Modern Vespa

Hello all. The time has come for me to start yet another NEW project thread. I have (more than) a few that are unfinished, *dont judge me*; but this one - is worth starting a new thread for sure. Here we have the latest addition to the GeekLion Garage:

1965 Vespa Super Sport 180, Airco New Zealand addition

The VSC has been my favorite dream scooter since I was a teen. I have loved Vespa's, since I was a teen; and the Super Sport 180 has been my favorite and most sought after model since my first days of scootering. You know that moment in LUCA when the boy see's the poster and is straight up mesmerized by the red Vespa? That is me - 100%, when I first walked into the Scooter Shop in Orange, CA; and saw the red VSC sitting on the checkerboard showroom floor. I instantly fell in love.

I've wanted a VSC ever since. Over the years I've collected parts, and spares; and poured over all the books and information about the Super Sport 180. I even had a basket case project at one time, but it was not meant to be. Well....now.... 25 years after I first stepped foot into the the scootering world; a real Super Sport 180 is finally mine!

Long story very short: a friend and clubmate recently said "hey, I randomly found out about an SS180 for sale from a friend of a friend." Stars aligned, and I jumped immediately! A few days later, the deal was sealed, and the scooter is on its way to me this week.

What I aquired is a 1965 model, New Zealand import; which was assembled and distributed by AIRCO New Zealand. I'm still in the research phase of these particular models. There is some information available on the interwebernet, and I am still dialing in the details and differences that these particular models were assembled with; compared to their Italian cousins. The differences are similar to how the NZ SS90's had no spare tank, and were also available in colors that differed from the usual Italian options. More research to be done in this department.

The SS180 will be in my hands at the end of the week, but I couldn't wait any longer to spill the news! This MV community has been a great resource, and helpful place of shared interest for so many reasons; so I wanted to share my excitement. I truly love ALL Vespas, and Lambretta's too. I do have just 1 Lambretta, so I can say I walk both sides of the fence. I have to admit, I havn't been this happy about a new scooter in a VERY long while. More to come!

Here are a few pics of Airco SS180's that I had.

The seats were mostly a block of (Para Rubber) foam, as a certain % of then needed to be locally supplied & the frame/panels came as CKD ( complete knock down) to NZ... It was all about import duties.
There are a few posts here about Airco Vespas.

There may be something useful in these posts..

Ode to Speedy;
Ode to Speedy - damn these expensive shopping trolleys!

Speedy's Cuzzie-Bro
An Original Super Resto?

Both Airco VBC's.
Speedy was VBC150 & Cuzzie-Bro is VBC125, appear to be made at the same time, with ENGINE NUMBERS being only 60 digits apart, yet different heads were put on them!
There are no "real" chassis/VIN numbers on the Airco I have seen, Speedy has "1083" stamped on frame, nothing else.

I gave away what i now realise was a SS180 body, just before shifting to Aus. but don't have photos of it, plus a rod-change Ipicked up one day off Hard-Rubbish!
Had a Red SS90, no dummy tank & don't think there were bolt holes for it (some did, others didn't) very early on, it was soooo fast!
Only had front brake, accelerator (& possibly horn) connected (I had no idea on how to do those things & didn't really care TBH, I just wanted to ride it!)... no clutch, no gears, no rear brake!
I brought it off a lady who was clearing the garage, & her son had left it, "ohh, and there is a lawnmower motor with a wheel on it if you want" ...
i had a broken broom handle (with a skinny end & forked bit to get into the selector a bit better), as the original stick broke, which I used to change gears (rather effective once you worked out where to & how hard to whack the gear selector when buttoning off the throttle to change up... when the lights turned red or if i needed to stop, I simply stalled it... then bashed the gears back to (what I hoped was) second, stood next to it... when they turned green, I would simply push-start it, once it pop, bang, bang, fired, hop on, knob it till revs were well past where they should be, bash it into 3rd (or 4th if i bashed too hard) & carry on till next time it was time to stall it & re-start the process!

GL this is an awesome score.

I don't have much in the way of precious parts or SS180 specific things, but anything that I do is yours man.

now get cracking!

Good stuff

Congrats man!

Sweet ride!

May want to hit it REALLY HARD with a hammer a few times to make the restoration more challenging tho.

should be fun! the before picture looks really good, did it deteriorate from that or was it just not original enough or ?

Hey man, awesome score. Congrats. Cool you got the engine! And a P bonus.

What I know in terms of difference if helps is -

Seat. Just a metal base and foam on top. Super uncomfortable. Ill send a pic from my 90, although obviously a smaller version
No fame number
The loom. Check your box of good stuff. I think they were bright yellow shrink wrapped, not black. Non battery
Tyres local, but you dont ever want to go there again!
Other rubber stuff and stuff like the coil i imagine
Not sure re trim? Got a feeling some came with ulma, and some had alloy or similar installed? Have you got with your stuff?

Colours i have no idea. I dont think there was any standard. Lots of whites. A light blue ive seen heaps, always faded. I think they painted whatever on hand. You get non white gs's here for example.

The other thing is you sometimes find parts that dont match. Like they pick up whatever is closest during assembly. My gs, for example has an ss flywheel cover that sits on an angle. The trim as well on it - one side 207 s2 gs and the other 107 i think gs 150.

Must be other stuff.

Good luck with the rebuild!

Airco seat stylee

Doubled up. Meant to send this one

Thanks everyone. I'm pretty stoked about the new add! I have been working on clearing out the project stable a bit, and this thing unexpectedly fell into my lap. So now I really gotta clear out to make room and replenish the scooter slush fund as Greasy would say

SUB: thanks for all the pics and details. All very helpful. Do you know if those Airco Vespa's are original paint?

SDJOHN: My understanding is it was not original enough for the previous owners liking. I can understand this. Although, I would have ROCKED that purple people eater as is. No worries though. Its straight and true, and gives me the opportunity to do as I please.

JANP: Thanks for your details info. Interesting that hte wire loom was wrapped in Yellow?! Also, thanks for the photo of the Airco seat. Good confirmation, as I have seen various different seat in photos.

DSNYDER: I'll take your advise under advisement I'm not afraid of a little extra work.
* BTW: hats off to you yet again, for your fantastic work rescuing a total basket case of a frame. Saving it from the scrapper and transforming it into a lovely classic again.

GREASY: You are a gentleman and scholar as always. Time to get to work!

BIRDS: I'll be digging back thru your great build thread for reference. Stay tuned!

You may not need to blast it. Eastwood has a product called After Blast that is a phosphoric acid combination that gets rid of surface rust and leaves a protective coating that is slightly acidic promoting good adhesion to an epoxy primer (not a self etching primer). There are other similar products. Not plugging Eastwood as some of their products stink!

But I have cleaned up blasted surfaces that have some rust with the After Blast and it works. It is NASTY shit and don't spill it on concrete cause it loves concrete - yumm.

And just to clean up a misconception about neutralizing the product... The product reacts with the iron oxide (rust). Once you have wiped off the excess the reaction will conclude and the acid is no longer reactive. The reaction neutralizes the acid by leaving behind ferric phosphate and releasing water. The idea that the acid will just continue to be reactive is only applicable if there is excess acid. And, this is extremely diluted in any event.

Try a little.

At this stage of waiting, wondering , nd pacing back n forth in anticipation of my new little miracle; I'm obsessed with finding as many original paint colors for NZ Vespas. Its been tough, but I've only just begun my journey.

Appliance White seems to be one of the go to standards for the Airco Vespa. As I understand it Airco also made home appliances, hence the 'appliance white' paint. Different than Hawthorn White.

I'm feeling like doing something out of the box, but also something that would have been available in NZ as standard.

*** There is always the tried and true: Red, White, and good ol Pavone Blue!

More reference

I see they drilled some holes to shave some grams!

Also my vote is for that yellow. Holy cow that one looks so nice

SPEED HOLES! The rest should buff right out.

TBH, I was already thinking Yellow; then I found that pic... so we may have a winner already

A couple of photos of my stuff, original paint colour matched by the paint supplier. Motor currently at the shop being finished. The loom on mine wasn't yellow wrapped and it had an original style coil. The seat looks like it has been recovered at some time.

now I see, you got it after the purple was removed. I'd rock that purple any day too, it looked pretty badass.

you know what, you should paint it purple again just to spite the guy who removed the purple.

Just catching up.

WHERE are all these SSs coming from? But I think this one's special, and found the right home!

Pretty sire the BLUE & GREEN ones were original colour... they had well over 50k on Speedos, & were owned by Les Walker, from Christchurch, and was well known in South Island Vespa community (Vespa Club of Canterbury).
MrScoot (Matt) has a LOT of history of NZ Scootering, including about 40kg of papers that I dropped off to him on that trip.

That's very cool that they came in such a wide range of stock colors. Then you can paint it what you want pretty much and still maintain factory authenticity. You could literally paint it that cool yellow and tell whoever tries to tell you it's not a stock color to piss off.

This is right where my thinking is. I want to do a color different than the red/white/blue, but still a 'stock' color from New Zealand. I've got options

Nice! That bike so straight and complete.

It really is. I couldn't ask for a better starting point; unless it was straight & original paint. Cant win em all, but I mosdef hit the jackpot.

At this point in my life, I have numerous scooters that will never be painted; I like em rough around the edges. I appreciate a good clean fresh painted and properly restored scooter, I just havn't had the desire to do so with any of mine. I'd spend way more money on the engine and bits than I have even buying the whole project. This SS180, will be my one (ha!!) fully restored Vespa. I'm reeeeeallly really really excited. Even more so that its kind of an oddball.

I only have one but I agree. I do want another that is crisp and clean. It will mos def get that yellow paint job. I love it.

Congrats on the ss! I had one and loved it but got seduced by other shiny things haha. My vote is for that awesome yellow that almost matches my rally 215 (in process).

Yes!! I thought of your Rally as soon as I saw that yellow! I hope it's coming along well.

Did you pass along the SS? Last I remember you were thinking of rebuilding some of it.

Also - nice Ochre Jet 200! I've got one of these in my up-and-coming-project list. Mines been resprayed at some point, and is a bit of a basket case. Its in the 'collecting-the-bits' stage.

The jet was a friends and has been sold a while ago. I did pass the ss to someone who's restoring it so it went to a good home!

Very nice! Now lets see some update on the Rally! I need to see more yellow

I just knew I'd seen some yellow around here somewhere....

*walks by this 100 times a day, every.single.day.

Perhaps its a sign I should I have 2 trap headset Yellow scooters?
One patina, one nice n shiny....

Nice! Sprint?

63 GL150. This one will only get a buff n shine on the paint, and a sweet rocking engine.

I saw this post yesterday... seems like a good time to join the Vespa Club New Zealand fb group!

Here are screenshots for reference...

Screw having a Black PX!

Spitballs from the peanut gallery:

1. Airco Appliance White - bc it's so boring it's not boring!
2. or... Airco OG Lavender. Which we will call periwinkle henceforth and instead of turn signals we can put sparkler holders on the barends. You know...for... "Flash"!



Seriously, will be a very cool project. Looking forward to watching this one. From recent experience I hope they did a good job sealing things when they media-blasted it originally and you don't have media (sand) everywhere. (Tunnel, steering column, seams) If you get it re-blasted have them use walnut shell or similar, easier to clean up if it gets past your plugs and tape.

SUB: I've already joined Vespa Club NZ fbgroup, and that is actually My own topic of discussion

I'm firing on all fronts to get as much info as possible. That lavender Vespa is an interesting one. From what I gather it has been resprayed numerous times, which the owner found while stripping it down to the original Lavender paint. I've seen that lavender somewhere before.

I like the Orange/white 'elecstart' SS. I wonder if the orange was ever an original option. We all now that Orange is the fastest color.... and a personal favorite tbh.


BIRDS: I do like this Periwinkle (trademark birdnest 2022). Nice pure bright appliance white would be clean and classic!

The blasting results are TBD at this point. What I know is that it was blasted about 1 year ago, and was not primed or sealed; so it will need blasting again. A good friend of mine in Seattle will be doing the paint for me, as I have no means to do so currently; and paint/body is a personal passion of his; I know it will be in good hands. My friend has a good blaster who will blast and epoxy prime right away. I hope to take that step straight away.

I was wondering why there was a post asking the same question at the same time.
Yip, lilac is cool!

Here you go another shot of the yellow! And rear brakes! Gotta get a better air box cover.love the GL. My first Vespa was a blue 1964 gl 150

man, if were me I'd be painting it in the oddest factory color offered. green or lavender would be my jam. but that powder blue up there? ooohhhh baby... I'd be getting down with that no doubt.

I'm right there with ya man. The Yellow and Powder blue and mosdef my #2 choices. Both good, both different. The powder blue I like because its so different than anything else on offer, and it look similar to the light blue Allstate color; which I like very much. Trim it out with black hits, instead of the matchy-matchy blue; and it would be rockin.

The bright yellow is a classic - classic vehicle color, hard to go wrong; and still different than other SS's. And it would coordinate with my GL, which is cool.

Options...