SCOOTISSIMO ~ For the Love of Scooters!: The "rebirthing" of Sophia begins

How to bring an Asian Resto back to life

The old catch phrase that went hand in hand with Vespa, "From Rome, with Love" needs a modern update.

"From Asia-to rip you off (& with no regard for your safety what-so-ever!)"

The insidious invasion of Asian scooter restorations obviously equates to rising numbers of classic scooters sitting in sheds all over the world unable to be registered or ridden. This scourge on the classic scooter world is as detrimental to their history and tradition (IMHO) as it would be if it was written off or put in a car crusher. I have personally seen scooters that have been ‘restored to death’. It will cost more now to 'rebirth' the scooter than what it’s worth, in both time and money. This is very sad, as many are now just shiny ornaments as people hang on to them in a hope that one day they will be able to get it on the road.
I have seen this industry grow in an alarming rate over the past few years. I remember when I first went online looking for a classic scooter as a project and there were 3 scooters listed on Ebay for sale, one was in Vietnam and the other 2 were here in Australia. Recently when I did a search there were 18 classic Vespa scooters online and most were from Vietnam or low mileage classics for resale here. This means one thing to me. It’s dead and it can’t be fixed as reputable bike shops won’t touch them, don’t know enough about them or parts just can’t be found.
This scenario must play out every single day, all over the world. I hate to imagine the number of classic scooters that are dead, sitting in sheds and workshops worldwide never to be fixed because some little Asian workshop has sacrificed its soul and ‘restored’ it to death.

The Waiting Yard!

(waiting for your well earned dollars!)

During my many years of reading and research I discovered that these workshops are often set up and run by westerners who have seen the scooter boom coming and wanted to get in on the action. Many corners are cut to save money in what they describe as the “restoration process”. Commonly, lots of Bondo is used to make the scooter look like it’s just rolled off the assembly line.They have had a hard life in Asia, having been imported en masse in the 60’s and 70’s as a cheap means of transport. Clones of the Vespa Scooter were licenced to be made in India and Indonesia (and other parts of the world under different names) so after market parts are plentiful in the region. Asian parts are often ill fitting and seriously unattractive, but it is increasingly hard to find genuine parts or New Old Stock (NOS) these days so the market is flooded with cheap (and ugly! see pic below) repro’s.

Just about every scooter rider or enthusiast I know has a list of what they would like to own in the perfect scooterist world. My list had a GS160 on it as do most others.

I also resigned myself to the fact that I would probably never find one here but a girls got to dream.

So when I came across an SS180 online for sale and did some research I started to think I might still own a classic from the GS series style scooters.

One look at it told me it was an Asian import, one thing I initially always tried to steer clear of under any circumstances but I decided to check it out anyway. Over the last year or so I have really been thinking about the numbers of Vespas coming out of Asia that are now basically buggered because of it. That made me quite sad. Surely they can't all be bad? I started to think that I might be able to find one to bring 'back to life' and even up the ledger, so to speak. I kept an eye out online for what looked like a decent project.

I had some basic starting criteria for my search.

The scooter had to be here in Australia with paperwork

In running condition, no noisy engine, no noisy clutch or clunky gear change.

No metal fleck in the gear oil

No welds, joins or mega bogged sections

No bent fork

Matching case sides

Matching engine and frame numbers

As many original parts as possible.

I didn't care too much about the colour, the tyres, the cosmetics or all the vietchrome, all that can be fixed.

Can she be bought back from the brink? Who knows? What I do know is I will have enormous fun in the process and the end result will be very rewarding having saved another classic from the rust pile.

So, I fell for the colour right away as it’s my favourite blue and as we are both 1967 ‘SS’ models I thought that was a ‘sign’ that I should see what I could do to rebirth her. I was communicating with the son in law of the owner and established that it came from Bali and he bought 2 of them, one for him, one for his lady friend. They had them crated and bought back to Australia but sadly they split up not long after so his Vespa dream was never realised. He gave me a good report on the running order of the scooter and then we got down to business. I got it for a good price and had it transported over from Adelaide.
Sophia, as she’s been christened, arrived late on a freezing cold winter’s night but as soon as I saw her for the first time she made me smile.

As she is an Asian import, the very first thing that must be done is a complete systematic pull down. For anyone doing this, I can’t stress this enough. Do not trust anything, check every single nut, bolt, gasket, shim, cable, screw and bearing from the tip of the front wheel all the way to the number plate holder and everything in between.

So it's time to get the nails dirty again.

Just like last winter when I pulled Lola apart, I expect to find things that make me laugh, gasp with horror, scratch my head with curiosity and amazement and swear in Italian (so she understands me). I fully expect it to be loads of fun too. There is no feeling of desperation this time as there’s 2 ‘spare’ scooters parked in the shed for me to ride while Sophia is on the operating table.

I will be keeping track of all the weird and whacky stuff I find on this scooter as I systematically pull her apart one bolt at a time.

I will also be keeping a tally of what it costs in parts and labour for the job.

OK, here we go, strap yourself in!

First Step- Prepare the Operating theatre, get all the tools, books, light and warmth you'll need.

I recommend getting a few buckets and label them "Clean", "RIP", "Repair", "Reno", "Replace".

As you pull things apart, decide what you need to do with it, put the item into a zip lock bag and label it immediately. You can throw it in whatever bucket it needs to be in and deal with it later. If it's something I think I might lose track of mentally (or forget how it came apart) I'll add a highlight to the manual page for reference later or highlight the item on a photocopy of an 'exploded' parts diagram. So on the bag with all the front brake bits in it, I have written "PG 75" and have also made a note of all the bits that weren't there when pulling down.
There are often missing washers, grommets, bushes etc and all these can be replaced if you follow the parts diagram if you go and make notes at the same time.