Modern Vespa

I just picked up this Smallstate in Baltimore. Looks pretty complete. Only surface rust. The story was that it was put in a shed in '71 and not touched. Not sure if I believe it or not but for $600 I wasn't going to argue. Haven't decided how to proceed yet but its promising.

Nice to see another smallstate back in the daylight!
Clauss studios has an lens for that Micky mouse tail light.

Surprisingly, the tires look OEM and still hold air. I've got the carb in the ultrasonic cleaner and tomorrow is inventory day.

That's a seriously amazing find, and for $600, deal of the year!

I'm looking forward to see where you take it

I'm thinking about getting the mechanicals sorted back to OEM spec and just stabilize and preserve the original finish.

I 100% support preserving the original paint.

Of course, even if I meant to only do OEM mechanicals, I'd still probably wake up one morning and discover that I'd accidentally made it able to do 80 MPH.

That is a sweet find. Have fun.

The tail light covers $500 of the $600 you paid for it. And, yes, the Clauss studio tail light lens is a quality piece.

Great find!

+1

Helluva get! Original Italian air... faster than replacement air.

And that license plate is totally rad too

Reassembled the carb, new plug, fresh oil and some premix from a bottle (the bottom of the fuel tank is completely rotted out) and first start in presumably half a century!

Got a big list for Mercado but I'm feeling pretty enthusiastic about this one.

If you want it back, I have that tank you sent me for the BooBadge that I think should be a paint match, albeit in much worse shape than the rest of the bike.

If you want it back, I'll get it shipped out this weekend.

You are a prince amongst men! That would be great. Let me know what I owe you. Thanks!!

PM me your address so I can figure that out (and get it to you)

Done

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Amazing find.

So, I was looking at the diagram for my SHB 16/16 carb and noticed that the mixture screw (98133) was completely missing. I can't believe that: (a) I missed that on the rebuild or more surprisingly that (b) I got it to run without it! It appears that all the usual parts houses are out of stock. Does anyone have a source or an extra that they are willing to part with? TIA.

I've got one you can have . Pm me an address and I will mail it tomorrow.

Check down in the bottom of the body under the carb, I've had them back out and fall down there

Bad news on the fuel tank I had for you.

I decided I was going to do some rust removal on it for you since I have a bucket of the budget rust remover. I filled it up and was letting it sit, but it started dripping pretty heavily from under the front portion where the captive nuts are, so probably don't actually want this thing.

Lemme know what you think and I can send it if you want it, maybe try to fix it just as a project, but even if I succeed, that'll probably be really ugly (I'll have to replace that double section at the front) and definitely not worthy of your bike.

Sent. What do I owe you? Thanks!!!!

No worries. I'll order a new one from SM. Thanks again.

I tried. Either way, it can now leave the workshop in good conscience.

Don't worry about it. I don't mind building some good scooter karma for the next time one of my scoots acts up!

Had some time to dive in yesterday. An hour with the pressure washer and the frame cleaned up nicely. The engine is a bit farmy but I am still surprised that things are still looking pretty original. Waiting for that "oh shit" moment.

Give it time...

Making progress. Thanks to Jedihunter's mix screw contribution the carb is back together. I pulled the head and while there was quite a bit of carbon; the piston, rings and cylinder were flawless. A quick lap and some new gaskets and back together it went.

The seat frame was really rusty so I'm making some electrolytic stew (Mmmm...Hydrogeny!). Will see how it turns out tomorrow.

Thanks for everyone's help!!

What kind of engine stand is that? Looks really nice!

This is a steal of a smallie! Awesome

I'm pretty sure that's one of the stands that Ray8 made.

Yes sir.

This is beautiful! Also a good deal.

Found it!!!! 3/4" long crack in the low end of the crank side case, right in front of the oil drain plug.

Probably weld-able given the location, but still...

Definitely weldable. If I found a $600 smallstate, I'd be ordering an igig 180 engine, swap em and ride the hell out of( according to what i told my wife) my cheap scoot. Fix the original engine at leasure, and don't worry about resale, just swap them back.
Still jealous of your find!

If we're going that route, I have two words: Quattrini M200S

I ending up drilling out the length of the small crack with a 3/32" bit, flushed the crank case twice with kero, plugged the gap with water weld, then two coats of JB weld. Fingers crossed.

Pretty much did an open and inspect on everything that didn't require splitting the cases and then corrosion eradication. No external oil seal or air leaks! Electrolysed the muffler and all of the tin and gave it a spray of high-temp black. Needed to replace a few rotten stator wires, otherwise still looking pretty good. On to the wheels....

Crack in that area can be due to worn kickstarter quadrant buffer. It is worth to split engine and check. Other way it can appears again.

Wow! This is remarkably similar to my scoot, down to that same engine case crack, although yours was treated a little bit more nicely by the previous owners. I think mine was even the same price. If you need any original parts, there's a good chance I have them lying around.