Practically Classics Forum

So - bare metal restoration, bulkhead repairs, new sills, body mountings - some repairs to the outer panels

Quite a bit to do but will make a fantastic car when finished - the owner is currently rebuilding the engine for it

Vespa gets put into polyester - then flatted back ready for paint

Painted in a two pack finish - just needs flatting & polishing sometime next week prior to collection - I doubt I will do another though as it very difficult for clients to understand just how much work goes into one of these - every outer panel was battered and the parts tend to be so small or of multiple compound curvature that they have to be prepared by hand and cant be machine prepped - once all the parts are hung they take up more space than a decent sized car and once painted you need a large space to lay them out whilst they are flatted / polished / collected - Meanwhile Mr Client thinks my scooter is about one sixth the size of a car therefore it should only be a couple of hundred quid to paint it - when in reality there is a good weeks worth of work

Meanwhile on the Jupiter restoration front - sill section removed and the bulkhead return panel patterned up prior to removal - note the cross bracing running through the cockpit - Body / chassis mounting bracket to be replaced and the leading edge of the floorpan requires repair - floorpan repaired & mounting bracket fitted - bulkhead return repair panel trailed for fit

With the mounting point fitted I could put the car up on stands but care is required although a strong chassis they do flex so an additional pair of stands is used under the centre of the car - bulkhead return repair welded in & dressed / cleaned back

The lower section of the A post is available as a repair section but this takes much fettling to obtain a good fit - all Jupiters were handbuilt cars hence no two are the same either - the sill box section attaches to the bulkhead return panel and to the rear frame of the car which are under the A & B post sections in order to provide torsional strength to the car - so next job was to remove the B post - which had seen no end of patches over the top of patches throughout the cars life

B post removal undertaken once I had taken lots of measurements / offsets etc - plus I also have the bracing to act as jig location - the B post will be salvaged with some repairs to the lower sections - rear body to chassis mounting point is also a subject of the scrap pile

Eventually getting to a starting point and ready for the new mounting to be spotwelded in - once done I can trim the sill box section and trail the fit - everything at this point will be clamped / clipped into place to allow for adjustment - with the sill in place I can form the A post repair over the sill section prior to drilling the holes into the base of the A post repair in order to locate the bottom door hinge - then I can relocate the B post / hang the door and see where we are for aperture fit (which are exceptionally poor on these) - the sill section dictates the door aperture width by joining the front & rear of the car hence it is critical at this point to get the aperture gapping correct before anything is welded up