Monday, June 25, 2012

1978 Vespa 50 Special - Long Term Project


I found this on Craigslist. The guy was parting it out and I saved him the trouble by buying the whole mess right out. I should have paid more attention to the location on the ad as I found myself driving 45 minutes away from home in the dark at 9:30 on a Sunday night. 

The place I was going was out in the country and down a long caliche driveway. 
Here's a terrible and shaky video to give you an idea of just how far out I had to go. You can see him on another scooter guiding the way to his shop:


I was warned to close the gate securely when I left, "We have cows."

It turns out that the guy selling it was teaching at the High School I graduated from so many years ago. He wasn't my teacher, but we were there at the same time. Small World...

The scooter is just the frame and front end of a 1978 Vespa 50 Special. It is currently the same color as my truck but I can see what appears to be factory red paint underneath. I may try and carefully strip the blue paint and recover the earlier color. That may prove to suck a lot. What's more, I don't have an engine or handlebars for this frame. There were millions of the Vespa 50s built but the majority of them stayed in Europe. I think I might be able to drop another smallframe engine in there and have it work. 

I think I will see if I can find a 90cc (rarer, I think) or maybe, if I can find it (and I am not entirely delusional), I can find a Primavera 125 engine for it. I am also wondering if I DID find a primavera 125 engine, if there is a larger top end kit that would pump it up to a 150 or so. 

This is all provided I am not entirely delusional. I just watched that video again and I am beginning to suspect that I am. Then again, it's trips like these that make this all an adventure. 



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