Modern Vespa

I was doing some work at my neighbor's house and spotted a dusty Vespa in his garage. My daughters love the scooters after watching the movie "Luca", and I thought it would be a great daddy daughter project getting it cleaned up and running. I'd like to make and offer on it, but I have no idea what it's worth.

My neighbor says it's a 1962 and on the front it says Vespa GS. It has been sitting in his garage unused for about the last 45 years. What do y'all experts say would be a fair price for this garage find?

well, there's something you don't see everyday.

umm. without other pictures and no mechanical info to go by, easily 3K

however, unless you have considerable mechanical and restoration skills, lots of specific vespa knowledge and some deep pockets I'd suggest maybe you pay a fair price for this one and flip it to somebody that's more suited to the project and then parlay that dough into a more accessible vespa project.

and by more accessible I mean: not as ungodly rare, difficult to find parts for, tricky to work on, and overall expensive.

you basically found the ark of the covenant. every scooterists wet dream is a barn find GS and you seem to have found one of the rarest.

Good lord, you found a WHAT?!
Holy smokes, with the glovebox behind the seat?!

I mean, ah, ahem… that bike is sort of ok I guess… If you want, shoot me the phone number of the owner and I'll make sure it all checks out ok…

If you end up buying it, try to gently remove that red paint that shouldn't be there. The original white seems to be underneath. The good thing is that the original white paint is tough as nails.

The best-looking Vespa made.

If you aren't up for the challenge of resurrecting one that's been sitting 45 years, which may or may not be great, you can easily flip it and put your money into a decent running Vespa model that might be easier to work with. What are your mechanical skills ?

It may be a real gem and need little but the seals in the motor, at least, certainly need replacing, which means opening up the motor and some 'while you're in there'. Possibly cables, brakes, and wiring. Figure everything's dried out at this point.

Maybe if you told the guy how much it could cost to make it reliable, road-worthy, and safe for your kids to ride on ( $2K) and offered him $1500-$2000 ?

Is your neighbor aware that it is more then just an old Vespa ? The guy I got my SS from didn't. Come to think of it... neither did the TV200's owner.

I'd be showing pictures of it in my shop by now.

Wow. You really hit the jackpot. Not sure what your skill level is, but it's the sort of scooter worthy of a serious restoration. No offense.

If you really want a Vespa for your daughter, P series Vespas are a good bet. More of them available, parts are easy to find and working on them is more straightforward.

If you bought it for a reasonable price, you are likely to find a lot of potential buyers on this forum that would make it worthwhile for you.

that is a find indeed! and for someone with almost no knowledge of Vespas to know where the serial number is... remarkable.

That said if you need help you will find it here.

And, in case it hasn't been said, post as many pictures as you like. We don't mind at all.

Not in the least. This would be a cool bike to see more of.

Mother. Of. God.

More pics!

I'll add just a little perspective. I bought my GS160 Mark II (the one you're looking at is a Mark I, so higher value to some people) for around $3,500 in fairly decrepit condition with a number of reproduction parts on it and resprayed shitty paint. This was about 14 years ago. I have restored it to excellent all original condition. In the market that I live in, I could probably get $20,000 for it if I put it up for sale now, which I have no plan to do. The value just keeps going up every year.

I'm not sure where you are, so the market value could vary tremendously. In places like Japan or Singapore, for example, a GS160 is of stratospheric value.

See if your neighbor will throw in that dusty 1986 Ford LTD Crown Vic for a package deal price.

Man, those are some serious observational powers you have if that is truly a 1986 Ford LTD Crown Vic just from that sliver of an image from the photo.

What's the make and model of that red folding lawn chair?

Really !

It looks like it has a Florida license plate. Doesn't mean it's in Florida though.


Hec

I guess "Garage Finds" isn't coming back?

He'll try to get it off the Florida Man geezer for 200 bucks and then flip it for 5 grand.

I watched a LOT of Matlock during my lunch breaks...

Thank you all for the info. I spoke with the owner yesterday and told him he seems to have something special. He is down in South Florida 99% of the year and I look after his house in North Florida while he's away. He is also one of my pest control customers. Not wanting to create any bad blood, I told him he'd be much better off selling it himself. I gave him this website and offered to pull it out of the garage, clean it up, and take some better pictures for him. More to follow.

Thanks again for all the responses. I've got a '94 Wrangler and the Jeep forums have always been full of enthusiasts who have provided great info/advice on every project I've done. Y'all on this page might just be more enthusiastic than the Jeep owners.

I hope you'll share the pictures here.
" Y'all on this page might just be more enthusiastic than the Jeep owners. "
Might be an understatement.

I wonder if there's a token for impactful first posts ?

Over at the jeep forum, it always seems like they're busy arguing how a D35 is just as strong as a D60, or debating "which R&P is best for my 2.5L 4-popper". Here at modern vespa our main focus is to getting to the business of wrenching and riding!

Way to take the high road. It would sit wrong with me to not mention it's potential value. Maybe your honesty will pay off. At the very least, you can feel good about it.

And ham bets, don't forget the ham…

If it is a one owner with title keep me posted. Top price paid for a one owner MK1. If you want to let the current owner know. He name the price and I would be interested. But has to be one owner.
Thanks.

Put owner in contact with us... I'm sure someone here would love to own that scoot, and they will be respectful of it, plus pay a reasonable, fair price.

Damn, I wish the Aussie dollar was a bit closer to the US dollar.

This will be my last post on this thread. Wheeled the scooter out and cleaned it up so I could send the owner pictures. Sent him this website so you may see it listed on here before too long.

Based on the battery and p200 spare tire cover seems like that scooter is well maintained. I'd ride it just the way it is but with black wall tires.

I wonder what's under that red paint. If it's a weak rattle can spray job, someone should attempt to get it off to show its true color. The red does it no justice.

GS 160 from 62 was white greyish, color is called grigio biacca.

Not 100% sure but I think this model was the first one to have the wheels painted in body color from factory.

It's a pretty rare until for sure...


...wait a sec, are we talking about the Stihl SR430 backpack sprayer?

that said, if the red paint is any good, I'd leave it.

But I'm partial to the GS in red as the first one I ever encountered was red. I think it actually shows off the curves way better than the white. The white was actually a bit controversial when the 160 was introduced. Up to that point a GS was always delivered in silver. some dealers even repainted new 160s in silver, I really should have bought that bike #regrets.

Amazing find. It looks like most of the rare bits are present.

It wouldn't hurt to ask if he has the tubular, chrome legshield trim stashed away somewhere. It's not in the pics, and that's another $500-$600 these days.

Edit: Also, that looks like the Euro key/battery model. It has battery assisted spark which is a bit fiddly. The battery needs to be well charged in order to start it.

I work at an Agricultural Sprayer company, thereused to be a prototype Italian mister/blower, complete with WOODEN fan as they hadn't finished design!