Modern Vespa

Another forum member encouraged me to start a thread on the restoration project of not one, not two but three 1979 P200E scooters.

I've been into old cars for awhile, but never really restored a bike of any kind. In fact, I've never ridden a scooter. Only one of the three of us embarking on this adventure have owned or ridden one.

What could go wrong?

The bikes need everything (including new titles which are in process). The blue one only has 2100 miles on the clock, but all have some bodywork and paint issues.

Here are a couple of photos. Follow along. Give advice. Throw rocks. (We're in Plano, Texas. If you're in the neighborhood, come by and help.)

Vinny

We've decided to take the three bikes apart one at a time so we'd have something to refer back to.

The engine is almost out.

Damn.. 3 at that same time for the first! Love it. You must have gotten a great deal!

Don't worry, these are way easier than any machine you have experience on. This should be piece of cake for you.

Lovin' the little 500..........oh and the P200s

Welcome and congrats on the 3-way undertaking! This will be fun! Good plan to do one at a time, having the others as reference is helpful; and you can make all the mistakes on the first build I kid! Good luck

Rad!

Welcome.

Lots of good vintage peeps in the DFW area.
Will be watching with interest.

(Man that white one is clean!!!)

Welcome to MV Vinny!

Thanks for posting this trio of fine P200 extravaganza! And Red, white and blue no less.

I'll be following along!

Thanks everyone!

swa45 - good eye! The 500 has been around about 5-6 months. A lot of fun.

swiss1939 - I hope you're right. Fun so far.

There are three of us that each own one of the bikes. The white one has the most miles and actually runs.

Ambitious undertaking. Lot's of good folks on MV to help out if you get stuck! Please post! will be great to see the progress..

This'll be a fun one to watch! I like the lines of the earlier bikes, but you can't beat that 200cc motor for getting the job done. All of those bikes will clean up really nicely. You can maybe even save the paint if you're careful and tape over the panels before you beat on them.

I grew up on the Dallas-Plano line and lived in Plano for a few years after I was an adult, still have my Mom in Dallas. If I make it down that way, I'll hit you up.

Thanks chandlerman. C'mon by. We have wrenches for everyone.

Can I drive the Fiat if I do?

My mom was giving me the ol' "I haven't seen you since before COVID" when I talked to her the other day, so who knows. I'll probably wait until things cool off a little, though, before I start making any promises.

Sure, you can take the Fiat for a spin. A bit of a challenge, no synchros so it take a bit of touch. There's an MGA parked in front of it, that has synchros in 3 of the gears!

Making progress on the disassembly. Two of the three bikes need their engines rebuilt, hope to get them to the shop week after next.

I live in Arlington,

Send me a PM and we can get one of the motors running.

Yovinny, nice start to breaking it down. What is your goal with this project? Mechanical refresh/rebuild? The paint looks pretty nice and original, so it might not be necessary to remove the aluminum strips if you're not doing full repaint. I recommend mechanical resto, polish it up and ride that baby soon!

You should definitley take up Rowdyc on the offer to help with the motors

They look so nice! Like mostly just buffing/polishing, maybe repainting a couple of fenders/cowls.

It's amazing to see three P200s with original paint in such good shape.

WOW the white and red one should polish up very nicely. The P's have a charm of there own, a certain "je ne sais quoi". My first experiences with Vespas were P's so I have a soft spot.

I'll be in Ft worth in the next few months, (and likely every other month for the foreseeable future) so maybe I can ferry parts from CA or whatever. I've wrenched my fair share of British motors, old and young, and I'll tell you these Vespas are fun to spend time with, both wrenching and riding. Nothing quite like that Vespa sound. Vroom, papapapapop, vroom.

A ton more progress on two of the three P200Es. Many thanks to Rowdyc who came all the way over from Arlington to lend his amazing expertise. Then a storm came in and twisted our EZ-Up into a pretzel.

Scooter number one is back from powder coating and looks great. Let the re-assembly begin!

The wiring harness going into scooter #1.

Scooter #2 is back from powdercoat and ready for reassembly. How hard could it be?

Hell yeah!!! I am loving this topic already.

Things are happening fast, so I'll try to do a better job of posting updates. What's also helpful is that I don't really know what I'm doing.

Made lots of progress on the blue bike.

All assembled, idling well (but having some sort of fuel flow issue I need to track down - pinched hose?) and we even have rear blinkers!

Make sure the fuel hose is the correct length. It's not uncommon to have it just a bit too long that it droops down inside the body too far below the carb. Then gravity is working against, not for you. I believe the correct length is 24".

Will do. Thanks for the tip.