Puch VZ50 Restoration Thread - Sports Moped!

[lewis s]

I am currently restoring a Puch VZ50 that i bought a year ago, but things recently have ground to a halt, so i thought i would start a thread on here to give me some inspiration to get cracking on with it again!

At the moment the bike is in a lot of different pieces - the forks / front wheel assembly is painted and back together, the frame is in primer and the rear wheel / swingarm has yet to be started.

I have recently got all the chrome back from being replated, which was an absolute nightmare but i won't go into that here. I have also retrimmed the seat with a cover from a bargain company in Thailand!

I will post some photos up later and keep my progress updated on here. All words of encouragement much appreciated

ETA Pictures:

This is what i started with

Edited by lewis s on Tuesday 14th September 17:50

[lewis s]

Retrimmed seat:

[macdeb]

My first bike. Those were the days eh Not as fast as the fizzies of the day but far easier to wheelie [and keep up] funnily enough. Keep up the good work.

Edited by macdeb on Wednesday 15th September 13:45

[macp]

I think my mate had one of those and never let him down.Dont they have a twistgrip gearchange ?

[macdeb]

macp said:

I think my mate had one of those and never let him down.Dont they have a twistgrip gearchange ?

[macp]

macdeb said:

macp said:

I think my mate had one of those and never let him down.Dont they have a twistgrip gearchange ?

Heh heh thought so
We made a right pair with me on my Yellow 70cc bogseat.That Puch was a crackin bike though.

Edited by macp on Wednesday 15th September 23:31

[macdeb]

NeMiSiS said:

And pedals to get it going, and when it was going you would have one foot forward and one foot back, looking like a complete to55er.

Until you discover the coolness of using the rear pegs.

Or as I did [only 16 remeber] put an extra pedal on as there was room on brake side so two feet were together only I had to bring my foot of the 'forward' pedal and on to the backwards pedalling brake pedal in order to operate rear brake. Trying to look cool with a limited budget

[lewis s]

Ok i have finally got some pictures of the current progress. Here is the chrome that took 4 months to get back (long story



The front wheel assembly after a complete fork rebuild



Still to begin on the rear





I am still struggling to decide on the wheels though. They are in a pretty bad way cosmetically but strong with only surface rust, but i cannot get over spending £350 getting them rebuilt when the bike when finised will only be worth £700ish. What should i do?

Today i will be treating the frame to some paint, more pics to follow

[Vidal Baboon]

lewis s said:

I am still struggling to decide on the wheels though. They are in a pretty bad way cosmetically but strong with only surface rust, but i cannot get over spending £350 getting them rebuilt when the bike when finised will only be worth £700ish. What should i do?

Today i will be treating the frame to some paint, more pics to follow

Wire brush, hammerite. Job, Jobbed!

Or possibly look for a set of wheels from a C90 & custom fit them?

[lewis s]

Vidal Baboon said:

Wire brush, hammerite. Job, Jobbed!

This will probably be what i will end up doing. Anyways, this afternoon i have finished painting the frame. Seems to have come out well and i haven't got any runs in it. In case anybody is wondering, this is the first time i have ever done anything like this so is a bit of a learning curve. I am getting qquite good with the rattle cans now though

[lewis s]

Some progress from the weekend

[Biker's Nemesis]

It's best to hang things up while you spray.

The rear wheel, why not use wire wool and Autosol to clean the spokes and hub, it'll take a long time but it can be done, clean the rim with autosol only.

I've just started on my 1978 Fizzy, I'll start a new thread as I don't want to take yours off topic.

[podman]

Despite the bike being(at the moment..) only £700, if you have the money, id get the wheels done as well seeing as the rest of the restoration looks so nice...

Nice work anyway mate..

[lewis s]

Biker's Nemesis said:

It's best to hang things up while you spray.

The rear wheel, why not use wire wool and Autosol to clean the spokes and hub, it'll take a long time but it can be done, clean the rim with autosol only.

I've just started on my 1978 Fizzy, I'll start a new thread as I don't want to take yours off topic.

I have been hanging the rest of the parts, but since my 'spray booth' is an old shed i do'nt have much faith in the roof or my hooking mechanism. The frame has come out well anyways and managed to avoid any runs so i'm happy

[lewis s]

Today i decided to make good the center stand. Here it is before and you will notice the snapped off bit on the bottom left of the picture.



Here is the damage



The broken off tab and the new one that i made



Messy welding but its nice and strong (i welded from the other side as well). I have only been welding for a couple of months so don't be too harsh on me



All welded up and stripped back to bare metal



Red oxide undercoat



And a final coat with some stone chip protective paint.



Later on tonight i will begin removing all of the bits from the swingarm and try to remove the old bushes. The aim is to get it all ready for the weekend when my friend Jon will be helping me finish painting everything, and then we can start putting it back together!

[Hooli]

Your enjoying that ain't ya?

[lewis s]

Hooli said:

Your enjoying that ain't ya?

I'm enjoying having the thread to put progress on, its giving me a bit of incentive because i hadn't touched the bike for months previous to this.

[SpinningPlates]

lewis s said:

Hooli said:

Your enjoying that ain't ya?

I'm enjoying having the thread to put progress on, its giving me a bit of incentive because i hadn't touched the bike for months previous to this.

I found the exact same when I was doing a bit of resto to my bike, seeing your own progress just pushes you to do more.

[nsm3]

Not too relevant to this thread, but I had a Puch GP50 back in '76 (the orange one - I couldn't afford the JPS black/gold jobby) and if my memory serves me well, it didn't look too much different to your bike?

Brought a tear to me eye !

Edited by nsm3 on Wednesday 6th October 21:39

[Rob13]

Great resto thread. Cant wait to see the end product.

Are there any issues with the running gear?