Time Capsule

Some guys get all the luck! Check out this SS in "original" condition. Ain't she a beaut? Congrads to Gary. We're envious.

Here's the history according Gary:

I've always wanted an SS, and it was really just a fluke finding this one, I was looking once in awhile for one or a GS160. Going over the classifieds on Craigslist, an older woman was selling an original SS and had it listed as a 64 which seemed odd since there were so few made, and this one had the round headlight and that tractor taillight. Fearing that it was some type of clone I held off on contacting her. I then visited javaspeed in RI to see if they could help me find a larger frame Vespa (I'm 6'1 and 200lbs), they are about an hour or so from me, and when I mentioned that "64" was available and I was considering it, they knew the bike since it had been on display there for awhile and also serviced there, but at the time it wasn't for sale, as the woman whom owned it was planning to retire and move to Italy with it (at the time).

The guys there told me if I passed on it to let them know, I had no idea these were so desireable until rather recently, and reading around the net, somewhere I guess there is a top 10 list for Vespas and the SS is on that list. I just never knew it seems everyone is looking for one. When I called around various shops looking for price points I couldn't believe the prices these things were fetching. From what your blog seems to be indicating, you will probably end up being ahead given their appreciation, hard to imagine in the vintage vehicle business, but that seems to be going on now.

Anyways, the woman I bought it from owned it in dry climate controlled storage for 30 years. She admitted to only driving it once for about a minute as it was to be her retirement vehicle. Took her the last 2 years to realize the dream wasn't practical I guess as she is rather comfortable here. A bunch of folks have tried to get it from her before, lowballed her on the price and such, and she wanted it to go the right person. I'm a very low pressure guy, I know its hard to let go of things that we bond to, like the VWs, everyone I've sold was hard to part with, when a person is ready they look for the right person to sell it to. So with some of that and a ton of luck this one came my way.

After looking it over I found out it was indeed a 67, no rust anywhere, all original paint, a few minor cowl dents and some scratches but very few, its literally a mini time capsule. I'm only upgrading a few things on it, and I'm taking off the perfect seat since I want it to stay perfect, getting an aftermarket from the Richmond scooter shop, that way I won't feel guilty sitting on it. I've only had it a few weeks, got it started finally this weekend, not idling, will only run partially when the choke is out. Carb was rebuilt 2 years ago but I have to pull it and rebuild again no doubt and double check all the jet sizes, as the idle adjust and mix adjust had no effect at all on the engine. There are a few other oddball things to do, and I've got problems in the gearbox maybe, but luckily here come winter time its something I can take my time on and know by spring it will all be rideable. I just found a local place that does midweek rides and such, apparently there is a rather big scooter scene in Boston, this place is called www.Bostonscoot.com, talked to him, so at least I've got someone that can help me dial it all in.

I love resto work too, so undoubtedly I will be looking for something rare to do myself someday, much like my early VWs, I can do just about all my own work, so something like a 160 project would be amazing to do at some point. I figure though I'm just lucky enough to have what I have now and probably spent my good luck points on finding this SS.

Anyways, heres some pics, if you want any closer up of something let me know, will try to help you with what I can. Its just incredible I thought that your SS was only the 48th after mine. Enjoy the pics!

THANX FOR SHARING GARY. THE PHOTOS WILL PROVE HELPFUL FOR RESTORERS, BECAUSE NOW THEY CAN SEE HOW THE SS180 LOOKS RIGHT OUT OF THE FACTORY.

REMEMBER, YOUR BEST BET IS TO CLEAN IT UP AND GET IT RUNNING. AVOID MODS. STAY ORIGINAL.

Restoration: Seat Foam

Many of you may need to restore/rebuild/re-foam or create from scratch an authentic SS180 seat. Note that this seat is unique and does not resemble other Vespa seats. Make sure to review previous posts on the subject on this blog since I BUTCHERED I original stock seat and I was so pist at myself for doing so.

The photos below were sent to me by Mark Lee and show you in detail the flip tail build up for the tail end of the seat. NOTE: my flip piece was actually black (very dense and stiff foam -- almost rubber like, but not quite) and looked like the skid plate used on skateboards in the late 1980s (remember those?). Mark believes he is missing that part and will therefore need to have one made.

What ever you do SAVE all of your original foam and try to re-use what you have and very CAREFULLY study what the stock seat looked like. See previous posts. Work from there when restoring your seat and be very specific with your reupholster. If you have the stock foam it will cost you about $150-$175 to have it recovered correctly.

Final Parts Request for Quote

Today, I sent out my parts list to be quoted by the shops I have had good experiences with and with any luck I should start getting quotes back within the next 30-60 days. At the moment, we don't have the necessary money, but hopefully we will soon.

Restoration: Engine Rebuild

Note: I do not know why I have two gray boxes in the background code of the template on my blog -- damn it! -- you can't see the cylinder head photos. So the best thing to do to read a post is to click on the Title of the post and view it on a separate page with just that post and grey boxes will disappear. Sorry for the inconvenience folks . . .
In May 2007, Christopher Markley delivered our 100% rebuilt VSC engine. Originally, I planned to do the rebuild myself, but I am glad this was not my first experience with an rebuild because there were a few bumps in the road that Christopher was able to navigate around effortlessly and efficiently. About a 1/4 the way through our restoration my wife and I agreed that working on a rarer Vespa as a first time restorer might not be the smartest approach for certain elements of the restoration, i.e. I have NO auto body experience, but I do have a dolly/hammer kit. We decided to leave that element to the pros . . . after all the SS is not a P200 and if I mess up parts are not as common.
The previous owner, Eric Hughes of Three Mile Island Scooter Club, purchased the bike completely assembled looking like the photos below. He removed the engine and said he priced out a 180cc replacement motor through Scooter Works at the time for about $800. I don't remember ever seeing that motor for sale myself. He was going to purchase the new engine and install it.
He removed the engine from the body and immediately looked to make sure the air box was there as the guys at Scooter Works warned him how difficult it will be to find a replacement if it is missing. Eric also found that piston was seized. He used a degreaser to free up the piston, but it did not work.

Once the engine was removed from the body Eric removed the hub/tire and rear shock and there that is how I received the engine when I purchased it from him.

I bought some copper brushes, Wal-Mart degreaser and PB Blaster (an excellent degreaser and my my favorite) and began to clean the engine up. The cylinder head was removed already so I soaked the piston head in PB Blaster for days and tried to loosen the seized piston. I then got frustrated and started emailing people for advice. I was told to hammer the piston free and to hang the engine by the cylinder head and spray with PB Blaster. I posted the advice I got on my local scooter club's email list a week or two later after trying everything with no luck and Christopher chimed in and told me what a bad idea it is to hit the piston because beneath it is the crank and other items that could be damaged too.

Lisa and I quickly learned that Christopher is not just a gorilla with a wrench that hammers his problems out. He is of the old school and has personally taught me that the "way of least resistance" is the best was because we can always escalate our approach more if the first approach does not work and we greatly degrease the chances of damaging something else in the process. The end result is with his 2-ton hydrolic press Christopher was able to press the piston down very slowly and just enough so he could see between the bottom and top ends of the engine to get a peak at the piston.

Then with a very steady hand and a hack-saw blade Christopher he gently sawed the around the piston and freed the top end from the bottom.

Pictured left -- looking through the bottom of the piston . When I hammered on the top of the piston I had cracked the head a little and therefore it broke more under the hydralic press.

Looking down at the piston you can see it was a rusted seized mess once removed from the cylinder head. Christopher charged us nothing for this service and expressed interest in rebuilding the engine and we were very impressed with him and decided to move forward with Christopher, the obsessive compulive "most be perfect to manufacturer spec" guy.

Christopher is the type of guy that brings solutions to you as opposed to just reporting the problem -- as we say in the advertising agency world that is good account management (my wife is in the ad industry and I was as well).

Christopher had disassembled the engine, bead blasted the casings, and cleaned it up when he found a chipped off piece of metal along the seal. This made him very nervous and Christopher always sides on the side of caution.

He did not report the problem to us; rather he researched best practices and options for us. Many people he spoke with sweared that JB Weld would work -- just neatly and cleanly glue the piece in place and rebuild the engine and it would be fine. He also spoke with Tom G. and other people he respects and was told the safest thing do for dependability and longevity of the engine is to replace the engine casings.

Christopher hunted down and found a guy selling two (mismatched) already bead blasted and cleaned cases for $113 and called us and ONLY then informed us of the problem and offered us both the JB Weld and new cases solutions. He recommended new engine cases to us. After research I expressed my concern using two mismatched cases, because the seals and alignment may not be perfect. Chistopher told me he had the same concern, but after researching he learned that as long as the two mismatched cases had been run together for a while and worked, which they had, we were safe. With our permission Christopher ordered them.
While all this was happening Christopher had a local dirt bike racing shop bore out cylinder to match our replacement piston, which was +1 size up.

He installed the piston onto our brand new MeCur crank that took me three months to track down because everybody was out and the only shop that had them wanted $260. Thanx to Garner who had one for $160.

The other problem we had was the clutch shift box had a crack coming off of the hole that pivot locks into. I am not sure I have a picture of it, but I will add it if I find it. The two options Christopher gave me was to TIG weld it or buy a new one. Due to the fact that smooth shifting is important Christopher, Lisa, and I decided to replace it and save the old one for future if we decide to TIG it.

Christopher completely rewired our stator and working with Chelsea at Scomo and Christopher we decided to upgrade the stock HT Coil to PX125 HT Coil for better dependability and performance.

Everything was coming together and the engine was looking great and so damn clean. While all this was happening Christopher was powder coating the external parts of the engine to look stock and pretty. There are nice small details that Christopher incorporated.

Another upgrade Lisa and I decided to make was to replace the engine mounts with Clauss Studio mounts, which Christopher said will really help stiffen the movement of the engine and improve the performance of handling while riding.

All parts that you can see on the bike were given a make over and stripped of paint and cleaned up.

And then were powder coated. If you click on the any of the photos you can see them larger and it is easier to note the detailed work that Christopher did -- good enough for a jeweler with an eye for all the littles.

It was time reassembly and Christopher shot a few photos of the engine's guts and sent them my way.

It was difference of night and day for me seeing how clean the engine looked. All the parts went through Christopher's parts washing machine/solutions. A lot of care went into this engine.

This engine is the last of the piston ported Vespa motors and Christopher said he really enjoyed working on it.

Christopher set the timing per spec.

















Throughout this entire process Christopher used a Vespa worker's manual to ensure everything, except the minor upgrades we made, on this engine came out just like it did the day it left the factory.






If you click on the photo below and see it larger you will see the detail work Christopher did to the engine with powder coat. You will also see the PX125 HT coil. While rebuilding the engine Christopher also rebuilt the carb and installed it.

Breakdown:

Upgrades: (1) Clauss Studio engine mounts (2) PX125 HT Coil
Replaced: (1) Cases (2) Piston & bore job (3) MeCur crank (4) Shift box (Italian made of good quality -- I can't remember the brand off the top of my head) (5) Bearings (6) Seals/gaskets/o-rings (7) Wiring/stator (8) Kickstart quadrant (9) etc.

At a budget stand still

My summer vacation is nearing its end and I will be returning to the East Coast in a couple weeks. Upon my return I hope to finalize my parts list and get quotes ASAP. While that is happening I'd like to rebuild the rear shock so I can mount the engine in the frame.

During my vacation I worked on the parts list for the VSC to finish it up and I also created my first draft parts list for the restoration of the 1962 Lambretta TV175 -- hey, seeing as I am out of money right now I figured I should do something productive.

www.lambrettarestoration.blogspot.com

I will post a final parts list after I compare my parts to the preliminary list and it should extremely detailed and complete.

These part lists took hours to create so please feel free to email me for them or copy/paste them for your own needs.

I am a teacher and we believe there is no need to recreate the wheel and often share our lesson plans, etc.

I hope that giving you guys my parts list will save you time that you can invest in your restoration to make it even better.

I hope to have a Vespa update in August for you all.