ok its done, and it works

A collection of Vespa bits occupying too much space in my already small shed was not a good conclusion for the 150 Super, so a few late nights were dedicated to its several 'issues'. Intermittent ignition problems were traced to a messy Vietnamese solder job on the after market flywheel that was shorting the timing pulse. The non-existent brakes were traced to the Vespa factory of old where they decided that combining tiny, narrow drums along with rock hard brake lining material was the best option to keep the kids on their toes. Registration was next, and receiving differing information regarding scoot and paperwork requirements from the same department got a bit tedious, and wasn't quite as thrilling as nearly losing the beast from the trailer over a random piece of road but was all sorted in the end. To surprise, set apart and illuminate the beast (once registered) I mounted a set of twin air horns and a couple of blue underbody neon lights, damn.

its not finished ffs

I'm not often at the same address as the scooter, and life has been busy, hence its state of completion - so stop your wining. Bar a bit of work puting the badges and legshield beading on, a cleanup of the wiring, getting it registered, and the somehow overlooked part of getting the damn thing to start, its finished.

For now, as long as I can wheel it around like a child and take photo's of it, im happy.

the vespa clause

Ok, so I haven't updated the site in nearly 2 months, and its nearing Christmas, but I have good reasons! Work and study have been all consuming, my red PX200 is keeping my 2 wheel requirements in check, and after hours shed energy has been spent on my long overdue Fiat tarmac rally car project (which also takes up shed room).

I will however spend some time on the scoot in the upcoming weeks as it really shouldn't need much to get going now that I have a working flywheel.

map of tassie

The expedition started via a drive to bordertown with my sister and nephews, and then on to Melbourne with my brother who happened to be in Boredomtown for a scale glider meeting. After a couple of days staying with him and his colonel and picking up the scoot from Essendon it was time to head into the southern unknown via the Ferry. The scoot had only done 10,500 or so K's so its condition was good, besides its differently coloured side panels which were a mildly different red (hard to pick), and it had a starter motor, which gave my right leg a smile (if legs could smile). With my map of tazzy, I planned on boarding the Spirit of Tasmania at Port Melbourne and once hitting the islandstate i'd head south through Launceston, onto Hobart, and hopefully some sort of epiphany.

The Tasmanian part of the jaunt, which was short due to weather and commitments back home, included the following highlights (if they can be called that). Sleeping on the floor of a ferry, a few laps of Launceston, Beakinsfield mines (couldn't find Eddie to sell a story too), a motor museum, countless valleys and windy roads, Longford pub and assorted motor racing circuit memorabilia, a haunted house (ok I was scared), trying to find the Symmons Plains circuit, and bumping into a neighbours uncle on the ferry. Overall Tasmania is a nice place to tour, especcially if you like the odd tea room... per street.

The trip back to the mainland on the ferry wasnt as pleasant. The ride was seriously rough, and as I hadnt paid for a bed I was continuously woken up and told off for being horizontal in the 'seating quarters'. What I was doing obviously didnt fit in with their ticket pricing structure. Once I hit the mainland I burned along the coast and onto the Great Ocean Road where I chased passenger cars through the windy bits, brunched in Lorne, and ended up in Port Fairy. Port Fairy seemed a happenning place with my appearance coinciding with a music festival, and I hit the pubs doing my best to blend into the country yokal crowd. The following day I scootled all the way back to Adelaide through the Coorong into a headwind, and other outer Adelaide country roads in the dark.

2000k's added to the scoot and all intact.

flywheel deal

After a few weeks and countless phone calls to hassle them along the machine shop finally made contact and exclaimed that my new hybrid flywheel was ready. They managed to remove the centre from my old wheel and put it into the scootrs one and balance it all nicely. The work looked great, its a lot lighter than a stock one, the chap didnt charge me a lot (some cash and some beer) and I even got a spark out of the system when I put it back into the scoot (very late at night - note the photo).It will need further fiddling with the timing to get it to fire though, but that can wait because im going on a... scooter trip!

After keeping an eye on a good cheap PX200 in Melbourne, and falling over a free avenue to get there I decided to take a week off to go over, buy it, and ride it back along the Great Ocean Rd, or two weeks if the weather is good and ill do a lap of Tasmania too. Time to break out the gps!

flywheel

The scoot is almost complete bar the annoyingly basic problem of an aftermarket flywheel not fitting on the crank. I purchased a 12v CDI kit thinking that the electronic ignition route would be the way to go, and would also aid the addition of 12v bits. However, the brains at ScootRS that sold me the kit figure that all VBC 150s are the same. So now im chasing a solution that might conclude with a butchered frankenwheel using the old centre on the new outer. Bar that, does anyone know how to get the outside legshield beading on without destroying it?

crud, its august

Scooter cables can be a pain to set up and adjust, especially if you dont know what your doing - not that this has stopped me before. All the cables bar the gear changing pair are in and are awaiting final adjustment, and the wiring is nearly all sorted out. I'll have to properly wire the small battery to the system to run all the custom tricky bits - such as the compressor and twin air horns I nabbed from an old Fiat coupe (guaranteed to alert anyone with 100 metres of my presence), but overall its nearly usable. Lack of time has been the biggest hurdle to getting this sucker finished, but the finish line is nearly in sight.

the wiring loon

More hours in the icy bliss of the shed have resulted in this, an unfinished scooter - yet one slightly less unfinished than last week! Im still yet to battle the vagaries of the wiring loom, and all the fiddly bits in the headset, but this should all work out im time. Puting the scoot together proved to me one thing, my taste in colour is unrivaled! I hope this will go some way to quash previous suggestions of hot pink.

nuts n bolts

A few long nights in the shed have brought me to this point. The majority of the new 12v loom is in, and other various bits have been done (when I didn't feel like stressing my brain to follow the questionable wiring diagram). The front end is completed, and I'm deciding if the air horns should go in - and if so where. Hopefully it should be running within a week or two.

it can’t be

Struggling to open a locked door in the dark, something metallic caught my eye. It had arrived, in all its titanium silvered splendour, occupying a lucky space on the veranda. The painting had been done, and my brother had delivered it. The paintwork looked fantastico, and would be even grander in daylight. It was now time for assembly.

wheely white and skinny

After confirming that the locally available white walled tyres were the skinniest and most dangerous available I raced out and bought a pair! Sure I might get a little more grip and feedback from a set of newer, wider, larger fandangled black donuts, but where is the fun in that? So I think ill continue with the looks over speed factor because we all know it's a 28 year old Italian scooter - im not fooling anyone. Interestingly the tyres were produced in Slovenia, and will without doubt help conjure up personal reflections of tree lined mountainsides and supermodel border crossing guards. Afterall, living life on the edge isnt a choice, its a commitment... Drew out.

so close, yet so unfinished

The panel man extroadinare Vito didn't turn up for his weekly
hour's panel work so I made good use of the time drilling holes for the floor rails. The rails needed a bit of bending and fiddling to fit but overall it was a small win. Paint should be on within a fortnight (crosses fingers).

news from the shed
Vito put in another grand performance to get the little wasp to the verge of completion and aesthetic perfection. More sanding and hitting was had along with the placement of the front aftermarket glovebox and the big shiny floor rails.

Meanwhile, I've been rebuilding the front end and fiddling up the re-welded headset. Almost paint time, ugh.

its not too late, to whap it, whap it good
To the untrained eye, it could have been an elaborate cake tin, but to a Vespanado it was just a rusty old Vespa recieving a rebirth. A good day of welding, beating and unbumping bumperised metal was recently had and even my niece and nephew latched onto the theme as they worked upon their go kart, (when they were tired of posing for the camera).

Another couple of sessions and it will almost be in paint mode. But which colour, hmm!?...

riping lemon?
Gunmetal grey has always been a favourite, what does everyone think of that? - though it could lead to visibility issues, but I did happen to catch something else decent the other day. A chap putting through the hills in a restored yellowy/greenish Fiat 500 gave me a new outlook on yellow. I chased, and stopped him for the paint code information which he happily passed on. The scooter shown here is a slightly greener version of the colour I saw.

It should look ok, and I dont plan on painting it half orange and putting gun racks on it... yet.

back from the strip joint
The chap entrusted to remove the three layers of paint took his time, but returned the scoot as naked as the day it was born (except for the rust holes). Now the welding and panel beating begins. Still a little undecided on colour, hmm.

colour debate
Everyone out there has an opinion, especially the prats I seem to attract (you know who you are), so here is your chance to help choose a colour, mirror accessories optional!

Disclaimer: I have already chosen a colour which isnt featured here, so your time may be wasted.

odds and sods box #1
My first box of cheap Vespa knock off bits has arrived from Vietnam via an order I placed on www.scootrs.com. Overall, most of the parts look good, and are much cheaper than the items that they have attempted to copy, (except for their attempt at a rear light gasket). I'd write them an email complaining that some of the cast bits were less than perfect and that they still need some buffing, but im afraid that a sweatshop worked might get beaten, and I dont want to screw it up for the rest of the western world who rely on said shops for cheap tools and tracky dacks.

pbas - post byron anxiety syndrome
Coming down from the Byron trip was'nt easy, but was made a little better by driving over to my bro's and seeing my Vespa as naked as the day it was born. Garren had stripped 99% of the Italian stalion while I was away, and it was awaiting its delivery to the paint stripping man. Whilst this was a surprise and a major step forward in its rebirth it demonstrated that its past was less than favourable. Some loon had pop rivetted a piece of galvanised tin over a large hole, err crater, on the scoots front bottom section. The headset also had a small chunk missing - which would be more serious as it was aluminium, and thus required special welding, ugh. Oh well, acceptance is the first step to recovery. (Current mood: glass half missing)

byron bliss
I had to ditch my Vespa plans for 4 days whilst I was dragged like a screaming child to a 5 star resort at Byron Bay by the colonel and a select few of her high achieving workmates. I dreamt of pulling out the steering column from the beast whilst playing 9 holes at the local course, and fantasised about bathing the engine in degreaser whilst I snorkled with the fish out from the bay. I was saved briefly when we hired a scooter from a motorbike store, and I spotted some Vespas in their workshop, but overall it was a miserable weekend, where excess was the norm, and a large multinational had to lay off several staff to finance our seafood bills.

first inspection
Our first good look at this twisted and rusted piece of 70's memorabilia showed that there were a lot of bits to replace. Pretty much the whole damm thing would need to be stripped, and what wasnt binned would need to be hammered back into shape.

The only highlight of the evening was a spin around the street to test out the gearbox and engine which surprisingly started and performed ok. After that, I pulled a 4 hour strip session whereby I took out the rear end, and disconnected most of the easily accessable bits. It appeared that the scoot was originally red, and then it had a half hearted paint job to turn it white, and then it had a backyard bodge job to turn it red again.

The condition was no huge surprise, but I was a bit pissed. At least it would be done well, and the way i wanted it... and it had a trapezoid headlight!
(Current mood: glass half full)

got one
After a short deliberation over a 1978 Vespa 150 VBC I had previously viewed in the northern SA town of Kapunda, I figured what the heck, ill go and get it. This move, seen and voiced by many as stupidity in the highest, was prompted in part by riding an overpriced old school 50cc, but was really due to the destructive mix of boredom and a lack of alternatives.

On the way back from Kapunda, new baby in tow, I made a call to my bro, it went something like this. "So um, do you want to work on the scooter? needs more work than I thought"... ... "Ahh awlright, I knew this would happen!". Thus, the scoot was delivered straight to my brother's operating table. He had the tools, skills, and a little more time than I to give it a proper rebirth.

Overall, I paid the chap too much, received too little, but hey, it had a trapezoid headset and it was red!