying to use paint stripper on such a weird curvy surface is super tough. The fumes nearly killed me. The metal is in awesome shape though.

2007-03-04T09:33:00.000-08:00

2007-03-04T09:27:00.000-08:00

This is what I have been busy doing in my spare time. That is a lot of pieces to bead blast. I don't have a huge compressor do I have to wait for it to recharge alot. It will be so worth it when it is all done though.

Things have been slow

2007-02-20T10:22:00.000-08:00

In case anyone has been stopping by lately I apologize for the lack of updates. I have been working away in the basement on small pieces. I only have the wheel hubs and the main body left. When the hubs are done I will bring it all in the body shop to start priming and repairs.
Photos coming then.

Cheers
Manuel

2007-01-30T11:20:00.000-08:00

Here is a nice shot of a restored 1951-1953 Allstate.

2007-01-30T09:03:00.000-08:00

Got this is the mail from England - absolutely priceless as far as tech info and parts diagrams.

2007-01-30T09:01:00.000-08:00

Just got an engine shroud in the mail from SCOMO - thanks Chelsea. Yes it says "old as shit" I think that might be the official part #

2007-01-12T15:13:00.000-08:00

It took about five hours to get this far on the rear luggage rack. And I didn't fill the house up with dust.