I have been fixing and riding scooters for almost 10 years. But I haven't done much with cars before. I have always been very interested in the Vespa 400, when I had the oppertunity to get one I jumped at the chance. The information about the 400 minimal. The 400 was introduced at the Paris Motorshow in 1957. And started production soon after from 1957 to 1961, 30,000 Vespa 400's were sold around the world before production was shut down. Although Vespa is an Italian company, none of the Vespa 400 cars were produced in Italy. Instead they were produced in Fourchambault by A.C.M.A. becuase of an agreement between Piaggio and Fiat.
So, only 5 years of production and very few cars produced makes for a difficult time finding parts, here and all over the world. But there are a couple of sources. www.microcarlot.com is the place were you are immediatly drawn to if you do any research on the internet. It seems like Larry @ microcarlot has bought up just about every spare part that was available in the US. He is also making some new parts that are commonly missing or broken on these 45 year old cars.
The 400 isn't the easiest car for my first restoration, but I feel after this other cars will be a lot easier.
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