Gilera DNA - Ford GT40 project

elbeaver · Derestricted Danger Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Karma :

Gilera DNA – Ford GT40 project.

Welcome and thank you for your interest to check out my project to turn and old Gilera DNA 50cc into a “Ford GT40 Le Mans” version. And by that I mean the color scheme of the car that won the 24 hours of Le Mans back in 1969, the same year in which I was born.

My name is Francis Arthur from The Netherlands and I had a dream to pimp my Gilera DNA 50cc in an affordable way into something that made it unique and cool to look at. Well, as far as I'm concerned this is the only detailed model with the blue/orange color scheme of a Ford GT40 “le mans” edition on a moped.

https://www.fotothing.com/photos/403/403ab31859c9e2e2d61be702947102fa_b41.jpg
Gilera DNA 50cc with the looks of the Ford GT "le mans" edition

I have been searching for months to get an idea, make the design, ask around for people who can paint this, get the right materials and carry it out and have little concessions if it came to deviations of the design.

Starting off with a few pictures of what it looked like before the transformation. The previous owner chose the bike because the yellow color made the machine look bigger. I must admit that the red, black and other versions do look a little smaller. But he also neglected the machine quite a bit, although it doesn't show in the photos, it had a lot of scratches and deep dents in the wheels.
The exhaust was rusty and she really needed an overhaul. So I started with the engine which seemed quite fine even after 30.000KM but the piston and rings had to be replaced. The engineers were amazed that it was still the original piston. The sides were blackened which probably meant that it was slightly leaking and the perfect moment to begin the overhaul.

https://www.fotothing.com/photos/e8c/e8c3996e4e52d2f339cc921894a832b5_3a0.jpg
the only picture I could find with the old exhaust

https://www.fotothing.com/photos/0d9/0d984b7bc2491e556bd5e0aa9a82e7d3_3a0.jpg
before the transformation, this seemed to be my favorite side. Now it's the other way around

https://www.fotothing.com/photos/24f/24f765f0b0865e917d9c07b0843ec1aa_3a0.jpg
I have traveled through Belgium, France and The Netherlands with my peds

After fixing the stuff that had gone bad, I couldn't stop thinking about tuning the rest because I already paid quite a lot of money. Buying new tires and straightening the front fork which was damaged in an accident I got from a terribly stupid traffic situation; concrete edges on a dark road without reflection in the city of Gouda. They took the damaged fork and probably milled off some of the metal and put different seals in. I also damaged my GPS, jacket, boots, part of the hood and steering wheel in the accident. As well as some camping stuff. I was just driving home from camping in the woods, a mere 200KM ride. Being badly injured, I still managed to get home while in fact I should have called the police and gotten in an ambulance but I couldn't be arsed. I wanted to be home! My shoulders will probably never fully recover.

Anyway... I noticed that I only had one reasonable picture of the exhaust side of my scooter before the make-over. I came to the conclusion that I must have liked the other side better before. But now it's the other way around!
So, then I started to look for an exhaust that was very quiet and good looking. Most performance exhaust all have that same look with the secondary muffler being returned above. (I do not know what this is called in English) The exhaust I chose looks like the ones used on motorcycles which is important to me because I want it to be looking more like a motorcycle than a moped - The bike ran faster and quietly! Even more than it did with the old standard exhaust.

By now I had to do something about the scratches in the paint and the damage of the accident. After weeks of trying out what to do with the wheels and body, I found me an artist in another city. He painted the hoods.
I was orientating whether I could afford it to have certain parts done in chrome and also having it painted the way I want... the prices were sky high and I already settled for a completely orange color and no extras until I found this guy named Cor through advertising sites. I didn't trust him at first (long story) but in the end he made me very happy with an astonishing result for an amazing price.

So here I was with all the parts that I picked up and brought home, not knowing what goes where. I needed some help putting it back. After hours of figuring out what screw went where and how to put the locking-system that is used for both the seat and the tank, back there were still items missing but... it all worked out the next day. The lock part with the cables going underneath the tank-storage was the hardest part. We tried so many different ways to make it work and it never got the way it should be but at least it is working. Also because the previous owner smacked one of the pins out of place, so with these slightly bent it is hard to make it fit. We glued the pins for extra solidity and it's amazing that it still holds.

Now, this black and yellow buddyseat was a thorn in the eye. I covered the yellow part with an old T-shirt because it felt terrible driving around with that yellow part on the blue and orange. Driving around also made us aware that the blue part was so overwhelming that it needed: stickers!

https://www.fotothing.com/photos/185/18551e3e9c7b050c6c20fa5b919f5111_499.jpg
no stickers added, got home late and was only able to make pictures under the streetlights (bad colors)

https://www.fotothing.com/photos/fce/fcefb511686336ae37460ddfde441c90_3a0.jpg
some of the stickers added, the colors are all metallic. Backseat not done, yet.

My buddy Peter helped me with talking about the design, seeing if things could be different and also motivated me to do things better because I tend to bungle things up, he also painted the buddyseat and put a lot of stuff together from my bike.
The handles had an impossible fit and it was only because of using brute force (his hands) that we got them on. We had to adjust the whole thing by melting the rubber and customizing the anodized stuff.

Acquiring the aerosol cans was almost turning out to be impossible. From every country that I tried, none of them was able to ship it or it costed something like over 200 euro. After searching and searching I finally found a company in three cities near me by visiting a random link. Not one but three, yes! Sadly it doesn't seem to be the same vinyl-spray that I've seen on the Internet where people could actually sit on the materials/couches they sprayed but I was already very, very happy that it was possible! I found something that sticks to the vinyl backseat!
Of course we encountered another problem here and that was when the orange color came off like it never attached in the first place. It looked okay when we sprayed it but when it dried up it almost fell off by itself. So I went back to the store and got the same quality paint as the blue one. (I had that blue color mixed on request and gambled the orange color by picking an existing RAL color, black was easy)

https://www.fotothing.com/photos/f89/f89f76cb6b0af693527184ca0da94cbf_8db.jpg
the backseat finally got done, amazing sight! Now I was really missing my number stickers

Taping in everything again, this time it worked out but it was still quite fragile. Unfortunately I won't be able to take someone on the back of the bike but that's a small price to pay. The backseat is still soft but we're guessing it's too fragile, it is easily scratched off.
After we left it to dry and assembled it, we started to smile because the alternative was buying a completely black seat, which I almost had to do but seeing the combination now was the reason why I kept on trying to make it work. It looks so much better now, looking as if it was a single seat machine!

Meanwhile I was looking for stickers from sites all over the world. I ended up for most of them on E-Bay. Every time it was a gamble to find and design stickers that were weatherproof. It seems that all of them are.
The easier part was looking for some brand stickers, but later on designing the tankpad and the numbers that I had in mind.
For the tankpad and the number I needed some more motivation, so one night I just sat there and looked up a lot of pictures from the Internet, edited them in Photoshop so all of the background was orange. It was quite the surgery job cutting some of the pictures out of impossible backgrounds and putting new shadows in. Also looking up the right fonts to design the texts and the number.

https://www.fotothing.com/photos/89c/89c004e5848b856a5239aaa7a684c63a_d03.jpg
cutting out pictures in Photoshop, making new shadows, filling all of the old backgrounds with orange

https://www.fotothing.com/photos/a8b/a8b8464c8f55a998757621aa9ecfc5e6_544.jpg
between heavy rainshowers we managed to make a few nice pictures, I just had to make some

Designing the tankpad was tough because the design of the GT40 is very straight. So in my opinion you can't be doing deferred colors with these straight orange and black stripes. Which is mainly why I left the wheels orange, only.
The tank pad design site was terrible to work with but the idea of having a tankpad design of my own fitted the profile so I did what was necessary having to start over many times because of the site. About 13 layers moving them all around in the web application, positioning them the way I thought would be nice. But it was all guesswork by the eye and I had no idea seeing it in real that it would be a lot smaller than I thought and I was shocked a bit trying to fit it on. But in the end, it worked out and another stage was done. I tried a lot of number fonts and came up with this '7' and found a nice site to have it made for me.

With the last parts, the wheels had to be done. Because this is my only vehicle I was reluctant to have these done. I would not be able to move around freely anymore. So, after having it postponed way too long I decided to do it and together with that the last few stickers fell in the mailbox.

Because I ordered the stickers over time each with a week or more in between, it slowly started to form towards the final stages. I'm very impatient in these things but I get too spoiled when it happens too easy, I guess. Watching some movies on Youtube of how to properly fit the stickers on, helped me a lot because I had never done that before. It turned out to be a great method opening only half of the sticker and putting one side on first. I made some water and soap but in the end I didn't use it. The difficult parts were the small things of the stickers that tend to be sticking to the wrong side and when you lose that, it is hard to find the right spot again. It has to stick to the upper layer when you peel the back of.

Too bad that Gulf Oil Nederland didn't have any extra material to give to design stickers from. At least after a few times the communication went well. It was nice to have a person who answered my questions from a big company. Putting some of the stickers on top in the middle of the tank was not easy, too. I'm not that tall, so I don't have much oversight to position it. The tankpad went well in one go but the Gulf sticker on top had to be done a few times over. Apart from a few stickers, this is the final result!

Regards,
Francis Arthur – The Netherlands

[size=85](plans for the near future are replacing the damaged covers of the Brembo braking fluid casing, putting a number 7 sticker on the cockpit, add a few other brand decals on the sides)[/size]

https://www.fotothing.com/photos/598/598185a699a8b9b305d975243a27e7f9_3a0.jpg
the only detailed Ford GT40 edition on a moped, as far as I know
https://www.fotothing.com/photos/cf7/cf7c02e7d5a3f40b148f5f259ce5ceb6_9f6.jpg
my bike and I... take care and drive safely

Nope. · World Chat Champion Joined: 16 Feb 2011 Karma :

You've got a nice looking bike there, shame its a Gilera DNA!

Personally, I would have spent the money on a bigger bike, but I dont know how the licensing of bikes works in the Netherlands nor do I know how much they cost over there although I do know that your cars are very expensive thanks to the high import taxes.

So yeah, nice project and paint job. Hope you enjoy it!
____________________
Former: Derbi GP1 50, Sachs XTC 125, Suzuki GSXR 400 GK73A, Kawasaki ZX7R, Suzuki DR250, Yamaha RD350
Current: 2011 Yamaha XT660Z Ténéré, 2003 Yamaha YZR-R1 5PW (In Build), 2009 Kawasaki ZZR1400

elbeaver · Derestricted Danger Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Karma :

But so far this is the best machine I ever got. The technique is great and it's really fast for a standard 50cc. It goes about 90KM/h with the wind in the back.

The maximum speed is actually 45KM/h.

Before this I had a runner that went up to 135KM/h. So, I don't have any complaints about the Gilera, except for tinkering with stuff like the exhaust is hard to get to.

I don't like other scooters for that open space near your feet! And I'm not a rich kid Smile

I have to do it all from €900,-- euro a month income + I do not have a licence to ride a motor.

TUG · World Chat Champion Joined: 12 May 2007 Karma :

DNA's are a good little bike but i'd rather spend the money on getting a proper bike in the long run, I loved my DNA 50 but to be perfectly honest with you, there are better bikes out there.
____________________
Haz ER-5, innit!

elbeaver · Derestricted Danger Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Karma :

Thanks for replying but I was lucky I could buy this machine with around 15K on the counter from a friend and pay him monthly.

Also there are little bikes with the looks of a motorbike. I 'hate' that look of scooters where you have an open space where your feet are.

That is why I started with a Gilera Runner before because that's a closed system as well between the legs. From all the machines I had these 2 were the most reliable.

Which one would you have in mind? Maybe Yamaha TZR and those. But I already love the acceleration of that scoot system and The Netherlands is rather small so for instance in a city with 6 gears you have to switch gears until your left hand goes numb Smile

Welshd1k · World Chat Champion Joined: 03 Oct 2006 Karma :

not a ritch kid born in 1969 ? tha makes you the same age as my daa 42.... pimping a moped ???
____________________
Current >Cb600fx hornet, ns125rk90 21.7bhp@wheel<
Sold >,zxr400 h2 (33bhp kit) rd350 n1 rd350 lc2<

elbeaver · Derestricted Danger Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Karma :

I guess I'm content with less. And you are probably one of them banksters...

Let me have my fun okay, I don't go visit your thread spewing shit about your life.

colin1 · Captain Safety Joined: 17 Feb 2005 Karma :

very nice photography, making that thing look good. How much was your camera ?
____________________
colin1 is officially faster than god

nowhere.elysium · The Pork Lord Joined: 02 Mar 2009 Karma :

elbeaver · Derestricted Danger Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Karma :

Thanks for the nice comment. I wanted to go all apeshit and stuff on that comment but last night in my massage chair I thought I had to do it different and maybe explain why I am so attached to lots of spare time and my freedom.

I've lost all my money through investments, chased away the girlfriend, had a depressive time and now I'm enjoying these things like photography, riding my bike and stuff.

My camera is a Canon 7D with some semi-pro lenses.

elbeaver · Derestricted Danger Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Karma :

A new Gilera DNA back then would be around €3000,-- euro

The body alone was about €1300,-- euro but I bought it for less. Buying it with a few people from Mediamarkt that gave me discount for about €1150,--

I think the bodies are still around the €1150,--

A second hand Gilera DNA could go for around €600,-- but mine was from a friend that is older than I am and I know that he hasn't done anything to the engine, cylinder and stuff apart from the restrictions that have been taken out. I really needed something reliable. I bought lots of second hand stuff that all broke down.

Because the last bit of money I had left when all the premiums or whatever called were deducted I had some money left and bought one of those 45KM cars where you don't need a license for and I was scammed with that (engine failed after a while) so then I had nothing and borrowed money to buy that Gilera DNA.

Welshd1k · World Chat Champion Joined: 03 Oct 2006 Karma :

i didnt mean out nasty by it i just thought that you had coppied paste didnt realise bike where so expensive and cars out there untill i spoke to a freind from rotterdam wtf @ prices 3k euro for a 98 VW polo GTFO! lol
____________________
Current >Cb600fx hornet, ns125rk90 21.7bhp@wheel<
Sold >,zxr400 h2 (33bhp kit) rd350 n1 rd350 lc2<

elbeaver · Derestricted Danger Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Karma :

hehe, it's cool m8

We've got the most expensive oil prices in the world! Taxes here are insane. But our economy is one of the most stable though.

elbeaver · Derestricted Danger Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Karma :

Update

https://www.fotothing.com/photos/3a4/3a4bdb9bcfa600f38a068249ee99db77_385.jpg

haroman666 · World Chat Champion Joined: 17 Sep 2008 Karma :

A very iconic paint job, done very well too!

I've seen the likes of VW campers and other cars done with the same paint but never a bike.

Shows good commitment to your bike!

Ride safe.
____________________
The mistresses: 2000 Honda CBR600f, 2000 Honda VTR1000

elbeaver · Derestricted Danger Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Karma :

pepperami · Super Spammer Joined: 17 Jan 2010 Karma :

Gilera DNA`s are not really my thing, but I have to say it looks like you`ve done a good job on that Thumbs Up

We are mainly Brits but not exclusively, so it`s good to have a contribution from people in other lands.

Tell us about the bikes you get in the Neatherlands?
Are your biking laws as tough as ours?
Is there anything we need to know if we are traveling in the Neatherlands on bikes?
____________________
I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

elbeaver · Derestricted Danger Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Karma :

I see, a lot of Brits don't seem to be too fond of the DNA. Personally the machine performs admirably well and the sleek look that makes it look more like a motorbike than a scooter is also a strong point for me.

The exhaust is also different from what most others have, looking more like a motorbike. When I was near the supermarket a blond girl walks up to me and says hi, afterwards she told me that she has the same exhaust on her motorbike. Also that SSteel in that form. Didn't know they made that for motorbikes as well!

The maximum speed is 45 in the city and outside something like 40KM/h. Really stupid. With the new rules you have to drive on the road but when it comes to big crossings you have to get on the bicycle path.
It's F... annoying and dangerous too sometimes. They don't seem to realise it, when they made these rules. I have yet to get the motivation to make a website concerning the dangers of these rules, going up the road, off the road, up the road and so on...

Drive on the right side Wink

3 warnings on the speed roller can mean your machine will be taken away Evil or Very Mad

Check www.rollerbank.nl to see if any sneaky dogs are patrolling and take you of the road. No matter if you drove 10KM/h all peds will be taken in for a check up on speed. Usually about 10 - 15KM will be deducted in order for compensation on several fronts.

I'm going to France next year but I'm having a really hard time making a frame to put 3 cases on for luggage.

Regards