1955 Allstate 125 - 1978 P125X - 1979 P200E - Booth&Painting 55 Allstate, March 99, in Philadelphia workshop SOLD Spring 2004. click here for info. Last updated 21 March 2003. 11.August.98 Having access to my friend Geo's 1980 Dodge Van while he is in Germany turned out to be a great thing. My scootercomputer friend Eric, fresh to Boston from Denver, tipped me off about this 55 Allstate in Providence RI. He was interested in it, but when we found out how much work was involved he declined. Well, I invited him to come along with me to check it out-- we knew it was a good deal-- and I've been wanting to make a decent investment recently. I knew that even if I didnt like the scooter or couldnt get it all put together that I could fetch at least what I paid for it and whatever parts and time I put into it. What the heck, I wanted a winter project and a means for some hardcore experience. Armed with an old tape of Meat Is Murder, KJ, Eric, and I drove down South 95 about 50 miles to Providence. The sporadic thunderstorms and lightening only added to the surreality of the trip. Steve Morse was waiting for us in the driveway. After two hours or deliberation, drooling, and chatting, I decided to go for it. I bought it, and we loaded it all into the van delicately, and then drove back to Boston after a short also-surreal stop at a gas station for some grape juice and cola. Now, what sits before me is a taunting and daunting display of parts and pieces. The engine is totally assembled, rebuilt, clean, and runs. The frame is fully repainted original 50's shiny sea-foam green. Original Allstate tyres. Fancy spare-wheel rim cover. The cowls alone are precious antiques. Steve had done a lot of the hard work for me-- locating most of the needed parts: speedo, seat springs, suspension components. There are a lot of various things that I will need to get this thing together and operating. I expect it will take dozens of phone calls, fifty hours of work and puzzle-solving, and about $250 to do properly and safely-- heeding original spec's as much as possible and feasible. The cabling and wiring I expect to be the hardest part. To start, I am compiling as much resources and information as I possibly can. Anyone with diagrams, books, manuals, or notes about the 50's Allstates or 125 Vespas in general PLEASE get in touch with me. I've also made a list of parts that I am looking for, below. 26.Aug.98 First order of parts after sufficient research with the Allstate manual and parts book. Been trying to solve a variety of mysteries and puzzles-- particularly how the throttle cable attaches to the turn grip inside the handlebar. It certainly is hard figuring out what you need when you don't have it, and can't see it. Third generation photocopied low-detail part diagrams don't offer much help. A certain amount of aggravation ensued over my placing an order with Scooterworks for the majority of the common parts that I needed, them stalling on the shipment of the order, and my finally calling them and finding out A)10 of the 15 items I ordered were out of stock B)my order hadn't been shipped yet, and it'd been 4 working days-- AND they hadn't contacted me to inform me of a problem. Ordinarily I've been thrilled with their service, knowledge, and parts availability. I calmed down when they apologized and promised to Next-Day-Ship what they did have (even though they told me when I initially ordered it that most all the parts were in.) Now, instead of waiting three or four weeks for simple items like brake levers and cables to be stocked, I'm going to try my luck with some of the albeit more expensive west coast shops. I'm told some of them have more knowledge and availability with the 50's bikes My friend Eric, who rode with me to Providence to pick up this Allstate just called me tonight to tell me that someone is Forward-Air'ing him a disassembled, unpainted (but primed) 90% complete early 60's Allstate.. that he bought for $300! So, this winter we'll be working together Allstate-building and then in the spring we'll be Allstate twins. Add to the mix that Sherwood, who is one of the other Boston riders in our Sunday drives, also is restoring a '53 (handlebar) Allstate. This should make for some good think-tanking and group problem solving. I'm trying to make arrangements to drive to PA to pick up two scoots, both Vespa P125x's -- one that is in excellent condition and another that needs some aesthetic work. The nice one will be for KJ, the other one yet ANOTHER winter restoration project that hopefully will provide an anxious Bostonian with a Vespa and compensate me a bit for my effort, money, energy, and attention, AND bringing the thing back to Boston. 10.Sept.1998 It's almost one a.m. I've been working on the Allstate on and off for about 14 hours. Got the order from The Scooter Shop today. Lots of things that I needed... just painful to add up all their prices. I made another order from Scooterworks today. They really are especially helpful, despite often being out of parts-- which is likely because they distribute and supply to so many scooterists AND many shops as well. The support, advice, and encouragement I've gotten from those on the internet and in real life has been very helpful and much appreciated. I went to the hardware store four times today fitting hardware for the cowls, engine mounting, floor strips, exhaust mounting, and various headset pieces. Yesterday I made a trip to a different store for pieces for the headset and wheel rims. I found out if you go to the hardware store yourself instead of getting the same damn thing from the mail-order shops that you will save about 80%. And feel cool for sorting through the metric bins all afternoon. I'm a bit distracted and annoyed at some of the mediocre work that was apparantly done in restoring this scooter before I took over the project. Tonight I DISassembled the shock/frame mounting and fender/fork ass'y to find the wrong length bolts, and missing washers and lock washers, not to mention a lack of a certain plate on the fender. The most frustrating thing I encountered, while cleaning up the fork ass'y, was that the suspension spring locking washer (for lack of a better name) was installed cracked, and cracked in half while I was working on it. Oh well, better that it breaks now, than on the road. So I have to replace that. I'm having a lot of trouble locating the #11084 Throttle control plate. I find it humourous that I've memorized the part numbers on all these pieces that I am still looking for. That's how many times I've read them off to every shop I could get on the phone. And I still need a seat cover, and will likely end up getting one made if not making one myself (!) I've all but given up on the headlamp/kill switch assembly and case. I'll have to make due with the one I have even though the horn button is broken off. I don't expect to find one. I cleaned and painted the fork and spare tire mounting plate tonight. They are silver now. Looks sharp. Tomorrow I plan to get some more hardware, order that suspension spring piece, and get moving on assembling the engine mount and the front fork. Also, I checked out the tank and figure that I need to swish some gas in it and clean out the residual oil and sludge in it. Looks pretty clean, just a bit muddy. That's much better than a tankful of rust, I must say. On a side note, I did go to PA to pick up the two P125X's. Mine has it's own page at this time, and KJ's will have some photos and documentation up soon. Also, Eric's wife Elizabeth scored a beautiful, totally restored and rebuilt 1964 VBB Vespa 150. $950! I kicked myself when I saw how amazing this thing was-- Eric and I drove to NH to pick it up. It was too good to be true. Evidentally, the fellow, Jonathan, bought it very cheap in very rough shape and put $700 or so and probably 100 hours into it. What a deal. So pleased to see others in this for purer reasons than profit. On that note-- I keep having run-in's with these Scooter "re-sellers"-- boneheads that buy scoots, do nothing to them, and then sell them for five times what they barn-found them at-- just because the market will tolerate it-- and thus artificially inflating prices. I ran across a guy selling a disassmebled, poorly repainted, seized P200 for $750 and a trashed, non-running 1958 Vespa 150 for $1000. Then today this guy called me trying to sell me a sort-of running '71 Vespa 90 for $400 that is missing a lot (tank, exhaust, etc), has been very bodged, mistreated-- and that I suspect he found for about $100. He was also selling a Vespa moped for $300 that he likely bought for $100-- I know because I see them in the paper regularly for $100 to $150-- from people that don't care or know about "market prices and demand." This really irks me. Particularly because consequently my thinking about fixing up and re-selling Vespa's makes me feel guilty for wanting to profit at all for all the time, energy, parts, searching, puzzling, and money that I put into restoring them. I just have to remind myself that what I am doing is different. And that I haven't sold a thing yet, nor made a dime. Ideally, all my work restoring Vespa's would serve to pay for my own interest and scoots, while providing others with fixed up, nice, appreciable Vespa's. 15.Sept.98 Worked on the Allstate for at least eight hours today. Made a significant amount of progress. Took a ride to Weymouth (15 miles south) to visit Jerry and see his new '65 Vespa 150 in action. Drove it up the street and back, fiddled with it some, and then hit some rain coming back to the city on my motorcycle. Today I re-assembled the front fork and fender ass'y. Took me 15 minutes to figure out how to put the spring onto the locking washers-- tighten nut, attach spring to top, loosen top, then turn spring into lower lock, then tighten top. Pretty sneaky. Found out that of the bearing assembly that Scooter Shop sent me, only half the pieces did anything and I ended up taking the bearing out of the assemblies they sent me and dropping them straight into the apparently self-sufficient frame housings. I of course left the races on the bearing but none of that clunky metal sleeve housing they came with fit in there nor did anything more. I think I remember the shop saying something about that. I ended up using my old lower bearing ass'y as the new one they sent wouldnt fit. So I cleaned mine thoroughly, and then re-lubed it with lithium grease spray. Putting the engine into the frame by myself was, as I was warned, a pain in the neck. Figured that out and then hooked up the carb unit. I have the gas tank and the exhaust off for now so that I have a more accesible view and touch for doing the electrics and cabling-- which I am pretty nervous about. I put the floorboard strips on this morning, not without a certain amount of frustration. They look fantastic -- I cleaned and polished them all last night-- but evidentally half the stainless steel screws that I got are a touch long and stick out the bottom of the frame. Annoying! I used the screws instead of getting a rivet gun and rivets, because of the latter's permancy and obnoxiousness, but now I am re-thinking. Filed down screws can't look that great-- but then again, it IS underneath. Solving the centerstand puzzle was really something. I had a pile of parts, new and used-- hooks, springs, bolts, boots, stand-- and finally made sense of it and got the old stand hooked up and working. I couldnt get the damn boots on. I think I am going to have to modify the stand itself so that the boots fit on the end. They are real rascals. Got the tool box cowl on without much significant trouble-- cut the vintage grey cowl rubber to fit it (it was kinked in a few places due to having been sent to me tied up in knots.. grrrr!) and only one of the attaching bolts was apparantly cut or broken off so I was able to mount the cowl with 5 of the 6 original studs and nut/washer set-ups. Things are coming together fast. It's looking impressive. Tomorrow, or maybe later tonight (I haven't been able to get to sleep much on account of such an overactive mind and ambition) I will attach the headset and the headlamp. I might start in on threading the cables, however, I don't have cable grease yet. Hmmm. I am worried about the electrics. I don't know how the grounding works and such. Will have to re-read all my reference materials and see what I find. I know that not all the wires and connectors are there so I will undoubtedly have to provide some. 26.Sept.98 Got some new photos up, but they're from last week. They don't reflect what I've done recently. I previously thought I had the front fork and bearing assemblies all done properly but then I decided there was too much play in it, disassembled it and realized I had done it wrong. For a while I thought that it needed loose bearings instead of the race bearings but then found out that wasn't the problem-- I had the ass'y put in upside down and the bearing 'cone' wasn't pounded down on the fork. Evidentally it needed a much tighter fit than I was suspecting. I should have known after all the stories I have read about others having hell trying to get the bearing seat off the old forks. After useless attempts of pounding it down, I sought a more sophisticated manner: I heated some oil and submersed the bearing seat in it, meanwhile cleaning and smoothing the fork with a file and such. Then I slipped the hot piece down the fork and again pounded it, this time with another like-diameter bearing piece to absorb the hammer rather than with a screwdriver or other disproportional impact. Went on without much hassle. Ain't no way that things coming off though.. so I hope I did it right! Put all the pieces in there, shoved the whole fork back up the frame, tightened it down with all the bearing assemblies in place, and VOILA! it seemed to work-- turned well, was tight.. much improved! I replaced the sheet metal screws that held the floor rails down and stuck through out the outsides like porcupine quills. I used short bolts with chrome cap nuts. Very nice! I never thought that the cabling could have been such an intense, laborious, confusing, and frustrating task. But after the third time of threading a third cable through a tiny tunnel from one end of the frame to another, or trying to remove frayed 40 year old unravelling cables-- I began to understand the warnings I had received. It's a shame that with all these reference materials that NONE of them adequately explain or illustrate how the cables are best run. Putting the inner cables proved to be just as complicated and annoying. I broke a stiletto lever trying to fit it into the bar housing. Cracked right where the cable-nipple fits in. Hmm.. was it defective or am I? I'm also not convinced that the handlebar Vespa throttle piece (control pin) is going to work for full range of the throttle. I will very likely have to fabricate one using that one as a crude model. I haven't yet hooked up the rear ends of the cables-- to the clutch, brake, selectors, etc. Hooking up all the cables to the handlebar end of the selector was really something-- I must have done it four times to get it right.. including completely rethreading the cables everytime I decided that a piece needed to be in there, or turned around, or something. But it looks so swell! Now I am in the phases of understanding and connecting the electrics. I spent two hours yesterday trying to find screws, rivets, or such that would work for attaching the horn. I had to drill out the old screws which had been cut to take the old horn out. Let me say that whirling a drill bit anywhere near a 43 year-old totally restored and re-painted Vespa frame is a very nervous job. 55 Allstate in the Boston workshop, 19 Dec 98. 19.Dec.98 Seriously distracted from this project by the restoration of the two P series Vespas. Now I am gearing up for the move to Philadelphia, and just now taking some more photos in the workshop to show what point the Allstate is at. It really only has a few more hours of work: I need to solve the electrics, hook up the cables, get the seat cover made, and attach the exhaust. Oh yeah, and I need to figure out how to get full range of the throttle. Will probably end up getting another throttle pin or making one at a machine shop. 1.Mar.99 Got the new Philadelphia workshop, studio, and loft set-up downtown. Both the P200 and the Allstate are stored inside now here on the third floor. (There is a freight elevator.) Been working again to get the Allstate done so that I can find a buyer for it. I'm anxious to get the scoots back on the road. Of course, before I sell this beauty I will have to take it for a few little rides. 5.Mar.99 Tried to start the engine today. I cleaned the tank and filled it with gas and hooked up the gas line and the carb. No luck. When I kicked it over for a good ten minutes or so, trying several different times it never so much as putted or sputtered. But I can hear the air putt noise out of the exhaust. Still has a good spark so I don't think it is the electric system or the points or the timing. If there was good gas flow and carboration I would at least get a backfire if the timing was bad. But I worry that the compression is bad. That would be really bad-- a leak somewhere could mean I'd have to drop and open an engine. Yuck. 8.Mar.99 Got the engine started today! I gave it a two day rest with gas in the system and perhaps all it took was the carbs to soak. Maybe there was something in there blocking the flow, which is strange because I had thought the cyclinder was getting fuel. Even starter fluid wouldnt get a combustion so I didnt think it was a fuel problem. But today when I kicked it-- first kick it started to come to life, putted a few times and then died. So I gave it another kick and it roared to life-- loud but very even and strongly! I turned the idle down a little while it was going and turned the throttle down some, let it run for about fifteen seconds, and then pulled the spark plug wire to kill it. I was so excited! I'm so enthused to finish the project and get this machine on the road for a test-spin! SOLD - Spring 2004 - click here for info. JPM THE RESTORATION 1955 Allstate Vespa 125 VA6T 788-94490 Mileage undeterminable Replacements and Purchases to date: -handlegrips -brake/clutch (stiletto) levers -fuel line and wraps -fuel cap parts -wheel rim nuts -wheel hub nuts -cowl rubber trim -front fork bearing ass'y -complete cables -centerstand hardware -centerstand boots -horn gasket -S83 Michelin tire (for rear) -selector handlebar ass'y parts -throttle control plate -various hardware List of Completed tasks: -purchase scooter -transport to Boston -organize parts -document purchase, photograph inventory -locate reference materials, research -order #1: 22 Aug 98, Scooterworks, IL -order #2: 01 Sept 98, Scooterworks, IL -order #3: 02 Sept 98, The Scooter Shop, CA -order #4: 09 Sept 98, Scooterworks, IL -order #5: 14 Sept 98, Scooterworks, IL -order #6: 23 Sept 98, Scooterworks, IL -find various hardware at local hardware stores -clean, re-paint spare mount plate, fender C plate, fork -attach floorboard aluminum strips -mount engine in frame -mount carb to engine -assemble front fork ass'y & fender -mount bearings/fork to frame -mount front wheel to hub -clean, de-rust, prime, paint centerstand -solve centerstand puzzle and mount & springs -attach toolbox cowl to frame -thread all cables, cable and housing -attach headset, handlebar ass'y -connect selector, throttle cables to controls -mount rear wheel -clean fuel tank (oil deposits, light rust) -attach fuel tank with fuel line -affix ALLSTATE original badge -wire and install horn -hook up choke cable -wire switch -affix taillight -fabricate headlamp gasket, assemble -install seat and springs -wire and affix headlamp -connect ends of control cables and adjust -attach rear spare rack plate -re-fill engine oil Remaining Tasks: -stitch seat cover -adjust control cables -wire tail light Needed Parts [Wish List] (applicable to 1955 Allstate 125 - VA6T 788-94490) -speedometer cable/ass'y and lens -seat cover (single, saddle)(will likely stitch own) 1955 Allstate 125 - 1978 P125X - 1979 P200E - Booth&Painting design ©1998 JPM