So the Vespa restoration piggy bank has run dry and I am diverting monies from my other hobbies to attempt to keep things moving forward, but often throughout this project I have had to ask myself, "isn't there something I can be doing for the bike that doesn't cost money?" The first time I asked myself this I cleaned parts to be powder coated. The second time I created my final parts list and questions for restoration. This time, I have a new solution.
Why don't I clean my parts so when I am ready to reassemble the bike I can, without slowing down for cleaning . . . all I need is an old 5-gallon bucket and a recipe of some dang strong cleaning solution.
There are a few recipes you can use according to my mentors:
1) Kerosene
2) Paint thinner (not lacquer thinner, which is just too damn toxic). Paint thinner is great stuff. But stinky. And dangerous.
AND FINALLY THE ENVIRONMENTALLY CORRECT SOLUTION
3) Orange cleaner followed by Purple cleaner. Do NOT use Purple cleaner on aluminum as it will ATTACK itI like to consider myself "green" and will try to use the environmentally-friendly approach first.
I will contact my buddy with the bike at his shop and work with him to get this bath started.
Another thing I can do is get the front fork / hub assembled and then install the fork into the frame. I have some cash and can afford the ball-in-ring bearings (qty: 2) that will be needed for this job. Everything else I should have, I hope. I aim to get the part number for the bearings and go to my local SKF dealer within the next couple weeks.
I have a feeling that my nitro rc airplane (which I haven't bought yet and am stealing from its piggy bank) in now ticked at me.
Follow-up chats with Tom G.:
For the parts washer, I use a proprietary solvent I
found on mcmaster.com. Who knows what is in it?
But it leaves a residue, so I always spray parts down
after cleaning with brake cleaner.
Sometimes I just use gasoline to clean bits. It is
cheap (but smelly). Again, spray down with brake
cleaner afterwards.
Sounds like you really need to start putting the bike
together, my friend!
Description: Here is a lot of mostly GS 160 parts left over from my restoration a couple of years ago. The swingarm is highly polished and looks great. I had an aluminum spot weld done where the brake cam connects to the body of the arm and it is stronger than new and you would never know it was there. I have additional pics if needed. I rebuilt 3 shocks and this is one of them. The other is on my bike and has never had a problem for 2 years so hopefully this one will hold like new also. I want to sell this as a lot before I do single stuff on Ebay so ask questions and make me an offer for the whole thing. I also have a fork (Bead blasted) and other misc that I might add to the lot if I can locate it before shipping.