Modern Vespa

picked this up over the weekend for super tasty deal.

enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=442657&id=558730555

if someone wants to post the pics to the thread thatd be cool too.

Very tasty scoot.... nice find.

nice find there, seem the project season is starting early this year

Nice find indeed. Curious as to what the badge is all about on the leg shield.

That is very cool.


What is on that badge? It looks great.

i want those rims

if youre talking about the acrylic plaque bolted on.

the bike spent a lot of its life in Montana on the Glasgow Air Force base. which was a Strategic Air Command base. a lot of times they didnt allow cars out into certain areas so theyd use stuff like this. so this bike was probably riding around hanging out with B52 bombers and nuclear war heads. check the FB link and theres a photo of a close up of the paque. it has an assigned number and the banner below the thunderbolt fist says "strategic air command" i have the original 1966 montana plate too.

the cushman badge was from when cushman became an importer for vespa after vespa wiped the floor with cushman sales wise in the early 60s.

the bike itself is a round tail early vbb.

if you hold the horn button and kick start the horn beeps. its actually a lot nicer in person.

heres a close up of the SAC badge.

It looks like my '61 Cushman-Vespa that is now down at Bulletproof Paint for perfecting.

What year is it?

You can still buy those aluminum windshield mounts from Beedspeed. I have a pair too.

Jim

From another post from Brandon

"it spent most of its life at Glasgow AFB, it has a bad ass little plaque bolted to the legshield. its complete minus the levers, headlight unit, and tail light lens. if you hold the horn button and kick it the horn beeps. its getting the engine and fork rebuilt and that is all. i love rustorations."

Pretty f'n sweet!

from what i remember all the Cushman Vespas were 61's, they did VNBs, VBBs, and GS150's, ive seen a couple GS150s but never the other two till this VBB. since this is a round tail 61 should be about right. i guess when the bike was first pulled out of the trash heap it was found in, in austin, it still had the original 60s windscreen, kind of like the cow skin type but it was plastic. the guy that found it originally took it off and threw it away like a dip shit. the mounts are original 60s, i might use them to mount mirrors, or not. i really dont want to do anything cosmetically to this bike. the wiring is good enough to stay, and the throttle and shift cables still work smoothly, its getting and engine rebuild and the fork rebuilt. needs a couple levers, a tail light lens, and a headlight unit. if you got an old beat up one hook it up.

Brandon - that's all correct.

My club gave away a cushman VNB. A current clubmember of mine has a Cushman GS150.

i love this thing, lots of history, and a sad story compared to the allstates, and a slightly better bike. im surprised at how nice everything else is save the paint. the wiring harness looks almost new still, no dry rot. theres no dents at all, and really no scratches, id love to figure out how it made it from Montana to Austin. the tank needs to be pulled and cleaned but it all just looks like varnish, i might just take it to the shitty laundromat down the road and wrap it in a blanket and tumble it out.

unfortunatly i dont get to start on it until i rebuild my girlfriends vba(px) engine, but im hoping to stay well below $1k on the whole deal. the bike was $300, i have some levers and cables and gaskets laying around, so a couple hundred bucks for bearings and seals, a hundred bucks on new suspension, and a hundred spot on tires and tubes(still has the original Ceat's), probably missing a couple small things but it should be doable. ill just hunt for second hand usable stuff. or wheel and deal.

Do my whole paint restoration method, and let's see how it cleans up. There may be life in that old lacquer yet.

the pics i have are from when we pulled it out of my friends car port, a lot of that is really just dirt. i spit shined part of the parcel rack and it actually came out decent, it still has that greenish metallic look. ive only really dusted the bike off since i got it home. im going to hose it down then put it in my living room til i get to start on it. ill take some more pics when its cleaned up a little nicer. luckily theres no rot at all. just beautiful light surface rust.

Degrease
scotch-brite the high-rust areas
4-aught steel wool
rubbing compound
cleaner wax
finisher wax

in that order

it is in the wrench night garage right now. nice bike. it will be a very valuable bike someday.

Yes that was what I was referring too. Thanks for the input. Awesome history!

heres my cushman 61 round tail i found with a lammy in kansas a couple years ago. nice to see another in tx.
http://www.dfwscooterist.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2794&hilit=cushman

cool,
whose the guy in San Marcos with a CVBB? when we get them all in good running order we should do a Cushman group shot.

cvbb run sounds great

Brandon, I love that scoot! The Air Force badges rock. I've got an LD that's painted Air force Blue's with a Strategic Air Command and Barksdale AFB (Shreveport, LA )decal.