Modern Vespa

Damn.
Was just about to yell Bavaria!

If it's blue leather int- I woulda expected original color to be white.
I can almost smell the leather.

You're gonna V8 that thing?
Hahaha.
Well - at least it's a/c will then blow cold - which I can assure you, it never did in '73.

Pls tell me the hood and trunk lid exist?

If it goes V8 it should be an M60

no leather, just that sweet sweet vinyl/cloth mix. and that 70's German vinyl interior smell. you know the one.

it's complete, the deck lids were just off of it. it's OG silver and suffered a few resprays of that fugly blue to go along with the bumps and bruises of a well lived life.

it is an AC car, and that will maybe get sorted out down the line. but that's like phase, I dunno, 8 or 9 or something.

I just finished up a Volvo 142 with a 2.3L EcoBoost for a client so it'll be a nice change of pace to work on something more "normal" and with a lot lower stakes (ie my own crapbox standards).

I know... I know...

if I was gonna stay in the family I'd probably be a real glutton for punishment and either build the M40 with EFI or go M36 because I hate myself.

I'm not discounting any swap just yet-- 3.8L LD5 with a reasonably sized turbo may be in the cards even.

but I have an all aluminum LS1 sitting in the shop (other client upgraded to a 6.0L) so it might be a case of dancing with the gal you brought to the party.

wow...
That's Entertainment!

I would have had to change shorts after that fo' sho.

Aluminum block LS motors didn't weigh much more than cast iron 4 cylinders when I was looking at one for a Saturn Sky.

iron block 5.3/5.7's are only 80lb more than the stock M30, and I'll be losing that easily by ditching the power brakes, steering, chonky radiator and AC

but I do have an all aluminum LS1 available, the only caveat is that I have to swap the guy a 6.0 for it... but then that stalls his project out. and frankly I don't want to give him any more excuses for that thing to not move forward-- mostly because I'm sick of looking at it here in the shop!

it's like hey, here's a fully built P177 VMC ready to rock, just trade me a P2 lump for it kind of situation...

Move battery from under hood to trunk there 40lbs by itself.

Highs and lows in the workshop today

First, I went to look at a drip on the LML I'm going to sell. Realized I'd forgotten the fiber washer on the oil drain. Pulled it off and gasoline pissed out of the crankcase. So I'll be splitting the cases on that one again.

Then, I got back to the fuel leak on the Sprint. Turned out that one of the screws on the fuel tap was loose, so I fixed that up.

Took it out to for a quick test ride and it was struggling to get going, like super rich. One out got going, though, it was its usual self. My initial thought was a clogged idle just, but when I looked in the carb mouth, fuel was spraying insane amounts and making a mess on the back of the cases, so I'm thinking a bad float and/or needle.

I didn't have time to actually check the float, but I'll get there.

Also, I finally saw another vintage Vespa in Nashville. Guy on a China Blue P about a mile from my house. I was headed the other way and I was in the car, so I didn't chase him down, but I was pretty sure a Vespa had ridden past my house a week or so ago, so I'll probably run into him at some point.

Heh heh figuratively speaking, of course

Let's hope.

Reminds me of this.

Got bored with being stalled out on my rally project and decided to replace the choke cable/lever on my Allstate.

Hadn't been run in a couple years. Started first kick

Still not legal to ride yet… but I just couldn't help myself; first ride in probably… 3-4 years? I forgot that irrepressible grin

Ha. I redid the choke on my vnb today.
What a PiTA jobbo. One of my least favorites for sure.

Yeah, it was more annoying than I'd anticipated. Favorite part was when I straightened out the little "z" at the end, before I realized why it was there.

Anytime you gotta remove the tank is no fun. The VNA is slightly easier than the VNB at least. No choke above the fuel lever! That part goes much easier at least.

I was sure there was a thread with lots of pictures of three wheeled Vespas, but can't find it. This is a bit cool.

Video here - https://youtube.com/shorts/xFuMLZiawtw?feature=share

It's from a guy on Instagram, not mine!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CuID1A-Nb0k/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng%3D%3D

https://nevsedoma.com.ua/en/572517-vespa-bessiere-a-bizarre-three-wheeled-car-5-photos.html


https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=665080892327168&set=pcb.665080912327166

Love it. Especially the triple exhaust, because of all that back pressure.

Poi Dog came around for a visit… And the old adage of "many hands make light work" is so very true. Dropped the front end on the SS, ate donuts, broke a spark plug cap on the smallie mid ride (there may have a small bit of air involved at the top of hill), rescued by our amigo Kyle, ate tacos, oogled Marks 177 egig build, and then more wrenching. Probably sweated off 5 pounds of water weight too.

The entire herd is running and road worthy. Just have some fussy bits to address (headlight, speedo install).

What a fun productive weekend.
We also delivered a P125 scoot to Armando which was the best part of the weekend.

Thanks Mark. Doesn't get much better than that!

Here's our reverse vespa trike thread here... Vespa Trike ...and i'm still very interested in building one

Thanks! "Trike" was one search term I didn't think of.

I took the Minnow (97 Winnebago - 30') to get a leaf spring added to the rear to cure it's saggy ass issue, and that's with 80 PSI in the airbags.

They discovered the drivetrain needed new seals and U-joints,
rotors needed turning,
Rear differential cover replaced with a finned aluminum one,
all calipers greased and
front wheel bearings packed.

She's now level and runs fantastic - no more saggy ass. And feels like it's rolling better .

So stoked!

Doing a Malossi build for my cousin. I'm giving him my old cases, Pinasco 60 crank and reinforced Cosa clutch...

Fortunate cousin!

I get free dental work from him...

SaFis - I was doing my family tree and I never knew it but we are cousins too....

So, you're the long long long lost cousin??



P.S. He did pay for the Malossi kit though...

yes, my great grandfather was the black sheep of the family, he's cut out of most of the family trees but he's real

That's a good deal.

Moving on with my cousin's build. Machined the Malossi head to 1.2mm instead of buying an MMW Touring head and I'll be also installing a machined ex-elestart flywheel (FYI red gives more power and torque ). We're also going full hydraulic disc brake in the front. Piaggio original carrier, caliper and a Grimeca NT Classic hub with replaced / longer studs...

Top work as usual. And elegant 150/200 head lathe fixture !

That is a classy looking fixture I assume it was fabricated for this specific job.

Today I cracked open my smallstate engine. It's a hopped up engine of which I don't have much history. I bought it about a year ago, but I've barely touched it.

While riding 2 days ago it suddenly revved out of control. Kill switch wouldn't work and I had to quickly stuff a rag over the tailpipe to kill it. I let it sit for a while, and it started and ran fine. But after riding 2 blocks it died and the rear tire locked up. Now something is jamming up the gearbox.

Now I'm not an expert, but this looks wrong...

Most of the plate tabs look like this.

The P200 has gotten really bad about jumping out of second gear, so I finally split the cases tonight to see what's going on and get it sorted out.

I was expecting the cruciform to be pretty hammered, and was not disappointed, but was not expecting to see the lands of second gear to look like they'd been filed to points.

Gear stack play was .40, too, so that needs to get a thicker spacer while I'm at it.

Regardless, nothing a credit card and the Internet can't solve.

ohhh! there's a trophy!

nothing a CC and the internet can't solve... thanks, I'll be stealing this for the future.

well, at least you know why the rear locked up. the good news is that cracking the cases might take care of the air leak that caused the OOC revving...

Canadian Club? Perfect!



...on the rocks, please?.... Oh, Credit Card?

I was amazed how hard it was to find a decent EFL cruciform on any of my go-to sites. Wound up ordering from Scooter West and even then, I just got a Piaggio, not a Crimaz.

I had a spare, but it's for a non-EFL motor, so my Dragon Hoard let me down this time.

Damnit...it occurs to me I forgot to make sure I have a case gasket...

*runs to workshop*

Update: In addition to a multitude of smallie and stella gasket sets, I *do* have a P200 gasket set. Order avoided.