Modern Vespa

Hello. New to scooters and this sub. Just picked up a local to me one owner 63 Piaggio VNB Allstate this Monday. Very excited to dig into it. Already done a lot and still needs a lot.

Making this post to keep a record of it but also share with the community.

Will be updating soon with pics of what I've already been doing.

A lovely old AllState with original paint under all the dirt that I bet will clean up and polish nicely - I hope you have no plans to strip and repaint it ! Yours is much nicer than mine was starting out : Scruffy AllState, crappy headlight finally fixed!

And your motor is gonna be okay, it turns over w/ no crunchy noises at least? Is this a 3 or 4 speed gearbox, it was around this time they upgraded?

You need to check your fork, looks maybe bent back a bit. The lowest leg needs to be parallel to the upper fork going up to the headset as in the pic below. Could be replaced w/ a Vespas fork that has a shock your AllState "pogo stick" fork lacks ( or straighten yours and convert w/ Vespas lower link & weld on top shock mount.)

Nice project. Body is in great condition. The front fender seems to always be bent up. You do have the Allstate badge which is worth about $120 - 150.

Most likely you will need to replace the crankshaft seals. Not that hard to do, plus you will know the condition of the crank seal surface and trans/axle components. I would try to stay away from the India made parts.

I have a couple of '64 Allstates.

She's a beaut.

I'll go against V oodoo on one thing only. The front end. I have 2 Allstates, one with an upgraded Vespa fork and one with the original fork with no damper. I actually prefer the original fork. Much softer of a ride. Especially if you keep the engine original or only upgrade to a Pinasco 177. That's my crippled opinion though, if you got all your own original joints you may have a different experience.

I agree with you Friday, about the two front suspensions, one with shock and one without.
I one of each on my two '64s, really cannot tell the difference, but with the stock engines, they don't really go fast and I ride local streets which are in great condition.

Yes it is and it did! No I don't have any plans to repaint. Would like to look in to paintless dent repair but imagine this is beneath them. The couple I contacted never got back. Yes other than 20 pounds of crud covering it the engine is really clean on the inside. Tank spotless, carb spotless, no carbon build up on piston, decent thumb compression and turns smoothly. It's a 3 speed and was just shy of their upgrade. Think that was the next year.
Will take a look at that. Been looking into the top shock mount but don't seem to be suppliers I can find. Would have to plaz my own. Seems most here say wait and see tho so I guess I'll see what it's like before altering.

Thanks. Yes it seems so. Will need to look. Still early stages. Just getting familiar and seeing what's up. Mainly cleaning and taking notes of what parts I need as I go. Ordered a batch of parts today. I'll look into to that and will steer away from those parts. Already seen comments on the Indian front fork quality when looking to swap mine. Nice. Next to last years of a run always seem to be the best or least worst. lol

Thanks The comments about the fork def has given me pause and I'll see what it's like. The Pinasco 177, a 20/20 and a variable electronic igntion are the long term things I wouldn't mind doing. Nice and basic and relatively good prices minus the electronic ignition but the ignition would be a fair ways off.

So far so good with my limbs. Did my bone braking when I was a kid. Sorry to hear about yours tho.

Thanks. I did get a stiffer spring from sip. That og spring makes it like riding a scooter on the moon. The stiffer spring was perfect.

Ok. Pic dump and catch up post.

Here's the fun one. Power washed the body. Made huge difference obviously. lol. Tried to power wash the engine and it just said piss off. lol.

For all you power wash junkies here's a link to the video. I'm not a videographer and was holding phone in one hand and wand in the other so some times the camera wasn't on point.

That's cleaned up very nicely!

Yes, it really did! The power washer saved so much time and did much better job. Didn't even cross my mind until coworker mentioned one. lol. Need to pick one of those up just to keep around.

Fork was bent and caused tire to wear thru fender as well. Likely going to unbend the fork and weld a shock mount on while it's out. Want to seal that hole in the fender as well just for the paint. The one piece handlebar nacelle was a major pita and would have preferred a two piece. Not looking forward to putting it back. Oh well.

Another day out without 9 pages of jetting.

Uncanny!

Oh wow! Nice!

You're off to a good start, looks like a solid rust free frame. Your fork took a big hit so you might want to measure center of fork bearing to tip of seat mount area then report back to see if your frame might have gotten bent as well?

I see that you removed the mirror(?) bracket under the headset. It looks like it might have been on backwards but I've not seen that kind before. It looks like a good solution to a tough problem if you don't like looking down to a legshield mounted mirror. Would you mind taking a few pics of how it was mounted again?

Thanks. Yeah it is. I'll take a measurement when I can and report back.

It's pretty much torn down right now. Even more so than in the pic. Had the fork apart to repair it. Waiting for stuff to get here. Going to do an update but want to get a pic of the unbented fork. lol

The bracket was for a windshield according to PO. Reminded me of a shackle. Rusted junk and was directly on the paint. First thing I did when I got it home was take that off. When I said it was a farm scooter it wasn't hyperbole. It never went off the farm or on a street so no need for mirrors. Even the brake light was unnecessary. I found a shard of it in the glove box. Need to take a pic of it and post it. Comical.

I checked my '58 AllState and got 14 1/2" by tape measure and eyeball.

I got 14 1/2" here with a laser measure on both of my Allstates as well.

Oh ok I see. Yeah I'll check that next time I'm out there. Thanks

Update Photo Post

I'm replacing cables and grommets and crankcase seals and gaskets et cetera. That stuff is taking forever to get here too. Also had the Haynes I ordered over a week ago disappear en route.

On a side note it's taking all my will power not to kit it out right away. I want to know what it's like stock first tho. I'll do the other stuff over winter if I still want to.

Intermission

Good amount of parts got here but still waiting on a Haynes. Now two somewhere in the mail.

Anyway, on ebay I found a 1/6th scale diecast VBB and it's white. Then I thought oh I bet a Star Wars Stormtrooper would look funny on it so I found an old one on ebay as well. Combined them and couldn't resist some photo editing magic. lol

This Allstate has basically required a near resto. Mechanical at the least.

Parts and manuals and tools have arrived. Just going thru everything and it really is everything.

Redoing the front swingarm from VNA to a VBB version.

Likely going with a Pinasco 177 kit, SIP Road 3, and a 20/20 for now.

Photo Dump

The receipt is so great; love it. I would put that in a very special place, maybe in a frame for the wall.

why did you decide to go to non-threaded pivot swingarm? I've never seen them on VBB's, but Sprint/Rally.

Yes I plan to put in a frame or other suitable preservation.

Because there was nothing else available.

I think the gauge of the metal on these is beyond that technique. Not the foil of modern vehicles.

True

More cleaning. Surprised how well some of this stuff cleans up.

Amazing.
What process did you use?

The top photo was just brass wire brush and regular wire brush.

The bottom photo I used "Klean Strip Concrete & Metal Prep - Rust Remover & Surface Prep" which is basically phosphoric acid. Removes rust and coverts it to iron phosphate. Long as you don't rinse it off with water it won't flash rust either. I use it for gas tanks as well. This is cut 1:1 with water. The product is already diluted from pure as well. Can dunk stuff overnight if you want depending on how bad it is. Doesn't go after metal like hydrochloric or muriatic. Those pieces were in for about 6 hours while I was at the beach. lol

Progress Pics