Vespa PX125 (Large Frame) Electric Conversion.

Dui said:
Great build, lots of very nice work!
I absolutely love the paint booth idea, it's brilliant. I'll buy one right away!

Thanks. They are not very sturdy, but set up inside like I do, they are fine for this purpose.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P2854X8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
JimVonBaden said:
I added another internal crossbrace, drilled and plug welded, plus perimeter welded. Then I boxed in both ends. It weighs 28 pounds. If this isn't strong enough, nothing is.

whuuut? :shock: :shock: :shock:
Are you sure it's right? That would mean that your swingarm is heavier than the entire frame of my motorbike?!?
That sounds crazy.
 
Dui said:
JimVonBaden said:
I added another internal crossbrace, drilled and plug welded, plus perimeter welded. Then I boxed in both ends. It weighs 28 pounds. If this isn't strong enough, nothing is.

whuuut? :shock: :shock: :shock:
Are you sure it's right? That would mean that your swingarm is heavier than the entire frame of my motorbike?!?
That sounds crazy.

Yup. My whole bike will weigh about 220 pounds. (Guessing)
 
OK, got a lot of the fun stuff done today. First cleaned and tacked off the pieces getting primed.







Then sanded all the parts going green, cleaned, cleaned again, tacked them, and returned them to the booth for paint. 4 coats of paint over the next 45 minutes and I was done.









They came out very nice. Good coverage, nice shine. I will leave them overnight, then bring in the body, which will get painted white. I am still sanding on it in the other room in prep.

Oh yeah, painted with single stage acrylic enamel and a Harbor Freight $15 paint gun.
 
Pulled all the green parts into the workshop to make room for the white body paint.



Pretty green in the sun.



Put on four coats of white paint. It came out OK, but there are some spots I hope I can buff out.

Painted the swingarm white too.



The body has a nice shine.






Got everything cleaned up and was about to take down the tent/booth, when I realized I missed the speedo surround. :oops:

Back out with the gun and mixed up some more green.

 
Thanks guys!

I started assembly today. First I needed to replace the broken headlight with a new LED. The LED fit perfectly in the housing of the old headlight, with a slight trim. I fixed them together with JB Weld. Then rewired the stock switches and installed the handlebars and speedo, plus ignition switch.












Making progress!
 
I'm going to need one of those for my garage too (except I'm getting to ready to demolish it and build a new one, I just sent my plans to the city a few minutes ago)
 
Started installing my major electronic components. Mostly I like everything but the battery display. I was hoping to be able to open the glove box and see it, but obviously not going to work. I think I will have to suck it up and mount it on top of the glovebox. Nothing stealthy about that, but it would be nice to see it.




 
Started all the wiring. I am building the entire bike harness, as well as assembling the motor control wiring.

First the handle bar and headset wiring. I built the harness to feed past the steering head, and down to the horncast for a junction box. This allows the steering to be removed without cutting wires. On the stock bike it looks like this:


I will be doing it the same way, though a few wires will have conventional plugs, namely the throttle wires.

The headset looks like this:






The wires are bundled by function. Separate bundles because the space is tight, so one large bundle would not fit through the access slots in the steering. I will show that on install.

I created bundles, again by function, to go from the fusebox in the glovebox to the 72V to 12V inverter and the rear lights, and for powering the fusebox. I am grounding them with wires, no frame ground due to the 72V and 12V, that would cause big issues if mixed.

Power cut off and contactor locations, plus harnesses.



Finally, I took the plunge and cut the glovebox for the battery/power meter. I was afraid the heat would ruin the paint, but ineptness with a Dremel did it in instead! :oops:




Nonetheless, it works and should give me what I need for data. Hopefully rain will not kill it. I did seal it with hot glue to keep water out of the glovebox and fuse box.
 
My suggestion if I may: do not cheap out on the plugs/connectors quality. That makes all the difference between a reliable setup and an unreliable one.
Try using only waterproof connectors, and if possible weld the wires. Takes longer, cost a little bit more, but that saves so much time and money later...
That's what I'f done on my last motorbike, litterally never had a single issue with it in three years, despite riding under any kind of weather.
 
Dui said:
My suggestion if I may: do not cheap out on the plugs/connectors quality. That makes all the difference between a reliable setup and an unreliable one.
Try using only waterproof connectors, and if possible weld the wires. Takes longer, cost a little bit more, but that saves so much time and money later...
That's what I'f done on my last motorbike, litterally never had a single issue with it in three years, despite riding under any kind of weather.

Good advice. For the high power wires I will be tinning and high pressure crimping them with quality ends. For the 12V system, most of the wires will be spliced by soldering and shrink wrap, and the ends will be high quality copper, tinned, and crimped with ratcheting crimpers. Of the hundreds of MCs I have wired up, this has been very durable. I do not have failed wires. The 72V stuff is pretty new to me though.
 
Received my 4 AWG wire and connectors, so I could start wiring in the controller and associate parts.



Making the high power cables:







Installed on the controller, contactor and shunt:





Then wrapped and fed the bike wires through the frame, and connected the disconnect.










Next I need to start making all the connections. This is the fun part where I get to power up and test the circuits.
 
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