Restorations
Vespa PX 125 (with Polini 177 Top End -2016 Model
I bought the Vespa PX in November 2021 from a fellow scooterist here in Jersey. I knew as soon as I saw the scooter that it would be an ideal restoration project. The scooter had surface rust, dents at the bottom of the leg shield and in the right panel. I knew this would be a challenge. After an evening of contemplation, I messaged the seller to let him know he had a sale. After agreeing on the price, it was time for the ride home. Typically, with my my luck the heavens opened. It was a wet ride home for me.
The following day I took the scooter to my dad's workshop to start the process of pulling the scooter apart. Firstly, my dad and I removed the engine and the back wheel. Then we removed the front forks and the headset. This was followed by the removal of the other electrical components, and then it was time to start the process of rubbing the scooter down. I used Wet & Dry to smooth the frame. Assessing the scooter's frame there was quite a lot of surface rust. To remove the raised rust we used a grinder. For the other affected areas we used sandpaper and rust remover. For precision we used a measuring tool to ensure that once the dents were removed the leg shields were perfectly aligned. A rubber mallet always comes in handy at this stage along with filler for the smaller imperfections. Now it was time to prime. Luckily, we had a spray gun which helps produce a good coverage of paint and speeds up the process. The primer was rubbed down and we were ready to start spraying.
After a few lengthy discussions about the colour, we decided on Light Gun Metal Grey. I was not too sure how the colour would look on the scooter at first, but was pleasantly surprised how good the colour looked on the frame after it had dried. I must say my first attempt at spraying was not the easiest, and we did spend a lot of time having to rub parts down and spray them again ,due to the paint running or the paint becoming speckled. The workshop was not the quietest place at these times ,but we did get through it, if you get what I mean. Saying that, putting the leg shield trim on was more of a nightmare than spraying the frame itself!
Vespa PX when I had just bought it
The frame after just being sprayed
Once the spray job was complete it was time to start putting the scooter back together. The first tasks my dad and I undertook were putting the front forks back in to the scooter with the shock, mudguard and front tyre, along with the front disc and centre stand. Once the forks were in place and the stand was on, it was time to put the engine in and re-install the back tyre. We then routed the cables through the frame before putting the headset back in place and sorting out the steering column. Once all the cables were in order and the indicators and other lights were fitted, it was down to the fun part... connecting them all up. Connecting the throttle, gear cables etc was straight forward, but finishing the electrics did take more time understandably. All my dad and I could think about was finishing the scooter and none of the electrics working. Luckily, we managed to figure it all out, with no push backs and with a little help from friends. I connected up the starter relay, indicator relay and regulator/rectifier etc using some diagrams in the Haynes manual, just hoping the electric start would bump into action. Luckily it did! I was so relieved and knew we were almost near the finish line.
Finally, after connecting the disc brake and bleeding it in, we were able to replace the top of the headset, front horn cast and the panels. It was then down to starting the scooter for the first time. After the third kick we had success and the scooter sounded brilliant. All that was needed now, was the MOT and the open road.
In total the scooter took a year and a half to complete. Like anything, we did have our drawbacks and we did have to take parts off and repeat some of the processes. But that is all part of it.
Here are some pictures of the scooter once completed.
