The Little Scoot Scoot

From the Kijiji ad

Low KM but the wiring look janky (Also from the Ad)

My friend Jesse grabbed it for me as it was a matter of who got to it the quickest!

My first in person look at it. It had a flat tire, was running poorly, wired all backwards, dirty, smelly and had a lot of pieces missing. I was in love

I don't own a capable truck and the scooter was an hour plus away from my house so I did what any sane person would do; I loaded it into my '08 Rabbit

When I saw it I rode it and then it promptly died and would not start again. These motors are notorious for being dead reliable if untouched so I had concerns. Doing some researching and reading the shop manual for the NH80's I ended up finding out they have an autochoke that breaks and makes the motor un-startable. I looked up how to bypass it and in doing so ended up replacing all the fuel lines, cleaning out the carb and re adjusting it back to factory specs, adding a fuel filter and cleaning the oil injection system. After a few hours work it kicked right over and purr'd!

The scooter came with an extra carb but it was Chinese junk. I used the good fittings and brass out of it to revamp the stock carb. New needle, float, gaskets, lines, adjustment and a good clean were all it really needed

My "Shop" hahaha

The next big hurdle was the electrical. The scooter had been all apart more than once and in those tear downs it seems wiring was... Forgotten. The left turn signal was hooked to the headlight switch, the other signals didnt work but the relay did, the headlight was not working but hooked up, starter didnt work, highbeams didnt work, the OIL light was on all the time as was the brake light and the horn was nonexistent. I realized that a lot of these functions would not operate without constant 12V as the little alternator just wasnt strong enough without a battery. I disconnected everything, printed out a few wiring diagrams for the NH80 models and did what I do best as an electrician; wired. I ended up getting the starter to work, signals to work, headlight and dash to work, all the warning lights to work, high beams, low beams and the brake light working from one hand brake. The rear brake handle has an internal wiring issue I will have to solve but it also need a rear brake cable so that will all happen at the same time. The only other thing I could not get to work was the speedo.

Cleaned the wheels, degreased what I could, cleaned the tires, repainted the exhaust and conditioned all the black plastic as best I could. Rear plastics have been found I just have to go get them

Running mint, signals working and brake light working means its time for a scoot!!

Since the speedo wasnt working I used my phones GPS which said my average speed was 62kmh up and downhill with a max of 75KMH!!!!!! The speedo only goes to 80 so that is quite a feat on a little scooter

My night view. Turns out the OIL light stays on if you don't have a 12V battery installed!

Removed the sticker and polished up the front fairing as best as I could. If it works good, it should look good!

Found this '83 Honda Mascot for sale near my cottage, I may pick it up just for parts/reference as this is what mine is supposed to look like with all its missing parts

New rear coil-over to lower the back... Yes I said lower it... I am going for a Gentsuki style look on this scooter (Google it if you're unsure)

Tore the cluster apart as I have found another and figured why not have a look at what might have happened to the speedo. Turns out someone had been in the cluster before and had bent the speedo needle! I unbent it, replaced the bulbs with new ones, cleaned everything and tested it and low and behold it all works famously! I am going to use this cluster as the base to design a custom one and to retrofit back-lit LED's

Finally tested, re-ran, re-connected and secured all the main wiring harness to the head. The only wires left out are for the malfunctioning brake switch for the rear brakes but their location has been noted, labelled and run properly for easy installation

My daily carry haha Im looking into getting a hitch for the Rabbit so I can carry this to locations in the summer where I just dont feel like driving

Was gifted some doubles and missing plastics for the Honda, I'm going to strip, sand and paint them to do a full Coca-Cola livery

*REMEMBER* -Preserve Nature. ^ Most important instruction hands down. This piece covers all the wiring on the steering head and I was missing it originally. I have it stripped down now and primed but it will need some repairs which I will be doing with fibreglass over the winter

When your sink is too small and its below freezing out you aren't left with many options

Front cowl in primer, corrected a few blemishes on it beforehand and will be painting it bright red as all Hondas should be. it will be getting a classic 80's "Coke is It!" logo across it when its done

Front cowl in primer, corrected a few blemishes on it beforehand and will be painting it bright red as all Hondas should be. it will be getting a classic 80's "Coke is It!" logo across it when its done

This is the most challenging part. The manual says this is the "Floor board" of the scooter, but its more like a rocker panel really. its steel opposed to the plastic found almost everywhere else on the scooter and it holds the lower floor and rear pegs on for the passenger. I am going to delete the pegs by cutting the supports off and welding some sheet steel over the holes so it has a sleeker look. Theres no rust on these pieces which is a huuuuuge bonus but they will be the second most time consuming thing I do on the body of this Honda

Going for a classic JDM Shakotan/Bosozuko/Gentsuki style so naturally I had to make my spare light basically un-useable

Front and seat plastics in 2 coats of primer, ready for the first coat of finish paint!

The front inner cover/glovebox was also just a little too large for the sink and it was still below 0 out so back into the shower with the degreaser I go!

Here is where we are so far; Black plastics are all satin white (soon to be satin with sparkle white) and all the blue plastics are back to Honda Red. I am still missing the side panels but am sourcing them and they will also be resprayed red to keep the Coca-Cola theme. I still am working on the metal floorboards so they wont be in final paint for some time.

Amazon LED lights I bought for the cluster. They are polarity specific which was a bit of a pain to find out the hard way but now my speedo is super bright and all the warning lights 100% work as intended

All stripped, fuel stabilized, oil refreshed and joints lubed. Winter storage spot is mostly out of the weather and I got a nice BBQ cover for it as an extra precaution. I'm for the most part done with the physical bike for the winter as its just too cold to work on it and I have no space inside I can get that dirty. I will be continuing with the body work however AND first thing in the spring the new suspension goes in for that low look. I also managed to get the ownership for it so once I write my M1 class licence I can legally scoot anywhere!