Possibly the most beautiful moped Puch ever made, the Brown and Gold MKII Magnum.
This particular model was the 2nd moped I ever purchased, I bought it in a lot of 3 mopeds, including a Columbia Commuter with a Sachs engine, and a 1980 Puch Maxi 2hp. I'm glad to still have it, but one of the few things that was wrong with it when I got it was the tank was rusty. I've used just about every method of tank cleaning known to cheap man. I've tried Vinegar, Coke, and other rinses, but I decided to give a real acid a chance. I bought a jug of muratic acid at Lowes and started my process.
I took the tank off the bike, and drained it. The petcock was so plugged with rust that the reserve didn't work at all, and the on was just a trickle. I rinsed out as much rust as I could with water, plugged the petcock with a rubber stopped, and it was time for the magic. Muratic acid is some nasty stuff, and it sure made the building reek. The fumes were super strong even in a giant shop, so I opened some vents, and left the building. I let the acid sit for 40 minutes and then came back. The tank still looked a bit rusty, but when I drained the acid, any trace of rust left with it. I then corked the tank again and filled it with baking soda and water. I hoped that would neutralize the acid. I shook it all around and got the whole tank coated. I then just put the whole deal in the sink and let water run through it for another 5 minutes. I didn't have any denatured alcohol, so I just sloshed some WD40 around inside, hopefully removing all the water, and then rinsed it with straight gas, followed by a quart of heavy weight oil, to hopefully coat the tank a bit. Finally, after draining the oil and rinsing with gas again, I declared it all clear, and put it all back together. The tank looks very clean, not brand new, but there is no rust at all.
To finish off this project, of course, I was only greeted by more problems, as the luck of my moped adventures usually go. The bike stalled out on the way home, felt like it was running out of gas. I cleaned the carb, assuming a little more rust had found its way past my inline filter, but it was clean. I wondered if the float was sticking, so I put on a new 15mm bing I had sitting around, and it ran with the same problem. It would rev out on the stand, but if the throttle was held open too far, after a few seconds it would stall out from lack of fuel. When I try to drive it, it stalls out at anything more than 1/4 throttle, and if I keep the choke on, I can get it up to about 20mph, but that's it. I'm running a 14mm intake on a ZA50, with a Boss exhaust. I've got a 66 jet in it. Shouldn't be too lean, considering when was all stock with 12mm intake and stock exhaust I was running a 52. It doesn't feel like too rich, so I'm confused. My main guess is that the fuel is contaminated, perhaps some water left over, or condensation from going cold again after being in the shop. I tanked it all the way up, naturally, after cleaning the tank, so I have to drain all that gas and dispose it, I suppose. What a waste. What I need is a small fuel tank that has a fuel valve that I could just put some known good fuel in and hook it up to the carb, so I don't have to waste all my gas, if that is not the problem. Does anyone have a small troubleshooting tank like I've described?
Oh, and for those of you bored with these bikes, I'm getting 3 wonderful frames back from the powder coaters on Tuesday. A Maxi, a Swinger1 and an HS50. Pictures to follow!
Oh, PS, I like comments, even if we have never met, or it is irrelevant to what has been posted. If you find this blog informative or amusing, please comment!
I got two boxes of 100, one of the shorter ones, and one of the longer cap screws. I will have plenty of the long ones left when all is said and done, but it doesn't bug me considering the cap screws were about $.60 per piece, but when bought in a box of 100, they cost about $.22! Wow, what a savings! It contributes to my fantasy to some day have a home and a garage that I can set up how I like, and have it stocked with cases of NGK plugs, a nice little rack with drawers of new hardware, a shelf of Type F, 30W Non-detergent, a shelf of SKF and FAGs and everything that makes a mopeder's heart leap for joy like mine does at the sight of such items. 
The new forks are being coated, but for the time being, these blue forks remind me of superman, and they are kind of growing on me. 
I ought to put the chains, cables and carb on tomorrow or the next day, and then take her for a spin. Oh, the Silver Fender doesn't go on these full rigid forks, so I guess we will just have to wait and see if it was a good color choice or not!
Thats less than $4 worth of vinyl, and it looks and feels pretty good, although I can see a few spots I'm not happy with, it is much better than before, and I am very pleased with myself. Just waiting for the glue to dry now. 
As Dane and I assembled his HS50 tonight we found the upper threads of the fork to be stripped. : ( What bad luck with forks on this last batch of bikes. 2 out of 3 bikes need new forks! I think this one is salvageable, however. I think we will cut the head tube off the maxi forks and then cut the head tube off the HS50 forks and weld the maxi tube in at the correct length. A red tube, but no one can see it. Just for fun, here is a picture of Dane's Pinto. I prefer Swingers myself.
So, I pulled out a stock 3 shoe clutch I had laying around, only to realize that it had been bent by the previous owner. 
I knew the engine was in rough shape, but I think it had something to do with one of the two holes for pulling the clutch being stripped. It looks like they stripped one hole, and tried to just pull it with one hole, bending the base plate. I had to re-tap the clutch hole and then I was able to pull it out, but found it was bent. So using the math formula B/V+H= Good enough, where B is Bent Clutch, V is Large Vice, and H = 5lb hammer, you can see how this works well. 
This guy put every screw, washer and grommet in a ziplock bag and labeled them all! That was my suggestion, but still, I never do that cause I'm too lazy! His reassembly is going well, he is replacing the front lower forks with Puch maxi lowers to drop the front of the bike down just a smidgen. 
Sorry, Moby! I'll give you attention before spring, I promise! 
The old one was fine, but this new one is super cool and full of promise, but what I like is the flat top that is perfect height to work on things, and the E50 motors I love so much fit nicely on the top. 
I welded the bracket on to the seat about a 1/2 inch farther forward so that it would line up with the fender holes for the stock rack. I then drilled new holes, and notched the bracket so it would sit across the seam on the fender. I was afraid the notch was going to weaken the bracket, but it is nice and firm, no reinforcement necessary. 
I set the seat on fire just a little, but it just smelled bad for a bit, that glue must be toxic or something. Good thing my lungs are used to toxic smoke. Bolts right up and sits nice and firm. 
All and all, I like how it looks, compare it to the picture from the previous post to check the height yourself. 
I'm going to chop and re-weld the rear seat bracket so it sits lower and lines up with the rear rack mount holes, so I can go without a rear rack. It look a little more like a fire truck than I anticipated, but the look always changes when the decals get put on. Which should be in sometime soon.
The Swinger1 turned out the nicest of all the bikes. The blue color on it is darker and has more gloss to it than the pictures would make you believe. For some reason, it vaguely reminds me of children's playground equipment. I love the color, but once those fenders are put in there, it really looks great. The pearl white was a good choice. I may have trouble with the rear fender. I did not have a rear fender from a Swinger1, but a Swinger2, which mounts differently. So I'll see if I can't get it to mount up and look good, or else I might have to beg someone (freebird) for his rigid rear fender if he isn't using it. 
I need to get the Swinger1 decals reproduced, but it will be difficult, seeing that most vinyl shops around here aren't interested in my moped projects, and I have no good scans of any NOS originals. Can anyone recommend an online store that might make some simple Swinger1 text?
This is my friend Dane's HS50. It looks great, no flaws on this bike, the black is amazing. I'm trying to convince him to buy a NOS M48 30mph engine I have for this bike instead of tossing on his junky old crap M48, and I think that he will go for it. After all, this is going to be the nicest bike he has, and his old M48 needs a new piston, rings and cylinder, plus most likely bearings and seals, not to mention electrical. Hope to see him put this one together soon.
This particular model was the 2nd moped I ever purchased, I bought it in a lot of 3 mopeds, including a Columbia Commuter with a Sachs engine, and a 1980 Puch Maxi 2hp. I'm glad to still have it, but one of the few things that was wrong with it when I got it was the tank was rusty. I've used just about every method of tank cleaning known to cheap man. I've tried Vinegar, Coke, and other rinses, but I decided to give a real acid a chance. I bought a jug of muratic acid at Lowes and started my process. 