Vespa Wheels

There are lots of reasons to love a Vespa...but the wheels aren't one of them.

My PX 125 is only 7 years old, and this is what the wheels look like

To make matters worse, the studs are welded in. This is basically a safety feature so that if a nut falls off, there is no loose bolt to come out. Problem is, these welded studs are soft like Silly Putty after a few years. So what to do? Well you can cut the stud off with an angle grinder and drill out the hole. Then what? It is difficult to source the weld studs, as they are no longer available from Piaggio. You could weld in a bolt. You could just use a loose bolt. Either solution isn't particularly aesthetically pleasing if you are replacing one broken stud.

* for those who don't get my Silly Putty reference

The reality is, from a time and money perspective, you are better off just buying a replacement wheel if a stud breaks, or living with the rust/do a spot repair when you inevitably find the wheels are super rusty. Original Factory Piaggio Wheels are only €29.00. Or you could spend some more and get 2.5" x 10" wheels and use wider tires. Or you could spend some more still and get one piece wheels which take tubeless tires.

Here's my issue with buying replacement factory wheels: the paint. I've seen enough wheels at the Vespa Cafe to know that in a few years they will be junk again. My solution? Grind off the factory paint and rust. Then I'll spray them with zinc primer and wheel paint.

Here you can see the drilled out weld stud. I'm not going to worry about tossing a bolt in there, as this will become the spare. Notice the deep pitting from rust.

Cleaning up rust

Firstly, got all the paint and rust off the exhaust

And started working on the wheels. Wow there is a lot of rust and pitting.

This is all simply being done with an angle grinder with various wire brush attachments. The plan is to paint the exhaust with temperature resistant paint. The wheels will get a home galvanizing with Dinitrol 443 95% Zinc Primer. Zinc spray is nasty stuff, so I'll make sure to wear the appropriate respiratory protection. Then they'll get a normal acrylic primer and wheel aluminum spray paint. The key is really cleaning all the rust out of the pitted metal.