Modern Vespa

I used to post here up until 2015, when I got into old cars and out of old scooters. Now the old cars are gone, and a new old scooter has arrived.

Like my other bikes, this is an ex Japan re-issue. 1200 km on the clock, been sitting in the importers store room since 2011.

Appears to be all original. I have already removed the bar ends, and already come across my first issue to fix, but it starts first kick even on old petrol.

My plans for it a fairly minimal. I'll probably go with a 75cc or 85cc kit, vintage tail light and maybe upgraded front shock.

Thought I'd share this. My ss90 lookalike project has wheels and a motor!


~Megan~
Sent from my iPhone 7+

It's looking real good with that SS tank Nutmeg.

Thanks. It came with the fiberglass top tank and a fiberglass front fender and engine door. The seat is getting reupholstered.

V oodoo had posted that he was going to thin the herd and I have wanted a smalli for some time. All of the details worked out and this survivor '64 V90 will be showing off its patena in Madison WI in a few days.
Will be changing tires, adding a legshield spare and probably respraying the exhaust.

Rick

thats a nice smallie mate way nicer then mine

picked up a future project for me. just couldnt pass on the condition and price. 383 miles on this sport 100. picked it up for 400 from police impound yard with no title.

nice pickup jerry!

V90 from 1966. Almost ready, having trouble with sparkplug, cap and cable plus need a new exahust and change of front break pads, but it works now.

Here is my 1981 50 Special. At the time of the photo was installed 75 Polini, 3.72 Gear Box, 19.19, exhaust SeriePro Sport Replica

Here are my two I just acquired. 1965 90 and a 1966 Blue Badge. Bought them as a pair. Polini parts on the BB, Malossi on the 90. More pics to come.

90 has a 3.5 x 10 wide tire conversion. Whats up with that?

I'm guessing it's a cheap but modest upgear, I run the same on one of my smallies - easy to do but a stock muffler will hit the fatter tire unless the edge is cut back.

Meanwhile speaking of double smallies, I got my first one ten years ago on the Greek island of Kefalonia where my wife was born. It is a 1974 50S of my nephew's(the red one) that he used to deliver mail locally for twenty years and was parked in a field when it stopped running. With the help of the internet & NSM, I got it running in the summer of 2009 so I could ride to the beach and park closer than a kilometer+ away uphill w/ a car. Thus began my love/hate relationship with these elegantly simple, but often frustratingly challenging machines.

We usually visit Greece each year and spend much of the time on this beautiful island, but last year there were too many distractions in Athens and we didn't make the 3 hour drive & 4 hour ferry trip. But we're here now and I could hardly wait to check the Vespas, now two smallies with another one(the brown one) added 3 years ago.

The good news is that after two years both fired up after opening the fuel valve. They had been left in cool basement storage w/ gas in the tank and the carb run dry. The bad news is both had fussy carb problems that have now been mostly fixed except the red one needs hopefully only a new spark plug which nephew is picking up today.

Meanwhile, the brown one is ride of choice anyway, port matched 125cc, 90/100 primaries, big carb & a Polini pipe so it eats the local hills very nicely even 2 up. Now if the Sun would just come out & get warm for a long and winding ride!

Later: OK, spark plug and sunshine arrived about the same time. Now red one seems to run fine so time for a test run. Up the mountain always because coasting back to the house is so much easier when testing which too often reveals another problem. But this time little red scoot performed flawlessly, the 70cc DR spinning furiosly in 3rd much of the way where the brown one would be in 4th. Uphill w/ curves & hairpins on decent pavement is my favorite ride anyway and lots of that here.

PS now we leave here & clutch cable broke on brown during farewell ride..... oh well.

Good times, Terry. This kind of stuff makes me want to get out and ride.

Nice pics Terry. That sounds like a dream. Safe travels home.

I took a longish ride yesterday. Man, what a difference a smooth clutch makes.

The SS is looking like a boss! Nice pics? Thanks, I got more.
Yep, I'm in love w/ smallies all over again!!!



These stay in the family.



Here's Myrtos Beach, the reason I fixed the red one 10 years ago.

Thanks for that Voodoo! What a beautiful stretch of beach, sand, and snake road! Wow!

Even better than postcards, V oodoo. Gorgeous shots of your smallies in Greece! Thanks for the "wish I was there" post.

Too bad about brown, though. S'pose I could head over and fix that clutch cable for you. Just sayin'...

Thanks qa & K32! It is scooter heaven over there, summer on the islands. Now I need to repost this old pic of scooter waiting for ferry:



Getting a motor ready for this one, a 1980 50 special. I tried to sell it but nobody wanted it as badly as they wanted my orange Primavera & red V90, now both gone.
But I NEED a good smallie here again and plan to copy the ones I have in Greece. It's a pretty mild upgrade plan using mostly stock parts.



Already swapped the 3 speed for 4 and swapped the 50 primary gears for 90/100 and it has a Polini pipe.
I got a stock 90/100/125 crank from Ginchy and will probably put something better than a stock 125 top end on it. We'll see...



Still undecided on the paint. Probably NOT a full blown respray, more likely find the closest in a spray can or get it color matched.
I don't need to make it look new, just preserve and make it more presentable. Be nice if the doors matched the body as well.



1980 50 special USA version, it's a little bit different. Most I've seen have the distinctive trap headlight and the unique plastic horncast. Not this one, it's old school.

Finally think I have the jetting sorted so rode around Madison and took a few pictures.
With the 100 Sport topend, 19/19 carb with an oopsclunkthud Venturi and uni filter and a Polini clone exhaust she is running really clean with 42 idle, 60 choke, 80 main, and air screw out 1 ½ turns.
Idles great and pulls well all thru rev range. Started with an 82 main and she had no midrange.

Here is my newly acquired '81 100 Sport project.

I've fixed up a few thing since bringing home a few weeks ago, and its almost ready for a first kickstart after sitting for a long while. Box of parts arrived yesterday from Scooterwest (thanks for the super fast shipping!) Needed a new coil/wire/plug. Sorted out a few electrical gremlins, thankfully the harness etc is all stock and unmolested other than removing the turn signals; but the wires are there to hook up. Should be kicking over this week. Stay tuned!

My project thread:
1981 100 Sport Sunny Summer


WTB: battery door Will pay GOOD price!!

https://www.museopiaggio.it/en/collezioni/125-prototipo-militare-vma1t-2/

Where's the muffler? Now I want one. Pull the headset & fork so you can haul it around in the back of your hatchback. Plus I love the color!


GL: You have PM

Some progress on the 50special. I will use another motor this summer while I
rebuild the original motor. It's an older Primavera motor w/ a PM Tuning kit, so gonna be no slouch.

Step one was taking it apart.


Got it up where I can work on it. It's pretty easy to toss around with no motor or fork. Time to get busy with wire brush and sandpaper.

This is the worst of it, pretty ugly.


Couple hours later after sandpaper & Ospho. All the floor trim is undamaged & straight as an arrow.


Now I am on the hunt for best matching rattlecan paint - we'll see what turns up.

Done for the night, wifey sez no more racket!

I got the bottom ready for whatever matching spray I find - good place to test for color. I'll do a couple layers of clear coat last just on the bottom for added protection.

Looking good Voo Doo!!! Motivating me to get on it this weekend

You sure got that frame all spick-and-span Voodoo!

Thanks, fellas but the cleanup still has a ways to go. A little more progress has been made though. Now it's more love rub time on the flip side..

Anybody got a code for this 1980 blue?

Nice progress! Have you had good results with that Duplicolor Wheel paint?

I will be doing similar job (clean/rust/clear) on the '58. I have usually used Rustoleum clears with good results. Is the duplicolor better quality paint overall, or just comparable different brand. Curious minds want to know

The DulpiColor was some I had left over and is described as 'High performance' whatever that means. But it is TRACK TESTED, so suitable for race bikes I'm sure:


I think I lucked out and found an original GM color that looks like it could be a decent match. Maybe slightly more metallic and maybe a shade lighter, but what can you tell from the cap color? A quick test on that primered bottom of the floor section should tell me yes 8) or no . Or maybe .

Its High Performance so it makes your scooter faster than those painted with cheapo Regular performance paints

Not awful, but could be better. I will try fogging a little royal blue over it to get it a bit darker.

Next up, drop the fork and motor in !!!

Love what you do Vodoo.

Maybe wetsand and fogg over a rust/brown color and sand again to match the paint better with a patina look. Some that do go the patina look, start with rust/brown paint, next the desired color and then sand down until parts of the rust/brown is shown.

I like how the fork came out.

Smallie Blue is looking better every day, V oodoo! Paint match is darn close. Fork looks so nice and shiny. Nice!

I also like your assorted workbenches and tables Always fun to see how other people do stuff. Thanks for the updates.

V oodoo
It is looking really good.
That return spring on the brake arm, is that something you added or is it stock on the later front ends?
The parts explosion in the V90 parts book doesn't show one.

Thanks Mr Mayor Sir, I have had to step up my game after watching you and that V90 ! The brake return spring is stock on newer bikes and I do like it.

Yeah rowdy & K32, the paint is a challenge. I'm getting closer and I like the idea of fogging w/ rust/brown color. I will do a test panel then see how it looks on those mismatched doors. Here's how it looks today:

Runs good, makes lots of power! Happy to be back on a quick smallie 8) Getting ready for a longer test ride to go get some fine wet-or-dry sandpaper. Now that it's right side up & mobile, it's time to attack the ugly.

This one was a pleasure to take apart and reassemble. I just swapped motors for now, but did put the 50 special 12V stator and its flywheel on the temporary motor so doing the wiring was cake and all lites work bright.

The bike had less than 1000 original miles so reassembling the full frame tear down was almost easy and I was able to use every single original piece down to every screw, washer & nut going back where it came from - that's such a first for me! Even the original cables were in excellent condition and I love the original pear ends on the clutch & front brake cables.

The only thing I had to bin was that rubber fitting all the cables & wiring come out the bottom thru - it was shredded & mooshy but all the other rubber bits were good. Bike did have the wrong booties on the centerstand so those got replaced.

Outstanding!

I second this! Fantastic Voodoo. As usual you let loose with your "magic" and voila!

Another beauty brought back to life by magic ... er... Voodoo. You make it look easy T!

Absolutely BRILLIANT!!

Thanks , but was still had much ugly! I hadn't done the love rubs on the topside yet, but now it's nearly done and looking more presentable. Caught the eye of the neighbor kid who wanted to try it out. Normally verboten but he promised to be very careful and I was digging his T shirt so...





Got some different blues going on, royal blue on the doors to match the wheels and cornflower blue on the worst of the floor & left cowl trying to blend in & not really succeeding until I can find a better match. Good enough for now and no further rust.



Back to the love rubs, I first wet sanded w/ 1500 then rubbed down w/ Megueir's, orbital buffer on the big areas, then by hand everywhere else.