Modern Vespa

so i bought a scoot from vietnam (that makes it a bodge right? why is it called a bodge?). im going to strip it, already got new cables and have a new engine on the way. it is crappily painted with some bad welds, but no significant rust. will i go to hell even after i fixer up?

The emotionless response it that many of these scoots are unsafe as a result of major structural members having been welded back together. Not just body parts, but suspension items, etc. Since the Vespa body is the major structural element of the scoot, any and all welding together of different bodies, a common practice in Viet bodges, raises serious concerns about the strength of the resulting creature.

Also, the Viet bodge shops have been known to fabricate shims and other parts locally out of scrap, like tin cans.

There have been several web sites devoted to the dangers of bodges.

Based on the structural integrity of what you bought, and the level of teardown and renewal you do, you could end up with a fairly decent scoot. And you might find it unsafe no matter what. It all depends on who rebuilt it and how they did it.

Al

i appreciate it. i dont plan on this being my only scoot. i have a vw mechanic/ vespa fan friend that is going to take a look at the body after ive taken it all apart. i dont see anything wrong with the frame so far. but the front shock was jb welded and the engine died after about 100 miles of use. i was fixing it up and daily diving it but the winters here are not two wheel appropriate. so now its garaged and getting the once over. any opinions out there for some practical mods? i wanted to upgrade the brakes (im going to order the krate engine from scooterworks. is this a good idea?)

Welcome to your nightmare !

Please grace us with photos of your purchase.

you are about to become a great source of information for all
of us here. I really can't wait to hear the stories you will tell us
about how you should of researched your purchase and why, if you did,
you will tell us how you wished you had listened.

I hope that you are a member of the 1% of viet-bodge consumers
that didn't get bent over, but we will see about that.

Please don't let my post scare you away. I know I sound like an ass now,
but as more layers of this bodge are peeled back, I hope you will keep
us informed.

I am interested in knowing how much this project drains your wallet.

Oh shit. Checkflag is right. I think we are all pretty interested in hearing about what unfolds. Walk (or ride for that matter) into the jaws of hell. Good luck, and post pix as you go.

He already did

whalefetus wrote: If you take the cost of buying it, plus the cost of
getting a new engine, new paint, and all the new parts
you will need, you will have spent way more than
that scooter will ever be worth. For the total cost,
you probably could buy a running much better Vintage in
great shape, that will be worth double in 10 yeras.
Yours will never go up in value. I have a new replacement
engine in one of my scooters, and it's OK,
but not even close to being as well made
as the 30-40 year old ones.
Good luck.


Rob

This seems like a no-brainer. Get a ballpark figure of how much money you plan on spending to get this bike up and running again. If you are going to dump a bunch of money into restoration anyway, it might be a safer bet to swallow your pride and cut your loses with the poop scoot. Salvage what you can, and pick up a US bike to restore. At least you know the body would be solid, and won't come unglued on you at 60 mph. No???

whalefetus,i think you understand the frustration people here feel. the topic of identification has been around here much longer than i have.

unfortunantly mv dose'nt make the washington front page.

i'm still grappeling with how a bike can be all that bad,but it can.

denial will not help.

it does'nt matter if you put in a new motor or not you are left with a frame that may or may not be ok.

all is not lost if you still insist on this frame(you may have an intact frame)

THE FRAME HAS TO BE BLASTED(100 BUCKS)AND INSPECTED BY A CERTIFIED VESPA MECHANIC BEFORE YOU GO ANY FURTHER.

if you need help in that direction,let us know.

then you can build your crate bike.

my deepest condoleances.....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laprell_fontaine/sets/72157600026363625/

If you're set on rebuilding it (and I assume you are since you're already in it for quite a bit of money), I'd recommend having the chassis dipped/blasted. Once it comes back from that, you'll know what has been welded and what's original. You can then cut access panels and weld in reinfocements behind weld seams to provide strength to the chassis (see illustration below). Do this on the backside of the vietnamese weld so that the reinforcement won't be visible on the finished side. Grind the original vietnamese welds smooth and use a hammer/dolly to straighten dents and misalignments. It'll take some time, some skill and some craftsmanship, but you can likely build a good strong chassis with a bit of work. Once that's done, minimal filler, primer, paint and new components (from reliable sources) and you can have a good, safe, reliable scooter.

I'm reinforcing my original frame (Allstate, not Vietnamese resto) due to rust pitting and can send some pictures when I'm done with that process, illustrating my point here.

thanks guys youve been so much help! ive never been able to find people into vespas prior to this forum. ive always been afraid of forums because of the hater>helpful ratio, but this site has a pretty healthy mix. i tried to buy an american scoot for about 2 years and got fed up. too many miles driving around only to find a sub par non running scoot. anyways i knew i wouldnt get the best i could from the east but ive spent less then $2000 (closer to 1600) and catalog engines run about a g. is that alot for a scooter?

Hi fetus,

Any non running American Vespa is
Better than a viet-bodge. There are so
Many options you had such as scoot.net,
forums, many search options on the
internets. So on and so on.

For instance..
http://scoot.net/classifieds/?cat=scootersforsale
http://scoot.net/classifieds/forsale.html?id=15351
http://scoot.net/classifieds/forsale.html?id=15560
http://scoot.net/classifieds/forsale.html?id=15494
http://scoot.net/classifieds/forsale.html?id=15403

My personal favorite http://scoot.net/classifieds/forsale.html?id=15357

this was 5 minutes of research.



easy peasy. just in the 1st 2 pages i found 4 decent scoots/projects whatever.

i think your headed in the right direction.

blast and investigate. you may have a good frame. don't give up.

good frame and new motor for 2600 is ok. money is not the point here.

you have already stepped through the door.

(checkflag is trying to rub your nose after the fact,shoulda coulda woulda thing. he hates bodges)

post pics.

No way, you won't go to hell if you fixed it....but you might wish you did!

It comes down to simple cost totals. If you try to "fix up" a vietnam bike, methodically working out every one of it's kinks/problems....you will NEVER , I repeat NEVER recoup the costs later restored.

I'm a scooter mechanic at a shop, I see customers come in day after day, having freshly purchased Vietnam bikes, and I am the lucky guy who gets to explain to them that they've just wasted their money. I mean....I will fix anything put in front of me, but you're just throwing good money after bad with these bikes.

There are no exceptions, either. All Vietnam bikes are rubbish. If you have one, and it runs and you don't think it's rubbish.....well, keep riding---you'll learn soon enough.

We had one customer who was hell-bent on working the issues out of the bike, one by one. I think last time we checked, he was into the bike about $6500, and that didn't even include any paint/body!!
He had to replace each and every mechanical piece on the entire bike---engine, fork, suspension, electricals, headset guts, everything.......and it still looked like a Vietbike.
Now I dunno bout you, but I can buy a killer trophy winning US built show bike for $6500.

You get what you paid for. I can have that written on my tombstone....people refute this simple advice all the time and it's ALWAYS TRUE.

My advice? : Sell it on down the river (ie Ebay), park it up in your living room, dontate it to the local Italian restaurant (and eat for free forever!), make a flower planter out of it......do just about anything on the planet except try to make it a running bike.

Go buy a project and start from scratch, or go shopping for a better bike now that you know what to look for. There are some killer bargains out there right now for really great bikes- either way a good bike will cost you more than a vietpile, but sometimes not that much more.

Just my $.02

Cheers,
-Collin

Well put Collin!

Hey collin, i was going to go to fullerton today with westside.. but alas..
NO ONE SHOWED LoL. I waited 45 minutes amd no one showed so I ended
up going to Jimmy's neighboors 4 year olds birthday party. It was fun though,
full of pinatas and pin the paw on the doggie.

quote: My advice? : Sell it on down the river (ie Ebay), park it up in your living room, dontate it to the local Italian restaurant (and eat for free forever!), make a flower planter out of it......do just about anything on the planet except try to make it a running bike.


its parked in my living room right now!

my plan now is to rip ot apart see if the body is good enough to take it any further. if i have any doubts, ill start checking for a new one. thanks checkflag. i didnt realize that there were so many out there right now. build thread soon to come!

Anxiously awaiting the epic saga that is about to be
uneashed upon the MV readers. There is no need to
Start a new thread, this one can handle whatever
you can throw at it.

But, as asked for, it is IMPERATIVE that you post
The before pics right away. Inquiring minds want
To see.

this is all i can get right now. hard drive blew up not too long ago and cameras out of the house.

Hand me a flat blade screwdriver, a hammer and a flashlight....I could tell you in about two minutes if it's worth it (which it won't be...),without taking it apart.

I mean....go for it! Wrenching can be, err, fun.....but I can pretty much guarantee you'll be opening a can of worms you wish you'd left well alone.


I bet it looks killer in the living room, eh? They do make great furniture/art displays.

-C

aww, well you were missed! It's all good.

I think a number of WS people didn't make it to the meetup on time, and I don't think anybody rode out- so you didn't miss much. Sorry bout that!

Probably 15-20 people showed up, and we Dyno'd about 6 bikes total. We will certainly do another Dyno day possibly in early summer.

Cheers,
-C

If you DO end up dumping the poop scoot (which everyone is telling you to do), at least have the balls to NOT dump it on someone else who doesn't know what they are buying. Put it to good use somehow. If I was a scooter mechanic, it might be nice to have a real live bodge hanging around to show people who don't get it.

Thanks for posting the pic. Now lets see what she looks like naked.

p.s. Is that a 2002 Bissell Steam Vac steam cleaner I see in in the bottom right of the picture? Man, that is a great model. Doesn't have the styling of the late nineties models, but man, is it a workhorse. DO NOT gum that thing up with all the aftermarket Chrome vacuum fittings you see on the vacs coming out of southeast Asia.

i'll say it again,you've opened the door and stepped in.

at this point you should blast the frame and see and take detailed pics.

find a blaster who has a minimum charge(around 50 bucks)and more than likely that is all you will have to spend,maybe a little more.

i'm not kidding.

if you don't want to spend the 50(i can't see why not after what you've heard)i will split the cost.

i want to see this thing bare to the bone.

it is your bike,you sound like a smart guy so far.

i mean your still here peeling the onion with us.

there is a saying"more will be reveiled"and it is not always comfortable,but you learn through pain.

and we are always right there.

you will make valuble friends and if you stick around your next investment in a real vintage scooter with proper history will be a smart one.

my opinion

Whalefetus-

My I diverge from the rest of the gang and let you know that I wish you good fortune with this scoot. Whatever the odds are of having received a machine that is OK, I wish you the winning end of those odds.

Give it a thorough going over, as that's in your best interest. Be assured, that if you picked a winner, I've been rootin' for that. If you didn't, you have my sympathy, not condemnation.

Al

i don't want it to sound like i am saying go forward with this item.

purely out of curiousity i want to see this frame stripped.

i will help pay for this blast.

that aside,it would behouve all of us to help whale in the next purchase.

we stay together we win together

i was expecting " is that r2-d2 on that cage?" your observation gave me a solid minute of laughter. are you into scooters and carpet shampooers? thats awsome

Ha! Glad I could make you laugh a little when I'm sure the rest of the posts are makin' ya cry. One thing is for sure; you came to the right place. The other people posting here know what they are talking about, and I'm sure everyone is hoping for the best.

here it is. didnt even need to start taking it apart. the bondo chiped away as i rolled it down the stairs into my garage. the crack goes along a wled that runs really close to the mount of the rear shock.



you called it. at this point im throwing it on craigslist and immediately after i sell it i will be looking for a new scooter. let me get some recommendations!
wa state is super lenient on requirements for scoots so models w/o turns and dirty smoke/ loud are all good (and actually preferred).

Holy crap.....

Ouch. Well...if you want to build your own scoot, then I would start with one of these:

http://174.36.196.117/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_21_231&products_id=1308&zenid=e7762cc095700d52147391a4ea5fdaaa

huh. didnt know they could be bought new. i may have to try and do it that way. it may be easier on the wallet if i go piece by piece.

I would strip down that scoot you have now and use any of the parts that are usable. Any worn or damaged parts/nuts n' bolts just replace them.

Heres good reason to steer clear of Nam bodges
http://www.hostingphpbb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=733&mforum=vesbretta

Have to wonder if anything will be usable...

i still have no idea where the term bodge comes from

im going to try and sell the scoot as a whole first. if there arent any bites ill use what i can

We were not condemning him, or the scooter, just
telling the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts.



Rob

Saw your craigslist ad. I understand your desire to salvage something out of this debacle, but you *will* go to hell if sell it for 2K. For starters, that ugly crack? It's in the FRAME, not the fender.