Tuesday 5 April 2011

The Vespa U can't forget

In the beginning of last summer I received a nice telephone call. It was from another "vespisti" who told me about an old Vespa. He guessed that it was from the mid-fifties because the cowls where smaller and strangely enough the headlamp was on the handlebar. He wasn't interested himself, "too old".

La mia Vespa 125 U! Io ho trovato in casa di una vecchia signora. La sua marito ha rinnovato la Vespa 1959, poi venne il colore blu. 

The seller was a little old lady, the widow of the original owner.
My heart raced, could it really be? Nah, probably a 1956 Vespa 150, VL3.
Well, I went to the lady. The first things a saw was the headlamp and the fender! It's a Vespa 125 U!
A very desirable model produced in 6 000 examples in 1953.
Totally dismantled by the former owner, some restoration had begun. Some stuff were kept at another place but I acquired them later.
The right engine and it was clean! A first for me - the cleanliness that is.
The fan cowl was missing the gills.
I had to do a mock-up to check what was missing. The light blue colour was chosen by the former owner who resprayed it in 1959!

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