The Iso Milano was a vintage Italian motorscooter manufactured from 1957 to 1963 by Iso Rivolta, a company best known for its Isetta microcar. While relatively unknown today compared to its contemporary counterparts from Vespa and Lambretta, the Iso motorscooter was prized in its heyday for its durability and beautiful styling.
My personal history with with one particular Iso Milano goes back a long way, starting with when my dad purchased the vehicle in pieces from a coworker more than 40 years ago. He assembled it, got it running, and painted it with blue and aqua rattle cans. It was the vehicle I ever drove, when, at age 14, I rode it into an apple tree at a slothful 5 miles per hour, completely oblivious about what a clutch was and how to operate one.
Later, the scooter became my daily commuter at UC Berkeley, where I learned to tinker with it and keep it running (barely) until I graduated to a motorcycle and returned it to my parents. The scooter spent many years unused and forgotten, rusting away in my parent's backyard, until I learned it was going to be scrapped. I decided to rescue it. I took it apart, fixed it up, had parts re-chromed, and gave it my own new rattle can paint job, this time in bolder contrasting colors of white and red.
And that's how the scooter has sat until the pandemic, when looking for ways to occupy myself, I decided to apply some of my more recently developed Maker skills. I wanted to bring the Iso up to a whole new level, and that included a proper glossy automotive paint job with other finishing touches.
I began by disassembling the vehicle, carefully sanding away rust and loose layers of faded and discolored spray paint, welding some cracks in the leg shield and foot rests and doing other minor repairs.
I ordered paint from automotivetouchup.com, including basecoats in Chrysler "Inferno Red" and Ford "Oxford White", along with a quart of two-part urethane clearcoat. I applied these with an HPLV spray gun while wearing the same supplied air respirator hood that I had adapted with a mattress inflator and corrugated hose to use when repainting the hood of my car.
Some vinyl lettering cut on my Silhouette Portrait completed the look, because, why not?
(The 3D printed nylon gas cap with integrated gas gauge was a previous project)
Another part that needed attention was the speedometer. The original bakelite face had crumbled away decades ago, and my previous attempt at replacing it was okay but I wanted to do better this time.
I designed a new face consisting of two pieces I cut and engraved with my laser cutter, then filled-in engraved numbers with paint. I lined the speedometer body with color LED strips to light up the translucent center face from behind.
The final piece needing restoration was the cast plastic front badge, which was cracked and faded from half a century of age. I decided to try building one from scratch on my laser cutter, engraving it and then back-painting the resulting piece before shaping it on a belt sander and polishing it clear.
I cut versions out of 1/4" acrylic, engraving the details on the backside through masking tape, and then painted the backside in layers through the tape.
It took many failed attempts to get the details just right, and even if I couldn't perfectly mimic the golden color of the original, I'm pretty happy with the results.
The last part of the project doesn't involve restoration at all, but the fabrication of a new piece I always wish existed. Behind the leg shield, there is a bolt hole designed to hold a spare tire carrier. While I didn't have a carrier there, I always wanted some sort of open tray at that location, one where I could place a water bottle, wallet, or small purchases when running errands. Although I haven't done a lot of sheet metal fabrication of this sort, I decided to try making one because, you know, pandemic.
Because of the complex curves, I started with a mockup, which I cut out of PVC sheet that I had originally purchased for vacuum forming before I found it too thick for that purpose.
When I was happy with the fit, I transferred the shapes to heavy sheet metal, which I cut with a benchtop bandsaw that I had fashioned awhile back by mounting an inexpensive portable unit from Harbor Freight.
I bent the unit into shape with a vise and hand tools, and attached it with rivnuts that I had located on the hidden back and bottom surfaces of the unit.
Once again I broke out the spray gun, painting it in matching red and white after a coat of primer.
I need to take some photos with better lighting that shows off the paint better, but with some new chrome hubcaps to finish things off, this is the final result.
