Thanks to fellow SS180 owners

Although they are probably not aware of it, I have been lurking and learning from SS180 owners all over the world by reading their blogs and forum postings.

This is a specific thank you to Eric and Jeremy who have both got SS180's and decided to share their adventures when restoring. Follow the links to the right to see their projects.

I have also been able to follow some of Eric's advice to other SS owners on the Modern Vespa Forum, who are dealing with the same issues I am. It has all been very very useful and saved me loads of time and stress.

Thanks Guys, it's pages like yours that help put more Vespas back on the road.

Whew!

I've had time to go over the SS180 to see what is actually missing, broken or 'bastardised beyond recognition'.

The biggest issues so far have been the broken hub assembly, the missing air filter, bellows and speedo cable and seals. I am fairly relieved that I will get this job done for about $400 including parts as I will do most of it myself and have found everything I need. I won't be changing the paint for now, just happy to get another Vespa off the scrap pile and back on the road.

It's all about the cosmetic stuff now but I have a list of stuff that is missing that I will try to find.

Luckily I have a good friend who is an engineer and will make some of the sacrificial items for me like cotter pins, welsh plugs etc as well as weld up repairs for the case or repair holes with helicoils, making this journey a little less stressful. I know at anytime if I ever get stuck I can call him and he'll help me through it but I get a big kick out of doing as much as I can by myself.

GPS Imports to the rescue...again!

I had all but resigned myself to the fact that this project was over when I discovered this. IE: How hard would it be to find an SS180 front hub assembly in one piece because mine is in 2!

Just as I was disconnecting the front brake assembly I noticed some lumps under the paint work. I gave the brake backing plate a tap with a wooden mallet and a fine crack appeared, you can see it just below the spring here...

I started to pick and chip away at the bog to see what had been covered up.

Eeeek..
The front hub is cracked and joined by bog (not welded at all) and 2 little screws from the front side of the backing plate.

A quick call to GPS with fingers and toes crossed (and a quick word to the Vespa Gods) paid off.

Steve has a good looking 2nd had unit for $150, all he has to do is find it amongst his treasure trove of scooter goodies and I'm in business.

Ordered so far

2nd hand hub assy -$150

Carb seals -$10

Points set -$15

Gear change tube washer-$2

Air Filter -$27

Next Order I will need

• Speedo cable and drive pinion
• Engine Gaskets and Oil Seals
• SKF Bearings from local shop or my shop stock

I will be beadblasting the cases and hubs myself using a mates set up, I expect this to make them look like new!

At the moment I am having my shed lined and potbelly stove flue fixed (it's bloody windy here in SW Vic!) and when that's done I'll be back out to scooter nights in the shed but for now It's just too damn cold at night.

I'll attack the case work and hubs next

The very First Warning Bells are sounding

I knew I would find some dodgey stuff as I went along, it's from Asia after all.

What I am banking on though, is that regardless of the crappy chrome and shiny paint, there is still a soul in this old scooter. I need the workings and frame to be OK, I don't really care about the little "fix-its" along the way, they go without saying as this scooter is 41 years old.

So, what did I find? ....Gulp....

The Seal is stuck in place with god knows what?? Haven't attacked this yet, I am currently about to beadblast my cases, hubs, flywheel and anything else I can find to make shiny :)

......Stay tuned....

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.

and then later, you can check the front end too

Do I need to go faster than 105KPH on 10" wheels?

210cc! That's Wicked!!

As is mentioned on the pistonported.com page....

"The SS barrel has more wall thickness than the GS160 and can be bored out to accommodate a P200 piston for a resulting capacity of 210cc"

I'd be interested to hear from people who've done this?

Big Bertha

I bought this custom VBC from Dave in Coffs Harbour. She's a bit of a beast. I couldn't believe my eyes when I first laid eyes on her.

She's W I D E R

& L O N G E R

than your average VBC 150 Super.

From what I can tell its been put together using an APE shield or something similar as the legshield is seamless all the way to the engine. Looking underneath you can see all the criss cross stamping pattern in the body although its a lot bigger than my others. There a bit of bog in the panels but all in all she's not too bad. She starts first kick and thanks to her big expansion chamber pipe, sounds pretty good too.

You can't always get what you want

The GS Super Sport

Known as the SS180 Super Sport

Piaggio came out with this robust model in 1964, read more about it here at pistonported.com

http://216.32.198.134/history180SS.htm

I've never been what you'd call a purist when it comes to the Vespa, but I did always have my poster model that I wanted. The elusive GS seemed to be the much sought after model by Vespa people everywhere dreaming of their favourite or most desired scooter. It was on my list (still is I guess) for many years but having recently purchased a '67 SS180 I think I can safely say, this is it. I love her and from what I have read over the years she will treat me to some great power and reliable performance when I finally get her up and running and tuned properly, including replacing all dodgey bits for NOS if I can find it. Luckily I have established a big network of scooter parts suppliers worldwide for my parts business so I am hoping that finding crucial bits and bobs won't be too hard. I am very lucky to have found an SS in this condition, albeit under some shitty cheapo chrome and 2 tone paintjob, but the bits I need to be working well are all fine and the work is mostly fiddling with electrics and updating things I need to be A1 for safety, like brakes, cables, lights, tyres and that's all pretty easy for this scooterchick to handle :)

more to come

A new scooter, It was meant to be.

This scooter thing is a real disease. You get the bug badly and if you are lucky enough to be able to stop yourself at one, all power to you! Hasn't worked for me. I'm hooked.

Let me introduce Sophia, a '67 SS180 in fairly good nic for an import. I'm doing a bit of a rebirth with her so expect it to take some time but was very happily surprised with the overall condition and fundamental running gear all fantastic. (note here, if the fundamentals are buggered I'd recommend that you didn't attempt a resto-too hard!)

So the price was right, the colour is my favourite in the world (that lovely cobalt blue) and its a 1967 SS just like me!! (born in 67 and my initials are SS) It was meant to be!! :)

So another project has started, great for winter and in lead up to my dream trip to Italy- planned for September or October when the weather is great and scooting through Tuscany will be a dream. I've found the Vespa Hire place, but at $66 euro a day I've been haggling! :) I have friends over there (Hi Zayney) who say they can find me an older vespa to 'borrow' for a few weeks but will see what they come up with first i think!

Stay tuned for the trip plan- will add it all here as I make decisions about where I'm staying etc

I'll be centering around this lovely quaint area of Italy, staying near here-Montalcino- as I have has dreams of riding through those avenues of pines since I was about 18! :)

Staying in agriturismo as it's cheap and gorgeous!

The SS

First step, getting rid of the inappropriate chrome!

As you can never trust what fuel mix the previous owner has used or how much they have cared for the fuel system, my first job with a new scooter (before I even try to kick it over for the first time) is to empty the fuel tank and check it out.

You may not like what you find!

This is what was left after the fuel came out! Ick!

So it's pointless cleaning the tank and renewing the fuelcock filters etc if you don't go through the entire sytem from woe to go so I renewed the old fuel line, filters and float as it was flooding the carb due to a small hole allowing fuel in making it too heavy to engage float needle, hence too much fuel and then moved on to the engine....




Systematically checking all the other crucial bits and pieces for wear and tear

Get ready for the big clean

I love a good winter project, I have to order some parts & will be spending lots of cold hours in the workshop over the next month or so but it will be a dream when I can roll her out of the shed when it's done.

Parts needed (that I know of so far)

gear sleeve washer

oil seals as is running very rich for no real reason

front wheel bearings

carb gasket set and maybe new needle?

Air filter (might put a foam pod in there yet?)

Points set

front and rear badges just to make her look right

Scooters go into Hibernation

Brrrr, Winter is here and the scooters don't come out of the shed much until about September :(

We've had lots of scootin' weather but also some days where it just was way too hot to do anything but those days have great cool evenings which makes scooting very enjoyable.

I have 3 scooters to keep me busy over winter, lots of jobs to do so stay tuned for the headaches I will no doubt endure! :)