How to make a body kit for a scooter yourself

DIY scooter tuning

Tuning a scooter can be purely technical, when the engine is boosted and the maximum speed and dynamics increase. But it can also be aesthetic, because many scooter riders prefer not the increased speed and power that only they can feel, but the cool and unusual appearance of the machine and its level of comfort. How to change the appearance of a scooter for the better and make trips on it more comfortable and enjoyable, we will talk in this article.

Tuning a production scooter is generally a matter that has no boundaries and everything depends on the thickness of the wallet and the owner’s flight of fancy. But for many scooter riders, power and maximum speed are not at the forefront of changing the characteristics of their scooter; for them, the main thing is to stand out from the crowd. In addition, the restyled (externally tuned) version of the scooter, and even if it is modified with your own hands, is much more pleasant to ride, especially under the admiring glances of passers-by.

Below we will describe options for changing the appearance and comfort of a production scooter, and naturally there can be a lot of options and it is unrealistic to describe everything within one article. But still, some of the nuances of changing the appearance of a production car will be described for beginners who decide to stand out from the crowd. Naturally, experienced scooter riders don’t need advice; they have mustaches themselves. Therefore, the article is more aimed at beginners.

Tires.

Let's start in order, with shoes, or rather with tires. Most manufacturers, in order to save money, install the most budget (cheap) tire models on their scooters. The tread pattern, rubber material, and the width of such tires are the most primitive. And the first thing most knowledgeable scooter owners do is install a wider and better rear tire.

Please note in the photo just above that it would not hurt to install more powerful brakes, with a brake disc of a slightly larger diameter. Modification of standard brakes is especially useful for those scooterists who want to increase the power of the standard engine in the future and increase the maximum speed. After all, many production scooters have ancient drum brakes on the rear wheel.

But let's get back to the tires. In addition to improving the appearance of the scooter and giving the rear a more solid appearance, a wider and better tire will add stability to the scooter at high speeds. That is, it will be better to hold the road, especially in turns, since the rubber is of higher quality and wider, which means its grip on the asphalt is better.

But I advise you to change both tires at once, and on the front wheel too, since poor grip of the front tire when turning will negate all the advantages of a wider and better rear tire. When purchasing, in addition to the same tire diameter as your standard tires, also keep in mind that the profile height of the new rubber should also be the same as that of the standard tires. Because if the profile of new tires is lower, the maximum speed will drop, and if the profile is higher, the acceleration dynamics will worsen.

That is, when installing tires with a profile different from the standard version, the gear ratio in the transmission will change and you will have to tinker with reconfiguring the variator, unless, of course, you want to achieve the maximum speed and acceleration dynamics the same as from the factory.

As for the quality of rubber, there is a wide range of prices, but you should still overpay (sometimes three times) but purchase tires from reputable manufacturers. Of course, here too the price corresponds to the quality, and more expensive and high-quality tires will hold the road perfectly, and their service life will be three times longer than on cheap tires.

Shock absorbers.

Many scooter models, especially older models, have the simplest shock absorbers installed, which do not even have the simplest hydraulics. They only have springs and rod guides installed. And if you are subsequently planning to fully tune the scooter, that is, to also boost the engine and increase its maximum speed, then leaving standard dry shock absorbers on such a device is simply dangerous.

Not only will there be no comfort when traveling with standard shock absorbers, but the wheel can also move at high speed, and this can lead to skidding and falling. Therefore, it is simply necessary to change the shock absorber to a hydraulic one. In addition, on tuning shock absorbers, the hydraulic characteristics and spring preload are adjusted and can change in accordance with the weight of the driver (passenger) and road conditions.

And with the correct settings of the adjustable shock absorber, you can significantly increase speed when traveling on bad roads. And where usually your scooter began to sway, with a standard shock absorber, and you had to slow down, now you can fly over potholes and bumps, and the improved suspension will effectively smooth out all the unevenness of the dead road.

Well, a very important aspect of the matter is that your scooter will acquire an attractive and catchy appearance. After all, anodized housings of modern shock absorbers, brightly colored springs and a compensation tank sticking out nearby will add not only comfort to your car, but also charm. On some gas-filled shock absorbers, the reservoir may not hang on the side, but rather be mounted at the driver’s request in a separate place, since it is connected by a separate hose (as on some motocross motorcycles).

As for companies, if possible, you should choose not Chinese products, made in appearance beautifully, but on the knee, but from European or Japanese brands. By the way, now good gas-filled shock absorbers have begun to be made in Russia, and their price, of course, is lower than that of foreign products.

How to increase the power and speed of a moped

Many scooter owners, after a few months of riding, think about the question “How to increase the speed of the scooter?” And no wonder!

After all, the notorious 50 “cubes” are often not enough, and it is not possible to quickly raise money for new, more powerful equipment. That is why various tricks are used to increase the power of the moped, as well as its speed from the usual 60 km/h to 80 and above.

Procedure

There are several effective ways to increase moped performance such as speed and power. The most popular of them should be described:

Using a screwdriver, unscrew the side and rear plastic from the moped.

Under them you will find a belt responsible for transmitting speed to the rear wheel and both sprockets. Above this belt you will see a small metal washer (speed controller) that limits the belt to a larger radius.

You need to knock this puck down with a hammer, and then try to pick up speed. If your moped has an engine capacity of up to 75 cc. see I was able to accelerate to 70–75 km/h, which means you succeeded.

Unscrew the fastening of the transmission mechanism and remove it from the moped. Then, without sudden movements, try to remove the belt, having previously stocked up on a new larger rear sprocket (the new spare part can increase the torque). Put the belt back on and try to pick up speed.

With proper modification of the scooter, you can increase the maximum speed of the vehicle to 120–140 km/h, however, for this you will need to attach a new washer, which will protect you and will not create difficulties during the technical inspection.

Fastening the washer above the belt in different positions will allow you to adjust the maximum speed of the moped.

The higher the puck is, the higher the scooter's speed will be. Try to empirically find the position of the washer at which the max. the speed would be 95–100 km/h.

After all this is done, when you reconnect the gearing, put the plastic back in place and try to get up to speed, you will find that the top speed will be higher and the acceleration will be smooth and slow.

The only disadvantage of such actions will be a natural decrease in traction, as a result of which you will not be able to normally drive up hills with an inclination angle of 20 degrees or higher.

Other options

In addition to the above method, you can increase the performance of a moped such as its power and speed using other tricks. For example, you can increase the power of your scooter by replacing the muffler, replacing it with a compatible resonant pipe, and tuning the transmission.

You can also choose a sports variator for your scooter and install a reinforced belt.

If you don't know how to further increase the power of your moped, try replacing the standard exhaust pipe with a sports one. With its help, you will increase the power of the scooter by up to 15%, increasing the maximum speed. Finally, replace regular brakes with disc brakes, standard brake pads with sports brake pads, and select brake hoses with reinforcement.

Helpful advice

After all the work involved in trying to increase the speed and power of the scooter, do not forget about your safety and the safety of other road users. If you doubt the correctness of your modifications to the moped, contact the service, where they will give you practical advice or carry out a set of improvements yourself. Remember that your life may depend on the quality of work to increase the power and speed of equipment.

Making a plastic body kit (on your own)

Then, we cut out pseudo-ventilation holes in the foam, where the grilles will subsequently be inserted.

When the foam matrix is completely adjusted and has taken the desired shape, we begin to cover the outside with fiberglass and coat it with epoxy resin. The procedure is as follows: coat the matrix with a brush, and cover it with small strips of fiberglass. Dry for 15 minutes, coat, and apply the next layer of fiberglass. In this order we lay 4-5 layers of fiberglass.

You need to try to ensure that the fiberglass flaps do not bulge and lie as evenly as possible, without lumps. Also, cavities and air bubbles should not be allowed, as they will then affect the strength of the structure.

Next: after 24 hours of drying in a warm room, remove the foam from the sidewall. It turns out to be a real plastic part of our scooter.

After adjusting the body kit parts, we attach it to the scooter. As fastening elements, you can use metal strips with holes from an old children's construction set. We attach them in several places to the SCOOTER flush with the intended installation location of the part. Next, both parts, fitted at the end, are puttied with APP putty with the addition of aluminum to give elasticity to the part. After the putty has dried, its excess layers are removed with sandpaper.

We attach both parts of the body kit to the scooter! Next comes painting, choose a color and paint. We install the painted, polished and varnished parts in their places. First the sidewalls, then we make fastenings for the tank, drill the tank, and fasten it with M5 screws.

This way you can make a tuning body kit for absolutely any scooter.

Source

Making a direct-flow muffler from scratch

You can make such a muffler from scratch. This will be a completely new version made from several components. The difficulty of this operation, called tuning from scratch, lies in finding the diagram of the exhaust system of a particular moped.

Tools and materials

In this case, again, you need to prepare the necessary tools and materials.

Purchase in a store or find two pipes with a diameter of 33 mm;
Buy plexiglass;
Bolts M8 and M3;
Prepare glue and nails;
Welding machine;
Needles;
Hacksaw for metal.

Let's start assembling

First of all, you need to cut 18 cm from one of the pipes. It is recommended to carefully process the place in the cut with a needle file. From the second pipe we cut a circle with a diameter of 1.5 cm. We process it using the method described above. Glue the cut out circle in the section of the first pipe. We cut off another piece of pipe, 18 cm long. We make many holes in it. This can also be done with a sharp nail.

We connect all the parts using a welding machine. We fill the cavity formed at the junction of two pieces of pipe with mineral wool. We wrap the finished product with a special fire-resistant material. The homemade muffler is ready. To install it, you will need to attach the element to the scooter body mount.

Making a muffler mounting element

From plexiglass, which is indispensable in this matter due to its strength and easy paintability, we cut out a special type of ring, the edges of which can be bent outward by 180 degrees. We attach the resulting circles with serifs to the moped using the required bolts. We polish the muffler using sandpaper. To be sure, the joints between the homemade product and the moped body will need to be lubricated.

Homemade muffler for moped disassembled

If homemade production causes certain difficulties, you can find a lot of models of mufflers already in finished form. They are usually inexpensive. On the other hand, only a homemade version can provide the ideally expected option.

1 Classification of motors and upgrade options

Today, scooters are available with several types of motors. The most popular version of a small cc engine is the Chinese model 139qmb with a displacement of 49.6 cc. Next comes the 153QM model with a volume of 150 cm3 and the 157QMJ with a volume of 150 cm3. Thus, within each type of Chinese motor, the main engine parts are in principle interchangeable. This means that finding parts becomes an easy task.

Previously, the most popular scooter tuning kits were “whales” from Italian manufacturers Pallinni, Mallossi or Metrakit. These tuning kits, as a rule, include a huge range of parts, accessories and equipment for tuning scooters from well-known European, Japanese and Chinese manufacturers. However, in the case of Chinese-made mopeds, tuning with the help of European “whales” is too expensive for ordinary motorcyclists, and there are more and more Chinese scooters on our roads every year.

Lighting elements

It’s hard to ignore the lighting options; again, these days there is a huge selection of LED lights that allow you to do the external tuning of the scooter with your own hands and make it unrecognizable at night. This could include illumination of the underbody, exhaust pipe, strobes, and additional dimensions for illuminating turns and stops in different colors. Even if they have a budget, some use additional headlights, supply various relays for lighting effects, and even install xenon.

Cleaning the muffler

The cleanliness of the muffler affects the power of the moped

Before you start changing anything in the exhaust system, I would like to give one piece of advice. The power of the scooter is directly affected by the cleanliness of the muffler. If it were possible to see the exhaust in a cross-section of the muffler, the owner of the scooter would be very surprised. After a certain mileage, the scooter's dynamics decrease, and owners begin to look for the reasons for this, finding them in a complete rework of the standard muffler or its replacement.

The reason for the loss of power, meanwhile, may be hidden in the condition of the engine itself. This will help determine the specialist you should contact before tuning. But the most common cause of loss of dynamics is soot that clogs the muffler. In this case, it is recommended to carry out cleaning in three ways.

First method: mechanical

It involves cleaning the muffler section (it is done with a grinder). The inside of the muffler is cleaned of soot using a wire or cable. The section in the section is closed by welding.

Second method: chemical

It involves pouring water with some kind of cleaner into the muffler. For example, caustic soda is suitable for this purpose. This cleaning has the advantage that the appearance of the muffler will not be affected in any way.