- Home
- Restorations
- Vespa con sidecar
Motorcycle · Sidecar rebuilt, metalwork and upholstery
Vespa con sidecar
A classic Vespa with its sidecar, delivered in blue with a red and white chair: sidecar rebuilt on its wooden frame, panels shaped over formers, light blue paint and a new seat.
- Vehicle
- Vespa with sidecar
- Era
- 1950s
- Colour
- Light blue, Vespa and sidecar
- Plate
- Period black Savona plate
- Work
- Sidecar frame and panels, paint, upholstery
- Restoration
- Sidecar rebuilt, Vespa repainted
The story
In the 1950s the Vespa carried many an Italian family, and with a sidecar it became almost a car: an extra seat, next to the rider, for anyone who did not want to ride pillion. Today finding one still complete with its period sidecar is not easy.
This one arrived in blue, with a red and white chair and tired metal. The longest job was the sidecar: wooden frame and floor remade, panels shaped over wooden formers, primer and light blue to match the Vespa, then new upholstery inside the chair.
The restoration step by step
From wooden ribs to the seat
- Step 1 of 5
The wooden frame
Under the metal, the chair has a frame of wooden ribs and a floor, fixed to the tubular chassis with the wheel. That is where the work starts: check, strengthen and remake what is needed.
the wooden frame of the chair on the chassis 
the wooden ribs and floor - Step 2 of 5
Panels shaped over formers
For the body, wooden formers are made to the profile of the chair; the metal is shaped over them, piece by piece, until the nose is closed.
the metal shaped around the ribs 
the wooden formers for shaping the metal 
the nose of the chair in bare metal - Step 3 of 5
The mudguard
The mudguard for the sidecar wheel is also shaped in the workshop, then primed and sanded.
the mudguard for the sidecar wheel 
the primed mudguard, ready for sanding - Step 4 of 5
Chair and floor
The chair is closed around the frame and the wooden floor varnished; then the whole shell, inside and out, is primed.
the chair closed around its frame 
the varnished wooden floor 
the primed chair 
the primed inside of the chair - Step 5 of 5
Upholstering the chair
Backrest with wooden frame and woven webbing, new padding, interior trimmed in black with a padded rim all round.
the trimmed interior with its padded rim 
the backrest: wooden frame and woven webbing 
the new padding 
the new seat in the chair
As it is today
Do you have a Vespa, a classic motorcycle or a sidecar to restore?
Metal, wood, paint and upholstery: in the workshop two- and three-wheelers get the same care as cars. Mimmo also works for clients in Switzerland.
More restorations
This is only a small selection: over the years Mimmo has restored many more cars and trucks, and we'll keep adding them from the workshop's photo books.
