Another section repaired

Up and out there at 7.30 this morning, and straight onto the Off-side engine mounting point. I was worried about the noise i might be making, but soon reckoned that most neighbours would be grateful for the early morning wake up - They should be at work anyway.

Once again, that cheeky Vespa had me fooled. I thought this repair was going to be easier than the last, but sadly not. Once again its a double / triple skin area with loads of spot welds. I took a slightly different strategy with this side - Chop out the whole section and work from there. On the Nearside I'd left the original engine mounting hole in place (not wanting to lose its reference), but this offside was so rotten that I decided to make it all new. And I think this was definitely the best strategy even if it did mean making up 2 plates and filing out 2 lots of 3 holes plus a spreader washer.

You can see from the section picture that the two skins that are spot welded together at this point have been swollen apart by rust. The bit that Ive cut out is the majority of the rust, but as can be seen in the picture, Ive sawn through a rust patch... which means the other half of that rust patch is still in remaining chassis. Im not overly worried. The panel is swollen and it is breaking through a little - but its good enough. I have to keep reminding myself that this will never be perfect - and I keep taking inspiration from memories of roadside workshops in India where shoeless men squatted in the dust repairing and rebuilding vespas as a critical part of their transportation needs and culture. I am sure these guys werent worried about what some self-serving scooter show judge had to say about the authenticity of the renovation...... In fact this isnt a 'renovation' even..... its a 'Rustovation' :-)

Ive been using a 1.5mm cutting disc on my 115 dia angle grinder - works a treat. With a bit of careful forethought you can cut most things very acurately and easily, though of course there are some tight spots that a disc of that size simply cant reach. Im wondering if I should get a compressor and air tools for cutting - they seem to get into small gaps. My other brilliant tool at moment is my pistol-drill powered nibbler. Absolutely brilliant for a quick clean cut. Its not always easy to get access with the great big drill sticking out the side, and the accuracy needs a little practice, but when the circumstances are right, its perfect.

So both parts were welded in separately (Inside bit first) and with a bit of fine tuning (and I mean fine - micro-degrees of the knob on the welder) I am finding I can tack and run without blowing too many holes through the metal (invariably the original metal, and not the new). Getting your body in a comfortable position is half the battle to a good weld run. And finding that when the arc strikes and you've got sunlight reflecting inside your helmet, is a real pain in the ass. The weather has been glorious here so I am working outside (saves mess and risk of fire in the garage) but it does mean that the sweat is constantly dripping inside your helmet, however, the sunshine does motivate me as I dream of actually riding the scooter in this weather :-)

Once again I show a picture of the part welded in place. Not because its interesting or clever, but simply to remind myself that there is progress