Modern Vespa

I met a guy on my travels who excitedly told me he had a '68 Sprint that needed to be reassembled. He said it was all restored with a rebuilt motor 17 years ago and ready to go back together but he can't find anyone to do it.

I was riding the SS and told him I was pretty good with these things and he showed me a picture. I just had to tell him it had all the earmarks of a SEA resto and he said that was because he lives in Vietnam for part of the year and he had his friend who is a top notch Vespa dude do all the work on it and ship it over here. He added that he had a bunch of parts to complete it and anything left over was mine. I told him to bring it on down.

He also told me about a five day ride along the entire length of the Ho Chi Min Trail to scout motels , etc. for a Vespa club tour.

So... this is what he shows up with..... a true Vietnamese Classic

It does look fairly good from what I can tell ( I've only found one patch) and maybe wasn't as bad a machine before the restoration as we have seen and maybe the guy's work is above average over there, but it was definitely an old worn out Vespa now smoothed with bondo and painted a light pearl/citrus yellow. Had to throw that in.

I like the what-appear-to-be stick-on hub covers. The crash bars are solid SS. He had the floor mat custom sewn. It needs cables and some electric and brake work and the motor is said to have been started a few years ago. We'll see.....

The bonus score for me are the four sets of NOS yellow boots !!! I bet you can't get those from Scooter Mercato....

Check out these quality levers ! That's the casting not pitting.

Deja vu, I think I'm falling in love again! Looks vaguely familiar...

I kinda want to do a top notch resto, everything perfect except...yellow boots. Just to tweak noses.

...

I will gladly pay shipping for a set of those yellow boots...

I think yellow boots would look rad on my blue et3

so are you building it for the guy or did you buy it? I'm confused

He brought it to me with the "new' motor out as it's been for 17 years and it just needs putting back together. Sure... I never thought I'd see one of these contraptions in my shop but here it is, though I did have a Lambretta version in here a few years ago but I only had to make the motor run.
On further inspection, it is typical in every aspect :
The rear of the frame has been grafted on and there are other patches visible in the rear wheel well. Worn out, sloppy shift and throttle tubes with bent nails instead of the proper clips. Homemade brake linings. Big rust flakes in the tunnel. Sloppy , worn out brake pedal shaft. Wires in headset twisted to terminals. Wrong fasteners all over the place. Even though the seams are visible, there is clearly a layer of bondo on the whole thing.
I've taken care of the cables, mostly with new inners, and I am about to install the motor. Luckily, the tank is decent and there's a new Spaco 20/20 on it. For what that might be worth. Scooterhelp says the motor's a '70 150 Super. Frame is stamped with 5 wrong font numbers and no prefix, but he somehow has it registered in NY with a 17 digit VIN that relates to nothing.
I'll think about these rare, fashionable ( goes with any two-tone paint combination ), and super durable boots ... I would have to keep a set for myself.

First major issue : Even with the hub nut torqued to 65 ftlbs the axle doesn't protrude from the bearing far enough for the splines to fully engage the hub and the hub wobbles on the inner bearing race. I'd think that even if the bearing was not fully home ( note the smashed-up, gray-siliconed lock ring, which I don't really want to mess with) the axle would still pull all the way through even if is was improperly located. Everything seems to spin freely with it torqued.
Wrong axle ?

I'd guess it was damaged at some point, they shortened it and redid the threads…

Mmm smell of 17 year old bodgery.

You should see the bizarre electrical system........I'll try to show it later.
I totally understand why nobody will work on these. Even normal operations are a challenge and take way too much time to sort out. All on a franken frame.
I wonder now if the guy really felt he had something here or if he was was putting one over on me.
I'll still try to get it road-worthy. At least to the end of the driveway. With some cash in my hand.

And the hole for the pin is not centered in the axle so the pin won't go through. That's why they drilled through the nut for that piece of wire. Clever, huh ?

Now what? Splitting the case and seeing what you have? What's the owner say about the less than safe parts? He going to start buying parts? I think this could be an interesting rabbit hole or money pit.

I rode it just a while ago and it runs, stops, and shifts but I didn't go very far and back. Compared to any of my other Vespas, it feels awful. Sloppy.
It seems rich even with the big chrome pipe so maybe I can give it some more pep.

I have not contacted the owner so I have not told him about the rear axle/hub situation or that the front hub does not match the taper very well either. He told me to get it rideable and just let him know what I needed. To just fix anything I thought needed fixing.

I have a hard time reading people's expectations sometimes so I don't know how he'll react to the list of wrongs. I have a feeling he'd say to just do the motor over again. The bearings should be new, anyway.

Or I just get it to run well and give it to him with a waiver to sign.

I did this exact thing for a friend who bought a $3500 vbb from a container seller. Told him it wasn't safe to ride, and I did the best I could. That's after new cases, crank, piston etc etc. And I didn't even charge him labor. It's now a decoration in an Italian eatery.

Electrically speaking,
There is a single coil powering the ignition circuit. There is no blue brake coil.
There are two coils in series powering a single yellow wire to the HB switch where it splits off to the tail light, speedo bulb, and a little green beacon light where the high beam indicator (?) was. 12 volt. Points.

At the HB switch,there are three green wires: one goes to the horn and one to the brake switch and the other to a regulator in the left cowl. They had them connected at the switch so the horn and brake light would disconnect from the yellows. The yellow wire is feeding everything and the tri-switch is irrelevant. When would you ride with any of the lights or the horn turned off ? So I need a NC brake switch and a NO horn button HB switch.

The wire coming from the pair of coils on the stator to the junction box and the one going from the HB switch to the regulator are small gauge sold core. Nice.

Golden State Warriors!

Isn't that how personal injury lawyers in the US earn a living? Even in a bicycle shop I worked in, if a bike was too jury rigged, we'd turn the customer away to avoid taking on any liability and possibly being sued later.

In South East Asia, shops could care less, and will take a Baht or Dong to get it on the road.

I have no reason to hide anything and will disclose everything I find that is potentially dangerous. Especially the poor fit of the hubs on the axles. Does he appreciate this or is he under the impression he has something special ?
What he's got here is a prime example of a true Viet Bodge. Plain and simple. I suspect that the frame is solid enough for a simple cruiser and everything that's mechanically wrong can be fixed. At a cost of course. I am envisioning Coke can shims.

I'm curious to see what his reaction is.

He should know. He said that in VN there are so many Vespas on the road that you don't have to worry about breaking down because there are side-of-the-road 'repair' shops literally everywhere. Someone will stop and throw it in the back of their truck or wagon for you. Basic motorized transportation. No plug chops.
I imagine that the vast majority of the Vespas on the road over there are what we would barely call parts bikes and one of these 'restored to perfection' models would be super deluxe by comparison. Concourse even.

I am enjoying this thread, thank you for posting it. If nothing else comes from it, this post will be an example that newbies can be referred to when contemplating a shady purchase. Meanwhile, that looks like a whole lot of crazy on two wheels.

I envision a pile of parts in a milk crate leaving your shop. What about rotary valve fit is it a 1.0mm gap?

Turns out that it is basically a '71 150 Super motor with a 10' rear hub ( might explain the wobble) and Sprint 10" fork. Could even be a Sprint frame ( or partly ) for all I know. The guy told me to fix it with whatever parts I think it needs and handed me a grand. No rush, whatever it takes.
I can't wait to open the motor and see what is inside.

😂 enough to fix motor anyway.

But the motor's supposedly all been rebuilt...

The crankshaft : Maybe good, maybe not. Replace or reuse ?

It appears that the sealing surface on the inner web might have built up and re-ground and the pad on the case as well. The fit was correct but I don't know if it's to spec or just ground to fit, and I am afraid that a stock web will have a different radius and not fit properly. I measure the diameter of the inner crank web and at 98.65mm / 49.325mm radius ? Can anyone tell me if this right ? If a replacement crank won't fit, this one's going back in.

There was a .25mm washer under the CS bearing which stayed in the case. The inner web, along the opening, has contacted the case.
The conrod has been bushed, sealing the lube holes.
The odd casting of the piston pin bosses allow 3.5mm of lateral bearing movement. But maybe also more lubrication ? The cylinder is PAIJIFA : Taiwanese Bajaj.

It is my understanding that the owner's friend shipped this here from VN 20 years ago and the motor, which detonated, was soon sent back to be rebuilt and was never re-installed.

Any guess how many miles are on it?

Yike, anything can happen in a SEA bike. They would salvaged every old used parts for export bikes or when buyer is foreigner. I've seen they rebuilt the broken tooth gear, welded the fork from 3 different one....

It was clearly a typical, worn out, old Vespa with with a worn out motor to begin with.

Some parts have been bushed. The throttle tube was brazed and ground but is still loose. They swapped the fork and the new bearings fit perfectly in the indents on the races.

The only possibly relevant mileage is on the repro speedo and I am guessing the thing ran for 240 miles before the motor crapped out.

What about that crank , anyway ?

Man, the lengths they go to send them out the door...

Crank's toast. They welded / filled and machined everything that was worn out or rotten. Cases too, looks like they pressed and pinned "new" bearing seats but looks like the bearing still rotated inside of it. And then there's that other stuff...

Personally, I would return the money and say goodbye to him. That thing will always bring trouble...

There were huge incentives back then to get them out the door. Being they sold them for $3k to $5k that alone was a huge profit to be made on a bike dam near free to make. But the kicker was the exchange rate back then. SEA money was cheap compared to the US dollar and the cost of living was very very low, too. If they received $4k USD for a bodge that was like $10 to $12k to spend in SEA.

At one time that area was the best bang for your buck as a vacation destinations.

This needs to go in bodge thread.

This looks like it went on for a while. I wonder what it sounded like.

I think you need to break the news to this guy. That is a pile of shit, runny smelly cow shit.

I think deep down inside, every time these threads pop up we hope against hope that the next pic will show it's fine, just a little dirty.

Sadly, it doesn't happen.

Kind of like a boxing match when a guy gets hit and dazed, everyone cringes, you know what next but!!!

UPDATE : Project has been terminated.

Kinda relief. Did you get to keep the grand

What are his plans for it now. There maybe some good parts on that thing.