Modern Vespa

First a little backstory, I bought this (or should I rather say signed up as it's primary caregiver) beauty back in 2017 after just stumbling upon it on the local equivalent to Craigslist. The bike originally belonged to the sellers father, and he had amongst other things ridden it to Spain and back, which is at least a 8000 km round trip, so around 70% of the 12000 km on the odometer is just that single trip.

The sad part was that it had been sitting in a shed with 3 walls for the last 10 years, so it looked rather dreadful when I got it.

After a two week process of actually buying the Vespa (seller was a bit reluctant to part with it and wanted it to go to a good home locally, and wasn't very familiar with the transfer process, so it took a bit of time), I got it home and gave it a quick hand wash using Autoglym Bodywork Shampoo. At this stage I wanted to judge the condition of the paint so I wanted to be as gentle as possible.

After this stage I did a lot of stuff that I didn't really document, but it basically consisted of the following:

-Cleaning the fuel system and replacing the carburettor.
-Replacing the ignition components (coil, HT lead, spark plug and cap)
-New rims and tires (Pirelli SC30)
-Buffing the oxidised paint using Mirka Polarshine 10 and Polarshine 5, which did an amazing job, took me around 2 hours to do the whole bike.
-New leather seat with the Italian flag for a bit of that Vespa silliness
-Lots of new rubber parts that were either missing or broken

At this point I got the bike running rather well, it has a bit of a hesitation of idle that I can't get rid off, but I'll try again.

After this it sat for 3½ years, as other projects got in the way, and I had an issue with the replacement SIP fuel tap that I couldn't get it to stop leaking, which kind of put me of working on the bike.

Well Done...It has cleaned up well.
Glad its gone to a good home.

Perhaps the carb mixture screw just needs a fine adjustment to get rid of the flat spot?

I'm not really sure what's going on since I couldn't really get it adjusted out back in 2017. There's also something funky with the advance setting, the stator plate bottomed out before I got the full advance I was after. However, it drives just fine once it's up to temperature, and start on first kick, so I'll get the more pressing matters like no rear brake sorted and then see if I can get it perfect.

Now we're back to "real time", aka. 2 weeks ago, spring is starting slowly to show it's face here in the frozen wastes of Finland, so I thought I'd get back to the P125X.

First I started where I ended last time, the leaking fuel tap, I drained the now rancid gas out of the tank once more again, the new gas had loosened up a lot of junk that I didn't get out of it last time, so I washed out the tank once more and got it really clean, and decided to do a tank sealer on it using POR-15.

The treatment turned out alright, and with a new Piaggio fuel tap, I got it all together. Turns out the issue with the SIP tap was that the handle fit all too snugly into the tap, so any slight misalignment between the tap and centerline of the Vespa caused the handle to exert pressure on the tap which caused it to leak. The Piaggio is on the other hand extremely generous with the bore for the handle, so as long as you're within 5 degrees of centerline, it's no issue. So, turns out that you can make something too well.

After finally getting the fuel system sorted and the Vespa running once again, I could now start fixing the lights. Every single bulb on the scooter worked when I got it, but the tail light and one blinker was smashed, so I set about replacing them.

I noticed that I wasn't getting any brake lights after fitting the new tail light, so I tore apart and cleaned the rear brake pedal switch. After that I couldn't get the rear brakes to work, so I tore apart the rear drum to find a leaking output shaft seal. While waiting on the new seal, I completely stripped down the brakes and prepared the brake shield for a quick paint job.

i like a nice sympathetic re commision. ill be watching this thread with interest

Yeah, I've done the full respray on a VW Beetle once, and this time I just wanted the polished turd look, nothing broken and everything polished but with a nice bit of patina here and there. As they say in the VW crowd, it's only original paint once.

Plus it's fun to restore the different parts using various new techniques, I'll be doing some nickel plating in a week or so on a couple of parts.

Still waiting on parts, but I thought I'd share the start of another small project, replating the helmet hook. I started with using electrolysis to remove most of the rust (the rest will be taken care of by the acid pickle before plating).

Nice electrolysis work, standing by for your plating classes Good man, it is a lovely bike, you cleaned it up nicely and the factory paint is generally quite good.



I like your stickers too, part of the bike's history. I had a very similar sticker on a bike I did have to paint, but masked the old sticker I liked because I was told it was from the shop that sold it new.







Sorry, end of hijack!

I'm actually kind of toying with the idea of doing reproductions of some of those stickers as most are kind of falling apart. And one is going since I need to replace the front fender, but as they did that horrible 25% respray on that front fender I'm not too worried

I really love the colour. Ive never seen a yellow PX in the UK for sale retail. Its a good safe colour too, will get you seen on the road. I like the honesty/patina of its looks, for a mk1 its in great condition. Its looks a beauty, congrats.

Cheers mate! Yeah, this was a bit of a lucky find, I've never seen another PX for sale here in Finland, so they are a bit rare for some reason.

The only yellow ones ive seen were advertised on ebay etc around 8 years ago in the UK. A whole batch of spanish postal service vespa PX's turned up in the UK and how they got here was a mystery. Various stories that they were illegally exported, stolen, were written off, had severe damage etc and should be avoided were rife at the time. Had no idea what the truth was.

Theres an old link on here where you can view. Does a VESPA deliver your mail?

That colour was a UK option around about 1983, I bought one. I think it was badged PX125E though it lacked autolube as in yours.

Well i never knew that. The last time i saw that yellow was on the mid 70's primavera. Quite unique. I wonder how many yellow PXs were put out?

My brake parts arrived in the post today, so I got the back brake together today. The rear seal must have been backwards for quite some time, as the whole backend was covered in 10mm of gravel and hardened oil. I also upgraded to a Viton seal, hopefully it'll be long lasting!

I also removed the crash bar mount at the rear, and wanted to show you just how effective penetrating oil is at removing rust from OG paint. When I first removed the bracket, the paint under it looked as bad as the bracket. After a bit of scrubbing using a blue shop towel and some CRC 5-56 (like WD-40 but better, according to my grandfather, father and myself at least), and it's looking like the last picture.

It's beautiful! Love the color.

How do the turn signals work? It looks like the switch is not present on that model, but the lights are there.

The switch is on the left handle, identical looking to the headlight switch on the right handle. Both are pointing down, so they are rather discrete. I'll snap a picture of them for your viewing pleasure next time I'm in the shop!

Round two yesterday was very fruitful, I replaced the rear brake cable and removed yet another unnecessary bracket, another job for the CRC 5-56.

I also got the license plate brackets finished, sadly no pictures yet. The new Euro plates have a different bolt pattern than the older one, and I thought the 8 holes already present in the rear fender was plenty. I personally think they look a lot snazzier than the old ones without the EU emblem.

Awesome bike and great job so far!!

I'm also currently wrenching on a '81 P125X so I will be watching your progress with great interest!!

Greetings to all, I wanted to add that if you want to increase the passive safety of a PX whose weak point is the tube tires, rims for tubeless tires are also for sale on the web ... much safer.

Interesting! In the US market, we had this one on the right side, and the the other one on the opposite side.

Yes it is, clean it up nicely and put it back! Those are missing on 95% of bikes that have been improperly fiddled with and you don't want ppl thinking that you've been fiddling with stuff you shouldn't be! . No big deal, but do you really want to be the one who breaks that factory "seal".

I like your compact and stylish license plates there! I have a nice similar old one from some local jurisdiction and the mounting plate that fits it perfectly that I can use at rallys etc.

Terry, it's a German insurance plate for small, low powered, motorised vehicles (mopeds, wheelchairs, etc.). They are issued by an insurance company and basically it's a registration plate including insurance for a year. They are valid from March 1 until the end of February the next year. I have one too I got of a German PK50...

Here's pics of the switches on mine, left is just indicators left - off - right, right one is headlight - off - daytime running light on the bottom, hi and low beams on the one in the middle, and horn on the little round button.

Haha, yeah, it was a bit too nicely fitted and too complicated to be an aftermarket bodge, I'll make sure to get an identical repro and fit it back, will have to age it some so that it fits with the patina of the swing arm!

We have a bunch of them, here's a document with examples if you're interested. https://www.traficom.fi/sites/default/files/media/file/Traficom_Kilpijuliste_700x1000%2B5mm_090920_lowres.pdf
Basically, you can choose if you want the black and white one or the EU version, and if the vehicle is older than 1972-ish you can also request one of the black ones. Then all the others are some special purpose, like tractors, snowmobiles, dealer plates etc.

Funnily enough those are almost identical to our moped plates (50cc or less), except ours come from the "DMV", not the insurance company. Probably copied from Germany, for some reason almost everything here in Finland was at some point copied from Germany

Today I finally got the Vespa buttoned up, license plate bracket finally installed along with the license plate. Also cleaned up the center tunnel waiting for the new floor mat that's arriving from SIP on Monday hopefully. CRC to the rescue again, got that glue off like nothing. Any recommendations for what glue should be used for the new floormat?

Sitting outside after the first test drive around the parking lot, now I just need a new helmet and around 2 weeks more of spring before I can go for a real test drive!

So, today the awaited SIP package arrived! I started out replacing the rear indicator that was broken, and ran into a grounding issue which had me scratching my head for a while (FYI, don't put a washer under the screw that provides the ground, only the star washer as it was from di fabbrica).

Then I went along gluing the center floor mat down. After a bit of searching I found out that people recommended contact cement, which seems to be what the factory used. This is luckily a product I'm fairly familiar with, so here's my method. I used Casco S9 Super which is favoured by shoemakers and leatherworkers here in Europe, Barge is the one to get in US. Don't get the stuff that doesn't smell, it's not as good as the older formula that rots your brain, but do work in a well ventilated area as we'll be applying quite a bit.

1. Make sure the mat fits by dry fitting it, some might be a bit off shape wise and you don't want to find out with glue applied. Tape off the edges on all four sides so that you can apply glue out to the edge without getting any on the paint. The tape also helps you align the mat when you glue it down.
2. Clean the mating surfaces with mineral spirits to remove any wax from the rubber mat and old glue from the center tunnel.
3. Apply an even layer of contact cement on both mating surfaces, going out to the edges front and back, but leave the area under the screws free of glue on both the tunnel and mat. A glue pot like the one I have is really nice to have, and a worthwhile investment if you buy a jar of glue.
4. While you wait the required 10-15 minutes for the glue to set so much that it's still squishy but doesn't stick to your finger when you poke it, go ahead and polish the trim. I found that a pot cleaning scotchbright foam sponge from the dollar store is the best way to get the rust around the screw holes off, and to remove any deeper scratches. Autosol Aluminium Polish is what I used but Autoglym Metal Polish works really well also. Use the Scotchbright side to do the rough work, and then the foam back side to do the final polish.
5. Now the glue should be nice and tacky, so carefully plonk down the matt. You only get one shot at getting this right, as the glue sticks almost instantly.
Find the side which is best aligned, and put in the screws, the two inner first and then the outer ones. If the trim doesn't fit, flip it, it has a certain curve to it. Also, slip the trim on top of the mat first, then screw it down, don't imagine you're going to slip the rubber in after you get the screws started.
6. Move to the other side, and put the trim over the rubber, and stretch it down until you get a center screw started. Install the other one while keeping the mat inside the trim. Then do the rear one, and finally the front one.
7. Take a plastic hammer or a large screwdriver, and lightly hammer down the mat everywhere were you put glue. This helps the glue to bond, and is a technique used by shoemakers.

Admire your handiwork. The glue should be almost set at this point, and will further harden over the next few days. [/url]

Some more pictures of the process, I also found out that it pays to use the old screws during the fitting process, as you're prone to buggering up the heads while trying to get the screws in.

Very nice progress Stuggi! It's looking fantastic. Thank you for the pictures and products you're using!

And yes, that metal band was factory to hold the clutch and brake cable to the swingarm.

Well, here we go again, the underside of the Vespa is leaking fuel, so I guess the fuel tap is still leaking.

Any ideas what to look for? Didn't I tighten the nut enough, or are there any other common spots?

Maybe try posting pictures of your assembly, tools your using and tank flange in that area. I never had an issue with mine, I put in a SIP 2 fast flow tap.

One thing that will cause a leak is if the tap is not aligned properly to the control rod. If there is any stress on the barrel of the tap the seal inside will leak.

Good to keep the original screws. The nice new shiny reproduction ones are prone to have their heads snap right off leaving a nice threaded piece of screw sitting in there to deal with.

Yeah, I noticed that with the SIP tap I had earlier which is a bit tighter fit than the Piaggio one. I ripped out the tank yesterday and noticed that it was leaking around the bottom seal, so I tightened it down as hard as possible with the tank nut wrench, I'm not sure if the new gasket/tap has settled a bit after installation or what might have been the issue. The control rod should be ok, as the Piaggio tap is bored quite large for the control rod, so it can move freely so that it touches the whole perimeter of the frame hole, which would indicate that it's well centered in the hole.