My first scooter: restoring an '87 SE50P
Posted: Fri May 14, 2021 12:00 pm
Hey yall
I just bought my first scooter and wanted to make a post to share the work I've done on it, future plans, and maybe get some ideas from you guys.
It all started a few weeks ago when I rode my brothers metro. I had a blast cruising around town and taking in all the scenery and knew I had to get one. So I started looking on facebook market and one day an '87 elite popped up on there for $350. I met with the owner within an hour, gave it a good once over and took it for a ride down the street. It was missing an ignition and it was in pretty rough shape but it only had 1300 miles on the odometer, and I thought it had potential. So I gave him the money, and we loaded it into the back of my Mazda CX-5 . This is the day I got her:
Loved that leftover sticker residue
So my brother and I got to work and started tearing her down to go through everything and clean it up. With some detailing brushes, simple green (lavender ofc), and a couple hours, it ended up looking like a new scooter:
At this point, I was becoming really happy with this thing. It's super clean and it hasn't been tampered with besides the body panels and missing ignition switch.
Then I started looking around at getting parts. I got an ebay ignition switch for $20, oem grips, turn signal lens, and I ended up finding a metro rear wheel with a new tire for $80 on ebay
Huge difference, and all I had to do was trim the upper mud flap with scissors and grind about a 1/4" off the bracket for the stand bushing.
Then I had to address the plastics, so I started trying out the heat gun method and it worked great:
No meguiars here
Then I got the sticker residue off the panels with goo-gone, wet sanded them, and buffed them out:
Really happy with how she cleaned up. There's a few marks, scratches, and cracked/damaged panels but I'm okay with that (it adds character ). So I think I'll rock it like this for awhile. It runs and rides great except for the headlight and dash light don't work, so I'll have to see what's going on with that. Being a restricted model, it's a turtle. With just the metro rear wheel, it was doing 32mph, but I was able to snag an aero variator and ramp plate (US2) which allows it to consistently do 37mph which I think is decent. Now I ordered an SA50 S23 exhaust from scooterswapshop, some jets (85,88,90), a ruckus variator, and some 6g rollers which I'll run with the aero ramp plate. The exhaust will require some cutting and welding but I'm excited to see what she'll do with this setup.
So I think that's it for now. I've had a ton of fun bringing this lil thing back to life, learning more about them from this community, and of course riding it.
I just bought my first scooter and wanted to make a post to share the work I've done on it, future plans, and maybe get some ideas from you guys.
It all started a few weeks ago when I rode my brothers metro. I had a blast cruising around town and taking in all the scenery and knew I had to get one. So I started looking on facebook market and one day an '87 elite popped up on there for $350. I met with the owner within an hour, gave it a good once over and took it for a ride down the street. It was missing an ignition and it was in pretty rough shape but it only had 1300 miles on the odometer, and I thought it had potential. So I gave him the money, and we loaded it into the back of my Mazda CX-5 . This is the day I got her:
Loved that leftover sticker residue
So my brother and I got to work and started tearing her down to go through everything and clean it up. With some detailing brushes, simple green (lavender ofc), and a couple hours, it ended up looking like a new scooter:
At this point, I was becoming really happy with this thing. It's super clean and it hasn't been tampered with besides the body panels and missing ignition switch.
Then I started looking around at getting parts. I got an ebay ignition switch for $20, oem grips, turn signal lens, and I ended up finding a metro rear wheel with a new tire for $80 on ebay
Huge difference, and all I had to do was trim the upper mud flap with scissors and grind about a 1/4" off the bracket for the stand bushing.
Then I had to address the plastics, so I started trying out the heat gun method and it worked great:
No meguiars here
Then I got the sticker residue off the panels with goo-gone, wet sanded them, and buffed them out:
Really happy with how she cleaned up. There's a few marks, scratches, and cracked/damaged panels but I'm okay with that (it adds character ). So I think I'll rock it like this for awhile. It runs and rides great except for the headlight and dash light don't work, so I'll have to see what's going on with that. Being a restricted model, it's a turtle. With just the metro rear wheel, it was doing 32mph, but I was able to snag an aero variator and ramp plate (US2) which allows it to consistently do 37mph which I think is decent. Now I ordered an SA50 S23 exhaust from scooterswapshop, some jets (85,88,90), a ruckus variator, and some 6g rollers which I'll run with the aero ramp plate. The exhaust will require some cutting and welding but I'm excited to see what she'll do with this setup.
So I think that's it for now. I've had a ton of fun bringing this lil thing back to life, learning more about them from this community, and of course riding it.