My Dream Scoot Vespa ET2 Out of Storage

[pinkscoot]

Well I drove 12 hours yesterday to pick up a 2004 Vespa ET2 in Georgia, and no I didn't hear banjo music. The guy was great he got it at a State Farm auction along with 70 other scoots. He gave me a tour of the lot, he had a number of Tao Taos but probably 20 Kymco Agilities in various states. He said he already put together 12 scoots and sold them. I was only interested in the ET2. I really like the lines and they were the last 2T that Vespa imported. I have my Pink Scoot and the Velocifero but they are just imitations of this. Actually the Velo is, Italjet designed them to take the place of Vespas when Vespa quit importing to the US. Their success brought Vespa back. Enough talk, these are pictures from Craigs list:

Its just a few scratches, that will buff out, right??? I have already ordered a front leg shield it appears to be the worst. I just drill the spot welds and weld the new one in. The frame appears to be straight as well as the fork. I'll have it on the lift soon and check it. Of course its a Piaggio motor with 1200 miles, barely broken in. This will be a fun summer project. I have done some auto bodywork and really enjoy it so this will be the same on a smaller scale. Worst case I part it out. The motor will sell well on Ebay. I'll keep you all posted, until then back to the BV250.

[oldgeek]

Sure that'll buff out!Lol

Musta been cheap.

[pinkscoot]

It was $300, I think the wheels would sell for that. I'm sure the speedo showing 1200 miles is good for $100.

[Tanuki]

Nice find! Im not finding a popcorn mojiguy so cheers!

[aeroxbud]

That's a great buy. If things don't go to plan, like you said, it's worth more in parts anyway.

[drc174]

First in line for the fork if you decide to part it out!

[pinkscoot]

I finally found time to unload it into my storage unit. In the light of day I can see its in rough shape. I priced the replacement plastic and they'll cost about $700. Its out of site and out of mind. If I do part it out I'll list it here first.

[ThomasTPFL]

Damn... If you decide not to go forward with a build I really want to build a naked cutdown ET2. I dig the way they look with no plastics.

[pinkscoot]

Thomas, that has been my thought exactly. No plastics in the back and you can put any pipe you want on it. I think this will be a project for next winter. I have the Derbi Predator, TGB R50X, upgrades to the Scarabeo, a Vino and Zuma that are ahead of it. Hopefully by then I've sold a few off and have more room to work on this.

[ThomasTPFL]

I'd cut it down just to the inside of all the turn signal holes, front fairing and rear cowl. Modify an older Vespa's horncast to fit. Run naked handlebars with some "cafe racer" headlamp. Leave it as bare and unidentifiable as possible.

[pinkscoot]

I found this picture of an LX being painted and I think I like the look of no plastics just bare metal.


Naked bars and naked bars. A very cut down front fender. Maybe use my spare Vino bars and instruments. Possibly fit a Vino headlight or a Café Headlight. End bar mirrors. As Thomas said make it unidentifiable as possible. Now I'm getting excited about this project. But I need to finish the other ones first.

[collinsd84]

I've followed a few vintage Vespa restores. One traded the scoot for another, and the other just back burnered the project due to the cost of parts and time invested.

[pinkscoot]

Well today was the day, as I wait to sell the TGB and get the BBK for the Scarabeo I hauled this out of storage. Fortunately I planned on a friend for her because the tires have almost no air and the front brake is locked. We got it home and lifted it off the truck and it had to wait it's turn to go on the lift. Here are pictures of it waiting:








First order of business was to get it running. I had to replace the bent kick starter so I could kick it. It had nice compression, no gauge yet. I pulled the carb for cleaning. The enricher cable is really long and connects about 2 zip ties and one cable holder away. More PB Blaster and it was out and apart. It's now in the ultrasonic cleaner getting shine. It appears that the drained the gas and ran it out because the carb was dry. While trying to remove the air box I came across the first stripped bolt. Spent a second on it before I just opened it up. The filter crumbled in my hands. The whole ignition with and lock are gone. Not a big problem I may just put a switch on and use that. I played with it and got the lights to come on but the starter switch did nothing. Maybe the relay maybe something else. I pulled the cables and hot-wired them and it cranked over. It even tried to start from the starter fluid into the intake. I checked spark and it seemed to have something. The original plug was in it but pretty ugly looking:



On to the front brake. More PBBlaster and I got the front wheel off. What a mess. I went to pull the caliper and discovered one of the bolts was broken off I'll probably need to pull the disc off to solve that problem. When I pulled on the brake earlier the handle went all the way and I heard fluid squirting. I think someone tried pulling the caliper apart and screwed up getting it back. Here are pictures:





This will be a long winter . I'll keep you posted.

[pinkscoot]

I poked at this a little more. I found a Malossi air filter on Amazon as well as an on/off switch. Since this will be a Rat scooter I figured just turning it on and off will be all I need to do. I studied the wiring diagram and found the 2 wires to use. There are normally 4 wires into the switch but the other 2 are part of the neutralizer when the switch is off. For when I do want to have a key I spent an hour looking on line for the plug that was cut off and I do have a spare of the OEM switch from the ET4 to compare. I think I can just put some spade connectors on the wires and slide them onto the switch. I also figured the wiring to check the starter button to see if it's that or the starter relay. Since all of my Vespa's use the same relay I'm getting 2 replacements to have a spare. I'm off Tuesday and hope to have it running and maybe do some runs up and down my street. Of course with no front brake.

[milly]

pinkscoot when you get round to checking out what you need, I have some spare panels you can have free if you want them posted over the pond. Love the colour though.
Update have spare glove box/front panel and side piece on rear Speedo panel complete with Speedo and headlight. I am sure not used headlight maybe switchgear to and more but won't know till look in morning if any good to you.