Hey everyone,
So I picked up a Sprint basket case yesterday.
I bought it off an old mod who had the engine rebuilt and the bike painted. With good intentions, he planned to re-assemble it, but instead it had sat on his shelf for years.
He and I became friends overtime since he is a member on my club's facebook page. (Niagara Region Vespa Club). We chatted a few times and finally he offered me to buy the bike. After some negotiations, I bought it....knowing that it will be a complete nut and bolt chassis restoration.
The story is: he bought it off a guy who imported scooters from Italy, got them running and registered and then sold them off.
The bike is registered as a '71 sprint. I ran the vin in the Vespa vin decoder on line and it states it is a '65. There is no vin on the chassis itself (must have gotten lost during the paint job)
I ran the vin on the engine cases and the vin decoder states its a '77 Veloce.
The bike itself came with Veloce grips, badging, rear tail light, and 20mm carb.
My question is this: how do I proceed with restoration:
restore it to a 60s sprint, or a 70s veloce? or put it back together as it was supposed to?
Any suggestions? I know it's "my bike, do as I want" but would love to hear how you would tackle this.
For me, gut instincts are to either restore it as a 70s Veloce (black grips, silver levers, grey cowl trim chrome legshield trim and the emblems that came with the scooter) or restore it as it came (black trim. black levers. black horn. black grips).
Open to discussion if you are so inclined.
Cheers.
N