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Totally Customized 4T Stella
Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 9:21 pm
by route66modernclassics
Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 9:48 pm
by jprestonian
Very cool -- especially the grill-work over the turn signal lights! I don't think the extra headlamps would be legal in Tennessee, though I do like them.
.
Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 11:55 pm
by ericalm
Legal?
What's great about this (or maybe not great to some) is how much it looks like a somewhat trashed up '80s P with the black bars and cages on the signals.
This is one of the first customs we've seen! (Don't think having OEM bars and stock everything else on mine counts.) I can't wait to start making mine a bit more unique… after I fix a little damage… heh…
Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 1:18 am
by Mulliganal
ericalm wrote:
I can't wait to start making mine a bit more unique… after I fix a little damage… heh…
Eric, what plans do you have for your 4T? I have a creme one coming and I'll be adding some chrome but just wonder what some folks do other than, or in addition to, chrome.
Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 4:50 am
by Lostmycage
This is awesome.
Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 6:01 am
by ericalm
Mulliganal wrote:ericalm wrote:
I can't wait to start making mine a bit more unique… after I fix a little damage… heh…
Eric, what plans do you have for your 4T? I have a creme one coming and I'll be adding some chrome but just wonder what some folks do other than, or in addition to, chrome.
Not sure yet. My Vespa is pretty unique in that it has a leather seat, custom reflective checkerboards on the cowls, and the paint color was only made for a year. I think I'll have to go a bit further with the Stella.
I don't want to take it too mod (which I don't think befits the P-style) or just load it up with off the shelf parts. This scoot would look great with some brown leather but as I've learned with my Vespa, leather is a pain in the ass. Maybe custom leather-like vinyl grips and seat.
Eventually, custom paint would be nice. Until then, maybe some vinyl stripes.
Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 8:25 pm
by polianarchy
COOLNESS! This reminds me of the Stella owned by Dan, one of the mechanics at Philadelphia Scooters.
Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 9:02 pm
by ericalm
BUTCH.
Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 1:05 pm
by Mulliganal
ericalm wrote:Maybe custom leather-like vinyl grips and seat.
Eric, who makes these grips and does upholstery work for scooter seats? I know there are some high end companies that make custom seats for motorcycles but who does it for scooters?
Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 2:54 pm
by ericalm
Mulliganal wrote:ericalm wrote:Maybe custom leather-like vinyl grips and seat.
Eric, who makes these grips and does upholstery work for scooter seats? I know there are some high end companies that make custom seats for motorcycles but who does it for scooters?
If it's simply recovering the stock seat, just about any auto or other upholstery place could do it. If I want anything fancier, I know a local guy who does great work with scooter stuff.
For grips, there are some out there, but I haven't seen what I'm looking for so I'd have to make them or have them made. It wouldn't be hard to take some aftermarket grips and recover them to match the seat.
Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 4:27 pm
by Rob520
Mods so far:
Turn Signal grills F&R
Front bumper Chrome
Got a box with some more bling, juts waiting for a free weekend. Anyone heard anything more about the Polini pipe?
Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 4:41 pm
by Mulliganal
Rob520 wrote:
Mods so far:
Turn Signal grills F&R
Front bumper Chrome
Got a box with some more bling, juts waiting for a free weekend. Anyone heard anything more about the Polini pipe?
Hey, that's my scooter, give it back...
I have the same one on order; can't wait till I get that call. The signal grills look slick, where did you get those from?
Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 5:02 pm
by Rob520
Mine. Haha! The Harley dealer where i got her from had them. I'm sure you can find them online though.
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 3:31 am
by trumptonriot
Is that a 2t seat? did it fit without any issues with the fuel tank.... also i thought the 4t seats were longer?
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 6:28 am
by desmolicious
trumptonriot wrote:Is that a 2t seat? did it fit without any issues with the fuel tank.... also i thought the 4t seats were longer?
The mechanics showed it to me. They had to modify it extensively to get it to fit.
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 10:39 pm
by KRUSTYburger
Route66modernclassics, did you paint/powdercoat that kickstart lever or is there somewhere that sells them? I NEED ONE for my p200.
Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:07 am
by android
VERY Sweet Scoot and I really like the skull taillight!!
2t seat
Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:17 am
by deadmile
I work for Route 66 Modern Classics. That seat is actually for a Piaggio. I had to notch a hole in the back for the rollover valved to have a little pocket like the stock seat and i hammered the inside metal pan to allow clearance for the taller fuel tank. Also the hinge is different so we ended up putting in one inch spacers to raise it up and the rear seat locking striker is longer. Takes some time, but we have done two. We have also done a yellow stella 4t with black grips, wheels, tires, back rest and piaggio seat. Yellow and black looks very sharp too.
We can customize just about anything on the stellas. This blue one was our first look and we have learned alot.
Custom Grips on Blue Stella
Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:22 am
by deadmile
ericalm wrote:Mulliganal wrote:ericalm wrote:Maybe custom leather-like vinyl grips and seat.
Eric, who makes these grips and does upholstery work for scooter seats? I know there are some high end companies that make custom seats for motorcycles but who does it for scooters?
If it's simply recovering the stock seat, just about any auto or other upholstery place could do it. If I want anything fancier, I know a local guy who does great work with scooter stuff.
For grips, there are some out there, but I haven't seen what I'm looking for so I'd have to make them or have them made. It wouldn't be hard to take some aftermarket grips and recover them to match the seat.
These grips are made by Harley Davidson. We had to cut them and do some work to the bars to get them to fit right. My boss said these were the only ones he could find that didn't say Harley or HD on them. They look like machine gun tips!
Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:23 am
by deadmile
KRUSTYburger wrote:Route66modernclassics, did you paint/powdercoat that kickstart lever or is there somewhere that sells them? I NEED ONE for my p200.
We just painted the stock kick lever
Re: Totally Customized 4T Stella
Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:06 am
by DirtyRAT
Hi
The mods your shop did to this bike are, in my opinion, stylish, subtle-yet-unique, and within the sphere of what I might like to do with my new, 4T Stella
From a perspective customer, or even just an enthusiast's viewpoint, I see mods to items not too obvious to the layman. Your post and follow ups discussed some items, but not all.
I might suggest a modification punchlist, with perhaps a few more photo details?
Example: floormats!
Re: Totally Customized 4T Stella
Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 4:03 am
by deadmile
DirtyRAT wrote:Hi
The mods your shop did to this bike are, in my opinion, stylish, subtle-yet-unique, and within the sphere of what I might like to do with my new, 4T Stella
From a perspective customer, or even just an enthusiast's viewpoint, I see mods to items not too obvious to the layman. Your post and follow ups discussed some items, but not all.
I might suggest a modification punchlist, with perhaps a few more photo details?
Example: floormats!
Well i will try to list all the mods we did to this bike.
Obvious ones, flat black paint was applied to wheels, brake drums, front fender guard, front roll bar, spotlight rims, headlight ring, blinker covers, racing stripe down fender and sides, rear bumper, kickstand, kickstart lever, front trim.
also, the rear bumper is off a harley davidson touring model. Front fender skull trim, rear skull taillight and handlebar grips are harley davidson as well.
We removed the stock floor board strips and replaced them with black aluminum diamond plate. Came in a kit that included center piece too made by a european company (not necessarily for this bike).
We made a piaggio seat fit this stella by notching the inside for evap rollover valve which is far to the back under seat. Also with the seat we had to put in three one inch spacers due to different style seat hinge and used a taller seat locking striker. I do no know what type of scooter the exhaust came off but I was told that it is no longer in production. It was not a direct fit. We used the stock flange and cut the pipe off as long as we could. Then we cut off the old pipes exhaust flange and welded them in the smoothest area. This exhaust makes the bike louder and actually perform better. We had to up jet the carb after we did a spark plug reading.
The spotlights are a drag specialty type and the clamps are harley davidson as well. We have a lot of harley parts laying around and we are conveniently located next to Bartel's HD.
The grips are aftermarket HD and we had to cut them down to removed the plastic part that holds throttle cable, also the stock stella bars had to be shortened.
We are have purchased parts from Polini to beef up our custom a little more. Kit includes big bore kit and performance exhaust and carb. I am sure my boss will post another update when the project is finally complete. It has been a lot of fun seeing what we can change on this bike to make it appeal to a different spectrum of people. Minor modifications were done to the new yellow 4t stella but it seems we failed to take pictures of it. We painted the wheels and drums black, added a black seat, put black grips on it as well. A padded backrest and rear rack was added too. The black and yellow look very good together.
I believe I have listed all the mods for this custom blue stella. If you have any questions I will do my best to help.
Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 4:12 am
by ericalm
What I love about this is that it's totally
not what I'd want to do. There are so many options that those inclined to customize can do all kinds of things to individualize theirs.
I have all kinds of crazy ideas that are actually quite feasible. All I need now is another Stella.
Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 4:28 am
by deadmile
ericalm wrote:What I love about this is that it's totally
not what I'd want to do. There are so many options that those inclined to customize can do all kinds of things to individualize theirs.
I have all kinds of crazy ideas that are actually quite feasible. All I need now is another Stella.
Yes! that is the beauty of customizing...you can do whatever you want! We don't claim that all or any of the things we did will appeal to the stella fans, but just a sample of what can be done. Go ahead and be brave...make whatever you own...yours.
Re: Totally Customized 4T Stella
Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:50 pm
by Mulliganal
route66modernclassics wrote:
Interesting customization; a bit over the top for me, but still a very interesting customization. Why didn't they replace the chrome strip around the front with black though?
How much work is involved in mounting the front and rear lights skull; those are pretty cool lookin'.
Re: Totally Customized 4T Stella
Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 2:04 am
by deadmile
Mulliganal wrote:route66modernclassics wrote:
Interesting customization; a bit over the top for me, but still a very interesting customization. Why didn't they replace the chrome strip around the front with black though?
How much work is involved in mounting the front and rear lights skull; those are pretty cool lookin'.
We didn't mess with the leg guard trim because we wanted to remove it to paint so we wouldn't be masking off the entire bike. In doing so we run the risk of scratching the blue original paint and/or bending the light weight trim so we left it stock. As for the front and rear skulls....the front one only needed one new hole drilled and we ran the wire for the light up the front fork and wired it to an always hot wire. The rear tailight just required two new holes and it barely hid the old ones.
Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:14 am
by Nola Stella
I totally dig the black blinker covers... where can I get some for my stella??
Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:26 pm
by ericalm
Nola Stella wrote:I totally dig the black blinker covers... where can I get some for my stella??
http://www.scooterwest.com/item_details ... BLACK/7756
(Photo is chrome but as description states, these are BLACK!)
Hook it up
Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 3:45 am
by rel9
Hey There!
Nice stuff. Any chance you can build a sweet rear rack with a backrest to match my brown seat? The review here (
http://www.scooterworks.com/Product.asp ... goryId=386) sounds aweful and I need a solution....Also no need for a tire rack just some fold over bars to carry some hefty loads.
Thanks,
-A
love the taillight were did you find it ...
Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 2:34 pm
by carlmilo
jprestonian wrote:Very cool -- especially the grill-work over the turn signal lights! I don't think the extra headlamps would be legal in Tennessee, though I do like them.
.
Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 2:02 pm
by jimmbomb
deadmile says in part.:
I do no know what type of scooter the exhaust came off but I was told that it is no longer in production. It was not a direct fit. We used the stock flange and cut the pipe off as long as we could. Then we cut off the old pipes exhaust flange and welded them in the smoothest area. This exhaust makes the bike louder and actually perform better. We had to up jet the carb after we did a spark plug reading.
How about some pictures of your custom exhaust??? thanks....
Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:45 pm
by Blackshirt
Yoink! Thanks a bunch for that!
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 2:40 am
by DirtyRAT
Hi Deadmile,
I never thanked you for the additional details you provided. I went so far as to visit your shop months ago to see the Stella in person on the way up to see my sister in Pasadena. Truly a nice project.
I am curious to know if your shop ever followed up on actually doing any engine/performance mods to a 4T, as you mentioned in this thread.
If so, what did you guys do, what parts were replaced, and have there been some miles on the modded Stella to assess how the mods hold up?
I am on the verge of selling my Stella 4T after almost 6000 miles of riding, unless I can find a shop that offers the hope of a modicum of performance improvements to the engine. I love the damned thing, but it's sluggish performance on long, slow inclines so common in San Diego leave me at the back of every group ride.
PM me with reply, or post here, or both. I'd surely be willing to swing by the shop on one of these weekends if need be.
Cheers.
