[hillram]

They say surprises await everyone.
Last week,myself and Shiva(Cyberdoctorind) were riding towards Khairtabad and Shiva spotted a beautiful Vespa 150 riding ahead of us.We stopped the rider(and owner) and quickly asked him if he was willing to sell.While i was bargaining,Shiva got into his act and checked all the vital parametres of orginality and certified the Italian wasp was indeed pristine and priceless.Next 5 minutes,the owner told his attachment and passion for the wasp,but decided to part.After a little haggling he agreed to part with wasp for Rs.3500.Just imagine my joy.I got ready to pay immediatly.But he said I could collect it after a week as he needed to find an alternate mode of transport.
Today morning i got a call that i could collect the wasp.By afternoon i was riding the lovely Wasp back home humming "Dot Fratrelli".
Soon i convened a meeting with my mechanic,painter and denter and explained what i had in mind.A 100% restoration in 7 days time.
After thorough instructions,I left the wasp with my trusted mechanic to start the restoration today itself.
Here are the specs.
Year of Mfg : Jan 1970
Capacity : 150cc
No: of gears :3

This seems to be the last set of Vespas made by Bajaj under the licence of Piaggio.

Restoration process will include dismantling the entire body,engine,chassis and complete denting and fixing of few rust spots,scraping of paint to body level and then giving a coat of redoxide followed by 4 coats of Bright Orange paint.I have chosen from Aspa shade card to give it a period look.
I will be doing more of buffing to the aluminium parts rather than nickeling.

I need few original parts for the Wasp:
1.Floor Rubber beadings (4 Nos- 2 on each side)
2.Vespa foot rest
3.While rubber beading for the cowels
4.While handle covers with Piaggion logo
5.White foot brake cover.
6.Steel Horn casing.
Any pointers are welcome,as to where i can source these parts.
A few pics of the wasp in the condition that i bought.
I shall keep posting updates on the restoration which should complete in 7-10 days.
My heartiest thanks to Shiva (Cyberdoctorind) for spotting this priceless Vespa.

[srisha]

Congratuldations, I will be watching this thread since I am going to be soon starting my 1960 single owned Vespa restoration.

Some of the parts can be sourced from ebay UK.

I didnt understand the purpose of the poll in this thread?

Regards

Srisha

[hillram]

Originally Posted by srisha

Congratuldations, I will be watching this thread since I am going to be soon starting my 1960 single owned Vespa restoration.

Some of the parts can be sourced from ebay UK.

I didnt understand the purpose of the poll in this thread?

Regards

Srisha

Thanks Srisha.
I will check ebay.
Since i own both Vespas and Lambretta,i wanted to find out which is more popular to own.

[Lukeskywalker]

Just what I was waiting for, I was telling Pavan Kadam just the other day that I needed to do something to bring back a Bajaj 150 which is a 1971 model back to its original glory, this scooter belongs to my dad and is currently unused, it has run all of 55 k kms in all these years.

[hillram]

Originally Posted by Lukeskywalker

Just what I was waiting for, I was telling Pavan Kadam just the other day that I needed to do something to bring back a Bajaj 150 which is a 1971 model back to its original glory, this scooter belongs to my dad and is currently unused, it has run all of 55 k kms in all these years.

Like minds meet on Team BHP.Please post some pics of your Vespa 150,so that we all can see the beauty.

[chanu]

Congratulations Ram sir, and I am confident about your jet speed restoration. This Wasp would come out in flying colours. I have little experience in these vespas and I love them, its a 4 years search which got me a OOOriginal Vespa which I named FLYING SPARROW as it really flyies on road.

Ram sir do you still have the black vespa you've restored in the past. you may not get the horn cast off the shelf but I can spare mine which can be fabricated in aluminium or copper. The same with the tail lamp (I should have a original one which I lost somewhere at home ) I will check out as one of my friend said he has a guy who sell all goodies for vespa including silencer, long seat of vespa kind.

A) Please consider to remove the glove box in the front along with the clamps, you can have the LML ones if you really need one.

B) Make sure the denter does a good job in getting the lines on the front mudgaurd, domes, nose. In urdu they say "core" which is what makes vespa a looker. Body shape is also important as the front sheild should not be beaten flat it should have a slight curve on both sides where you have Vespa monogram and in your scooter the lord krishna picture and the rear should be little low.

C) check for the channels you have below the foot board, they should be the old ones and there would be two channels. check for rust as they tend to get rusted due to the front wheel running in water in monsoon.

D) Front mudguard plays a vital in my regard as in most of the scooters its not place right either they look sideways or up if you observe closely and they also tend to bend down which would touch the body so this alignment is important and shoud do it before painting.

I am there for your help and I hope not confused you, in case I did we shall clear it off when we meet. I am searching for the aliminum channels and their ends for future stocking for my vespa and can share if I find them with you.

For now these pictures for your reference and rest when we meet.

[Lukeskywalker]

@ Hillram,
didn't the vespa have the curved headlamp and speedo console as seen in the pic posted by Chanu above? I think the 150 came with the new design headlamp and speedo.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by Lukeskywalker

Just what I was waiting for, I was telling Pavan Kadam just the other day that I needed to do something to bring back a Bajaj 150 which is a 1971 model back to its original glory, this scooter belongs to my dad and is currently unused, it has run all of 55 k kms in all these years.

Yes Hari, Infact i was told by my mechanic, that the Bajaj 150 is a pure Vespa 150 and only rebadged to Bajaj

I remember you telling about the original Italian Carb on your scoot, That makes it time to restore the Beauty. When do you want to start your new thread?

[inderpalgill]

here is the vespa restored by me in 2009

[hillram]

Inder thats a pristine Vespa you have..Which year is it?
Bala..The tail lamp of the 70 Vespa is different from what you have.It is a single red casted tail lamp.

Update on the restorationL
Today i managed to get the few spare parts like Speedometre,Floor channels,Tail light,Clutch and handbrake levers,Foot brake pedal.
The Wasp will be stripped anytime now and the denting work will begin today anc completed tomorrow.

[inderpalgill]

Originally Posted by hillram

Inder thats a pristine Vespa you have..Which year is it?
Bala..The tail lamp of the 70 Vespa is different from what you have.It is a single red casted tail lamp.

Update on the restorationL
Today i managed to get the few spare parts like Speedometre,Floor channels,Tail light,Clutch and handbrake levers,Foot brake pedal.
The Wasp will be stripped anytime now and the denting work will begin today anc completed tomorrow.

hi dear, agree the tail lamp but didnt had a choice that time as the scooter missed the original setup and only this one was available, have sourced out the same the pics were clicked few months back and just uploaded from the hard disk, after that i have also fixed the vespa footrest,and the tyres are white wall and not the inserts

[pramodkumar]

lovely thread, my dad had a bajaj 150(vespa 150 look alike), i wish he never sold it. sorry for hijacking your thread hillram, but i have to ask this. I have a priya lying in my store room belongs to my house owner, i am getting an idea of restoring it post seeing this thread, i would want it to look like a hotrod, any suggestions?


Pramod

[hillram]

Originally Posted by pramodkumar

lovely thread, my dad had a bajaj 150(vespa 150 look alike), i wish he never sold it. sorry for hijacking your thread hillram, but i have to ask this. I have a priya lying in my store room belongs to my house owner, i am getting an idea of restoring it post seeing this thread, i would want it to look like a hotrod, any suggestions?


Pramod

Pramod,,believe me Priya is worth restoring and today when i was in search of parts for my Vespa,i came across so many original parts for Priya,cause both shared lot of similarities.
I suggest you start the restoration immediatly.

[hillram]

Day 1 of restoration began early in the morning with scouting for parts in Ram Kote area where there is a huge line of scooter parts shops.
Bombay Scooter Palace has it all.I could lay my hands on a Tail lamp,Floor Channels,Clutch and Handbrake levers,Monograms of Vespa and Piaggio,Speedometre.Unfortunatly Bajaj doesnt make any more Speedometres for retro models as the Pricol and Yenkay who specialised in Speedos for scooters and cars dont exist or dont make them anymore.I settled for a Rainbow speedometre.
I came across a set of entire while rubber beadings,channels,grip covers,brake and kickstarter cover in a package which were costing Rs.2500.Imagine i bought the scooter for Rs.3500 and this was unreasonable.anyway since they didnt match my period fitting i decided to give it a go.These will be used in Shiva's Vespa restoration at a later stage.
Late afternoon my mechanic started to first clean the engine and started to treat the carburator .It was lovely tuning the carb and engine.By this time,buffing of the engine was going on parallely as the engine was throughly washed with petrol and cleaned.My mechanic certified that the engine was in a very good condition,which gave me a sigh of relief.
Then the stripping down began slowly and one after another and soon it came undone.I could see the Vespa embossing everywhere and was delighted how original was this priceless beauty.
By evening the stripped parts reached the denter and he gave few suggestions to improve the strength of the chassis.I mutely nodded at his suggestions as they seemed genuine.
The denting is slated to complete in 24-36 hours and then the Wasp will move on to painting booth.
Parallely Im getting made new leather seat covers to give it a period look.
Watch our more updates in the coming days.

[Mpower]

Superb find Hillram! What color are you planning for this one? Please stick to a period colour.

Originally Posted by hillram

By evening the stripped parts reached the denter and he gave few suggestions to improve the strength of the chassis.I mutely nodded at his suggestions as they seemed genuine.

WOuld like to know more about this?