Rear shock shock

I knew the rear shock lower rubber bush was old as I could see the cracks in it, so I got a replacement.
In true form, what I found when I pulled it off to change it, was dodgy. The rubber was old and stuffed, the bolt was rusted to hell and when I cleaned it up a little I could see why, it had obviously been a 10mm bolt the they had "machined" down to a 9mm with an angle grinder, nice. It was also bent to hell and the nut was a random different size to the hex head on the bolt and to top off this fine piece of bodgery, the centre tube was a hacksawed piece of 10mm pipe, complete with a few dents from installing it with a hammer and a screwdriver, quality stuff.
Getting it out was easy enough, a bit of a juggling act that I could've used an extra pair of hands for, I used a bearing puller and an old nut, firstly pushing the pipe out and then utilising a 21mm socket and the puller again to get the rubber out.
Installing the rubber was ok, I cleaned up the inside with some fine sand paper and used some soapy water to ease the end in and again with the puller and socket squeezed it into place. After some time spent cleaning , sanding and filing the pipe back to some sort of decent shape I re-installed it too as for the bolt I threw that into the tool box and replaced it with an 8mm stainless bolt until the 9mm I ordered arrives.

After reading an interesting thread on the Modern Vespa website regarding gearbox oil,
http://modernvespa.com/forum/topic90043
I decided to give it a go, I had been using a mineral 30W 2T oil as recommended by Piaggio back in the day, that and I had laying around after my initial break in period, which we all now know was most likely a waste of time, but I will need it again when I get a new cylinder kit further down the track.
The 75W-85 fully synthetic was a very light colour compared to the 30W and it will be interesting what colour it comes out in 1000kms. The shifting has improved though, noticeably up and down the range, very smooth.
3540kms on the clock and I must admit I have been riding a little harder and despite the condition of the top end, she still goes pretty well, worse case scenario is I seize it up and have to get a new cylinder and piston, I'm going to do that anyway, well that is worst case unless I stuff the crank and then it might get interesting. I have also got hold of a cylindrical registration sticker holder, the old one was hanging off the side just waiting to be broken off, this one tidys up the rear end and since I moved the Plate up and removed the little silver rear flap thing that came on the scooter, the rattling has lessened somewhat, there is still a rattle that is coming from underneath, possibly the stand, will look into replacing some hardware and a rubber stop or two, that might fix it.

The boys just practicing until dad finally lets them both ride Gloria at the same time, not sure this will ever happen in my lifetime, what would I be riding?? Maybe get them a Lambretta to thrash, I mean learn to scoot on. (add smiley face thingy here) and then get a busted bum Vespa to build so they can have the joys of getting and keeping a scoot running, and if the current trend continues, something else to fight over.......