Modern Vespa

10 hour round trip up to Syracuse and $500 later... Second small frame project to add to my list of projects!

It is a late 1971 early 1972 USA battery door frame Script badge V90. The frame number says 1972, but the model badge plate says manufactured in Dec 1971, and the engine number says 1971. I don't think these came with turn signals, but they came with batteries obviously since they have battery side compartments.


Engine removed from frame. Top end removed from engine. Seller's father passed away while working on it. He was in the process of rebuilding the top end and starting body work to repaint. Came almost fully complete. Got the full engine including brand new GOL piston and rings for the v90 to replace the junk piston which is still in the box of stuff. Both battery side and engine side doors. Tuna can tail light (needs a lot of work to straighten out and restore back to original), speedo, saddle seat, tank, carb, headlight, etc all there. Just missing the kick start lever and original exhaust plus some wiring and random little things.

This one is gonna get a full restore treatment. Body work, repaint in original paint color. I need to get a closer look to see if the paint tag is inside.. and do more google searching to match the color. The small frame encyclopedia on FB, Jasper Foehn, suggested the color is a rare Giallo Cromo 933 "Max Meyer Paint Code: "Chrome Yellow" 1.298.2933 from 1970 onwards", but in my quick googling, that seems to be more a greenish yellow color whereas this is straight yellow. So I'm thinking it might be either Giallo 912 or Giallo Texas 935

As usual, more pictures to come tomorrow. Just got home in the rain and dark.

to tune or not to tune. that is always the question!

Nice score!

Awesome score! Looks like a great project that's found a good home. No it's not. Tune that bitch UP!

yeah i know!
https://scooterlab.uk/part-1-egig-170cc-bolt-on-vespa-smallframe-kit-road-test/

That's now on my SIP Notepad. And it's cheap, too!

Cheap.

Until you add the 115mm conrod crank. the egig unisex exhaust. the 4 speed gearbox change. the side draft carb. and if you aren't insane, the new front end with disc brake so you don't kill yourself (84mph top speed).

Sign me up!

Well some further investigation on the battery door I have inside right now. It could be giallo cromo and the PO just sanded the top layer of giallo cromo down on the whole frame in prep to repaint.

Battery door sanding spots has a base primer, then a layer of normal yellow, finally covered with a top layer of greenish yellow which would be the giallo cromo.

I'll have to check in daylight tomorrow if the frame itself has traces of similar layering with top coat of greenish yellow. That would be cool if originally giallo cromo as its a much nicer color than straight yellow.

Yep, the real question is when will we here the Malossi 135 kit running?

OOOOH I retract the above statement, egig 170, let those wasps sing.

Since we're spending Swiss's money BFA 288, lets hear angry wasps growl

https://www.sip-scootershop.com/en/product/racing-cylinder-bfa-motori-288_24398100

288 is so "Last Year". 407cc FTW!!!

Congrats, Sean!!

What's $3k for top end, crank, and exhaust among friends?

What a great score!
Looking forward to watching your build.

A friend just asked if it's worth it to tune it. My response...
"None of this is worth it. Hasn't stopped me yet!"

And to summarize what I told mj last night in response to losing money on selling these things...

" You only lose money on them when you try to sell them. So just don't sell them and you'll never lose money on them, no matter how much you sunk into them! "

And the photos of condition...

(cont.)

Guessing holes on either side of headlight are for screws used to mount headlight.

Boy you got yourself a basket case there son, gonna have to finish stripping her down to sheet metal. Looks like previous caretaker was sanding some spots but didn't pull few remaining bits for some reason.

(cont.) not IE treachery let me post!

Regarding the paint. Like I said in the photo description above... I think this is the original paint on the body frame. Im still torn on whether its a greenish yellow.. or just a mustard yellow. It appears slightly greenish tint in overcast cloudy light, but mustard yellow in brighter light. The frame does not have any clear layering of greenish yellow to standard yellow to grey primer like the battery door does, but the color looks like it could be the same greenish yellow to the battery door top layer. So im just not really sure.

I think maybe the side compartment door had a third layer of paint applied to it at some point in its life which was slightly more greenish yellow? or it came off a giallo cromo frame and this is a mustard yellow frame originally? Any opinions on original color from the experts?

Original Paint potentials:

Giallo Cromo 933
I'm leaning toward this because the color swatch on the link looks closest to the actual color. What throws me off about this though is the photo of the actual bike painted in this color is much more saturated green than what I see on mine (except the battery door). Could be the paint is so old and worn down from previous owner sanding it that it just lost a decent amount of the green saturation in it.

Giallo Texas 935
This is close second.. cause my frame looks like this swatch as is.. but again the photo of the actual bike painted in it looks too bright yellow for what my frame is. Again could be the condition of the paint itself that has dulled it from looking truly like this example

Giallo 912
I'm kinda writing this off as a potential original color.

Unfortunately there is no paint code paper stuck inside the tunnel to confirm!

How about paint color under gas tank in the frame cavity.

Its got a greenish cast to it but its overspray so its not a complete layer covering the grey primer.

Photos of it in daylight and with pure white LED flashlight.

I'm leaning towards giallo cromo is the correct color and its just not looking exactly right to me because of the years of abuse and po's sanding of the top coat and sometimes fully through to the metal.

I also noticed another area needing some welding. The bottom lip of the battery compartment has some rust holes.

That's really hard to tell, looks like it has some green in it depending on lighting. Unless white led technology changed since I last used it for a project its actually a mixture of colors to get white.

I've been discussing it with Jasper Foehn who literally has the most extensive knowledge of every minor detail of these things and he swears its giallo cromo because that was the color of the vespa 90 in late 1971 early 1972 proven through multiple examples he's seen in person. This bike is definitely late 71 early 72 cause the name plate has dec 1971 manufacture date, the frame number is a 72 and the engine number is a 71.

I'm positive its original paint because its got the original bluish chrome metal sticker badge on the leg shield which Jasper confirms is the original badge, and its got the running in decal on the inside leg shield.

He's also suggesting the saddle seat I have is actually a rare triangle saddle seat off a 1963 V50 or V90 from the west coast cause the light blue color was only present on west coast distributor small frames and the triangle saddle seat was only on one model small frame imported to the US in light blue at that time. Seat is worth a decent amount on its own to the right person looking to find the correct seat and color.

I was planning on replacing with a modern slim line saddle seat that conforms to the sleek lines of the frame anyways. I'll hold onto the seat until i find someone who needs exactly this seat.

Always exciting to see another smallframe be resurrected looking forward to following along

Love that color.

I'd rock it as is, but then again I'm special that way. Can't wait to see it finished though.

I've got enough original survivor paint bikes. This one seems like a good candidate for finally learning/doing body work and paint. It would be nice to have one pristine scooter in the family! The PO already started it. I'll finish it.

Congrats! You've got yourself a worthy project. Lots of potential, and good candidate for resto. Excited to see where this goes.

I obviously love a good resto-mod, and this looks like a great candidate for one. Not enough paint left to feel too bad about stripping off and starting over.

I feel ya. A shiny one is appealing. That yellow is so nice

Nice score! My thoughts on smallframe tuning?...it's a slippery slope for chasing horsepower. I'd either keep it fairly simple, such as converting over to a 4 speed transmission and a stock cast iron 125 top end, or going the distance with fancy clutch, crank, cylinder, transmission, expansion chamber, hydro disc brake, VAPE ignition, ect. Figure around $400 on average for each and every one of those fancy components...then add the total up, add 30% more money, and that should give you a somewhat realistic total cost of all the other bits and pieces that we always forget that we need to finish our projects.

Looks like a great project, swiss.

To my eye, the paint color is definitely Giallo Chromo. Giallo Texas has more of a mustard tone.

This is the correct headlight for ~70-72 US market bikes. Countersunk screws on the sides, and the "puzzle clip" on the bottom. Ba20d main bulb, no city light.

I've got the original. Unfortunately the lens is cracked.

Gonna have to figure out how to save the frame and replace the lens.. maybe the reflector as well if it is damaged.

Is there a chance you can use this?? Looks like it has the same markings on the glass. Maybe just the glass. You can pry open the ring…

https://www.scooter-center.com/en/headlight-siem-torino-nos-oe-115/120mm-vespa-ss50-v5ss1t-50sr-v5ss2t-ss90-v9ss1t-90-racer-v9ss2t-pv125-vma1t-vma2t-et3-vmb1t-super-vnc1t/vbc1t-glass-3334128?number=3334128

This one will fit, its a Siem, just has the later Euro markings, not 4028. plus, it's a lot closer...

https://www.scootermercato.com/Scooter-Parts/Headlight-Lens/104V

I still have that NOS unit, if you are interested PM.

I like it man. I'm with you, it's already hashed out. time to learn paint and body.

on the motor. 4spd, DRT tree/short forth, V90 or 100 sport gears, entry level crank with addt'l timing, pick a good entry level top end DR is fine, polni or malossi if you got dough, road banana or if you want the noise one of the kidney pipes, knock on a CP20/21 and get you some EI with a middleweight flywheel. you're still gonna spend dough, just not like, ALL the dough.

I just finished a similar motor build for a client. they went big where it mattered-- gears, tree, clutch, big taper flowed crank. cast iron polini. rotary, PWK 24 with the egig banana and a vape set up.

it's wayyy faster than it has any right to be. it's totally rideable, but also still has room for improvement. a different top end and pipe would make that thing fly without touching a thing. a high end top end and pipe would make it bonkers.

just things to consider while it's all apart.

Went down to a local auto paint supplier shop to see if I could track down the equivalent to the elusive max meyer paint code like everyone else who tries to do this.

Supposedly online the max meyer paint code equivalent in PPG is 933. The paint guy could not find this number in the PPG database. He could find a paint called Yellow Chrome listed in the database, but he couldn't find an actual paint code for it. He even called a PPG rep and they said it doesn't exist in their system anymore.

So we went a less accurate route... we tried to compare visually from tons of swatch booklets he has with my battery door panel. Inaccurate cause who knows what this color is actually supposed to look like freshly painted.. the battery door has 50 years of weathering, light pollution and has been cut down/sanded and scratched to all hell. My sample could be darker because of years of dirt or it could be lighter from years of UV pollution? who knows.

I would love to find someone who has actually painted with that correct color to find out what they used.

We ended up finding a close but not perfectly matching color in a Fiat booklet. The color was Fiat 356A "Verde Maya" but he tried adding an extra drop into the sample touch up paint he mixed up to try to get just a little more hint of green into it that it was missing to match the darkest top layer of my sample.

I will keep looking to see if I can find any other modern paint codes that people have used to paint giallo cromo 933 with so that I can do a test panel with a few options to see what I can get that looks closest to the examples online.

Another option... buy this kit and then take it to my paint guy and get him to match it to something he has so I can get more of it than what this kit offers.

https://www.pmcvernici.it/home/272-199-kit-restauro-vespa-enrico-graphite.html#/32-colore_piaggio-giallo_cromo_12982933

Try Glasurit. Seems like they're the most updated nowadays…

Scooterwest used to sell paint for vintage Vespas in original colors: Paint for vintage Vespas in original colors now available

I can't find this on their web site anymore, but I would give them a call and see if they can direct you at all.

I emailed them and they said nope.