SS90 Project- Sears Frame

Some of my inspiration I have saved on Pinterest. 

I am cutting out the spot welds on the floorboard supports. Eventually I will get to the horn cover and the rest of the legshield itself. I can practice without screwing much up. I started by center punching the spot weld and then using a spot weld drill cut it out. I immediately broke the teeth off of the first one. The second went a bit better but still broke it. Finally I went to the step bit. I punched a hole all the way through but it seems to be the easiest way for me. It wont leave the spot weld to grind off afterwards.

It is hard to see. But there are a lot of spot welds drilled out.

The support has been removed. Vespa didn't paint or prime before the support was attached so it was very rusty.

Vespa SS90 Project

One can't have enough projects, right? I am working on turning my Sears 125 Vespa into an Vespa SS90 "restomod". This will be a long term project and will be posting the progress here. Following are some of the photos of the bike and what I have done so far.

On the left is the original frame. On the right is the SS90 legshield from Scooter Center Klon in Germany

It is not that much taller. The horn cast makes it not line up too well. It is narrower.

The Legshield with the front fender and the headset from Saigon Scooter Center.

Carburetor Mods with manifold

In hope of a bit more reliability and maybe a bit more power. I am trying to fit a Mikuni 28mm carb that was on my Yamaha R5. I have bought an assortment of jets and the tuning guides are very in-depth on how to get it set up correctly. The coupling manifold is quick and dirty, made out of a piece of aluminum that I had lying around. The holes were all drilled on a regular drill press, the two holes that will hold the manifold to the engine are countersunk for socket head bolts and the other two are threaded to hold the rubber carb manifold on.

How the carb will look mounted to the engine. From the engine side.

This is the whole setup with the air filter

The carb in situ. The choke was swapped out for a kit making it cable operated.

Random Photos from this summer

 In the garage

 At Wheels of Italy, next to a Ferrari Testarossa

Parked next to an RV

New Roof!

Today I picked up the roof I had Dick and Rick's make. It had been sitting in my cold car when I tried to fit it for the first time so it was a bit short. But it is the same dimensions as the old one so hopefully it will fit. It is an off the shelf fabric in dark gray. It is OEM for the Chrysler Sebring. I am really pleased with the craftsmanship. 

The Details

It is the little weird things that make me like this car every time I see it. After doing a mockup of the new taillight lenses I remembered the bulbs inside were patterned. I was able to get the details with the new camera. The bulb still works so I am just going to leave it.

Tail lights

There is still a couple of feet of snow on the ground, but I have been itching to get working on the car again. I purchased some taillight lenses from Microcarlot.  I had seen the lenses on some cars down at the World Meet and they looked to be pretty good. The whole lens is plastic, compared to the original, which had a lower glass reflector. The lens is also a bit thicker, so maybe it won't melt like the old ones. Below are the new and old lenses side-by-side. The rubber gasket is not available, so I will probably use the old cracked ones for now.

 

Winter Stall

I had the car running and driving before the snow fell. Now the car is stored away it its metal tomb. I think the clutch was slipping so I am going to try to get it into the shop and replace it. 

Coming together

It is nice when there are more empty bag parts than full ones. I am almost able to mount the transmission to the transaxle. Then I will be able to put the whole assembly in the car and get it on its wheels. Speaking of wheels I honed all of the brake cylinders and the master cylinder and have rebuilt the front left brake cylinder. I mounted it along with the brakes and the tire and wheel for a test fit. It is going to be tricky because I put the 8 brake drums in a pile along with the 16 brake shoes and picked out the best ones. I tried to get the same thickness brake shoes mounted, but it is rubbing a bit.

The bare transaxle waiting for the transmission

Brake cylinder in the top center, the brake shoes on the left and right sides

The front left wheel mounted

Garage Night

I sent up the bat signal for people to help me put the car back on 4 wheels and they came. After a night of talking and drinking a little bit got done, but no rolling car. Everyone has volunteered to come back and help when that time comes.

What was done:  Seals were replaced in the transmission. Brake hubs were installed on the rear axles.

Micros on Route 66

A group is planning on driving their microcars (under 500cc) from the Santa Monica Pier to the World Microcar Meet in Chicago. They have set up a Facebook page so that anyone can follow them on their journey.

Final Stretch

The car still doesn't look like much. But I have been getting a lot of things done to get the Vespa 400 back on the road for the World Microcar Meet. I haven't cut any corners in the restoration, but I have put off many things at this point in hopes of having a running and driving car this summer. The biggest item is no paint or bodywork.

The engine is finished, new pistons have been installed, the generator has been rebuilt and I put new bearings and seals in the fan cover. Oddly, the bearings in the fan are lubricated by oil in the shaft and has to be checked so the bearings don't become dry and fail.

This week has also been a lot of painting little bits that I haven't even been thinking of at all. Like the metal tube that runs from the oil tank to the gas tank. I have also cleaned and painted the axle shafts and plan on replacing the bearings tomorrow.

When In Rome

A Vespa 400 looking very similar to the one in the previous post makes an appearance in the movie "When In Rome". 2:41 into the trailer you can see it being driven. I saw the movie in the theater and it wasn't too bad. Although the whole plot and some of the jokes are shown in the preview.

It was kind of weird to see the car in the movie and have to wonder how anyone involved would have known about them. It would have been much easier to find a Fiat 500 or something. A scooter has become shorthand for a scene in Italy; Just an old street, a scooter and presto, Rome.  The jokes on them because although being called a Vespa, the 400 it was made in France.

Fiat Press Office/ AP

This is an Italian FIAT Cinquecento (500)

 

Vespa 400 for Auction

Today, a Vespa 400 was auctioned at the RM Auction in Fort Lauderdale. According to the description it was built as a tribute to the car in the movie "When In Rome". I had read that it was actually built as a promotion for the movie. It is a great looking car and I would be very happy if when I am done that my car turns out as nice as this one.

Photo from the RM Auction website

Pistons

Here is a photo of the the new and the old piston side by side.  The new one is on the left. Some obvious differences is that the skirt on the new piston is open. Because of the height of the piston and wear of the cylinder the piston would rock in the cylinder and break the skirt off and it would fall into the engine and cause problems. There are two thin rings on the new piston compared to three wide rings on the old one. Because of ring technology the two will work as good or better than the three. Most importantly the new piston is forged instead of cast, making it much stronger. The square hole above the wrist pin whole is for weight savings. Dispite the bad photo everything else is dimensionally the same.

Clutch Part is Back

I dropped a part of my clutch off at Brakes and Equipment last week and got the call that it was done so I stopped over and got it. Here are a couple of photos of the driving plate Part# 11578 in the diagram below that has been redone and a spare that I have.

When I dropped it off, there was much explaining involved but they were up for it. They said it would take longer than their usual 24-48 hours because they hadn't ever seen a clutch so small. There was a finished clutch for a tugboat! on the table ready to be shipped back out.  

 The fiber plates on the clutch are a bit wider than the original but it won't affect the working of the clutch.  The fiber plate thickness is the same for the old and new driving plate so it should work well.

Al in the shop showed me how he had to cut the material on two different machines to before he could get the size to use. It sounded like an involved process that took a few tries, but they got it right. And more important were very reasonably priced. Thanks guys. I will be going back there for the brake lines and redoing the brake cylinders when I get to that point.

The weirdest coincidences happened there. After never hearing of a Vespa 400, someone mailed Brakes and Equipment their brake cylinders to find parts to rebuild them today. What are the chances that they would be working on parts for 2 Vespa 400's in the same week.  I don't know the person, but saw their name and look forward to meeting them on the road!

My Car

I thought I would write about my car restoration here, until I get the rest of my website www.vespa400car.com up and running.

I will give progress updates on the restoration, resources for parts and services and maybe some history.

My goal is to have a running and driving and stopping car in time for the World Microcar Meet in Illinois at the end of August.

Here is a picture of the car I took in September that will be on the splash page of the site.