Two paths, one passion

'One year, I was walking in the street to buy some food for the Vegetarian Festival. I found this small stall on wheels where a man was selling tofu, but I saw his 1964 Vespa," recalls Gin Marwintawie, the co-owner of Vintage Vespa Thai, of the moment in 1998 when he fell in love in a Sampeng soi.

"It was amazing. The shape of the Vespa was different from other scooters because the side-cowl and front fender were smooth and had a curve like a circle. I loved it.

"I asked him how I could have it, but I wasn't close to him. That made me go to his shop every day and buy tofu for my family, but I don't like tofu."

Mr Gin, 18 at the time, bought food from the stall for three months before asking about the bike again. That time, he says, the man agreed to give up his Vespa as long as he could find a way for him to go about all the daily errands he had done using the scooter.

He says he came up with the idea of going to a motorcycle shop and buying a second-hand scooter, which he would exchange for the man's old Vespa.

With the right price of 13,800 baht, and the street vendor's approval, he ended up buying a 1978 Vespa to exchange for the one he fell in love with at first sight.

When the exchange was made, "I asked him, 'How do you drive this?' " Mr Gin says. "He said, 'Your left hand is the clutch and gears, and your right hand is the brake.' "

But after puttering in excitement from Sampeng to his family's home in Songwad, Mr Gin says he not only wanted to ride it again, but to restore it from its run-down condition to its original form. In a spare room he went to work on the old bike.

"I started by cleaning it, and then I looked at pictures to decipher which parts were original. I took the screws out that I thought were not original and bought screws that looked like the original ones," he says.

He also changed the wheels and side-cowls, changed the oil and repainted the scooter, which was red with old, chipped paint, with a can of spray paint. But to fix the engine — only two of the four gears were working — he ended up taking the scooter to Ting Montri's garage in Wat Thepsirin.

Mr Ting was then 41, and unknown to Mr Gin, was a Vespa guru.

PASSING DOWN KNOWLEDGE

Born in Chachoengsao province, at the age of 12 Mr Ting first came to Bangkok with his uncle to work for an acquaintance named Nam in the pier area now taken up by Asiatique.

It was 1967 and Mr Nam, who had just started importing Vespas into Thailand, was the sole supplier of the Italian scooters for shops that wanted to sell them.

"My uncle first brought me to work for Mr Nam, but he wanted me to work for Mr Jil [his brother]," Mr Ting tells Brunch.

Mr Nam had asked Mr Jil to open a repair shop near Wat Thepsirin because he was "scared that people wouldn't know how to fix Vespas", Mr Ting explains.

"I was one of the first people to learn how to fix Vespas in Thailand, along with my boss."

Vespa eventually sent a mechanic to teach people in Thailand about the bikes. Mr Ting says his boss had a big impact on his own work.

"He was very intelligent when it came to fixing Vespas. He already knew how to fix tuk-tuks," he says.

"The tuk-tuk mechanics and Vespas were the same because they were both made in Italy. They both used a similar engine."

Mr Ting says along with his boss and five others, they could fix everything from clutches, brakes and lamps to engines and bodywork.

"I was very young," he says, "but I loved this job. I love to build Vespas.

"When I finished a Vespa, I got to try it out, and it was fun. When I rode it, I would lift the front wheel up in the air. I felt very proud."

At that time, Mr Ting says Vespas could be seen throughout the Wat Thepsirin area, most notably being ridden by wealthy people or those who used the scooters to transport fabric.

A WORKHORSE

It is now common to see Vespas carrying heavy loads, especially in the Yaowarat area, but that wasn't always the case.

Over the years people began to realise the capabilities of the scooter, Mr Ting says.

Since the transmission and engine on a Vespa are at the back, it can carry heavier loads than conventional motorcycles, which have the transmission and engine in the middle.

Also, a Vespa's rear wheel is directly attached to its engine by a transmission shaft, so there is minimal drivetrain power loss.

On conventional motorcycles, the engine's power drives a sprocket, which is connected to the rear wheel by a chain.

Mr Ting worked for Mr Jil for five years, fixing all '50s and '60s Vespa models, before working at a shop called Sor Sam Rit Yon for eight years. After that he opened his own shop, Montri Yarn Yon, in Wat Thepsirin area.

A RECURRING PASSION

In 1998, the same year Mr Ting fixed the engine on Mr Gin's Vespa, he started pursuing a bachelor's degree in marketing at Assumption University. Although he was busy studying a topic unrelated to Vespas, his passion for the scooters never left him.

"When I was studying I had a hobby," he says.

"On weekends, I didn't go to pubs, I didn't go to other places. I stayed in my house and researched Vespas. I wanted to have more and more and more."

During his studies, he also began frequenting Mr Ting's shop to learn how mechanics fixed Vespas.

"When I went to his shop, I would give him a Coke and some sweets and some food — every time," Mr Gin says. "I was scared to ask him to teach me how to fix Vespas, how to restore them.

"I thought, 'if he teaches everyone, they will be able to fix Vespas by themselves, and customers would never go to his shop', so I [just] watched and remembered how to fix [Vespas]."

Sometimes Mr Ting allowed him to help fix the scooters he was working on, which ranged from 1969 to 1979 models, he adds.

He spent his weekends at Mr Ting's garage and also went on days when his classes finished early.

By the time he was 24, he had a bachelor's degree in marketing and had bought two more Vespas, a '58 and '59 model.

He then asked Mr Ting to teach him how to restore the '58 Vespa and hoped what he learned from that project could be used to restore the '59 model. Mr Ting agreed to teach him.

"I would bring the '58 to the garage and talk to [Mr Ting and his mechanics] in the morning," he says. "I would ask: 'What should I do if this happens? What should I do if that happens?' "

"In the evening, when the garage closed, I would come back home and apply that knowledge to the '59."

NEW PATHS

With his newly obtained degree, Mr Gin started working full-time for a marketing company, leaving little time to restore his beloved Vespas. >>

>> Over the next two years, he and two friends restored several Vespas. He also continued to visit Mr Ting to learn from him.

The money he used came from savings set aside from the university fund his family had given him, as well as what he had earned from working at his grandfather's Sampeng porcelain shop since he was 12.

"I already had the habit of saving money," he tells Brunch with a giggle.

Mr Gin and his two friends would do all the restorations themselves, apart from the hydrochloric acid treatment needed for a reshaped Vespa body, which they outsourced to a Phetchaburi company, and painting the scooters. They could finish one restoration in two months, he adds.

"People would come and ask me if I wanted to sell my Vespas," Mr Gin says. "I always sold the latest one, the newest one, then I replaced it with the oldest ones I could find."

At one point, he had more than 10 scooters, most of which were '50s models, and became obsessive, no longer wanting to sell them.

"After I stopped selling them, I started [restoring] them [for other people]," he says. "I also acted as a middleman, so people who wanted to sell Vespas could come to me and I could find them buyers. After introducing them to places where they could get Vespas, buyers would bring their Vespas to me to restore."

After two years of restoring Vespas in his spare time with friends, he decided to devote all his time to what is known today as Vintage Vespa Thai.

When asked why he chose to do this, he smiles and replies: "I thought a lot about it, but I love Vespas."

A BIGGER NAME

Although the garage never had a grand opening, only becoming officially known by its present name three years ago, it has "always been known in [Songwad] as the place to come if you want to restore a Vespa", Mr Gin says.

While the art of restoration may still be the same, there have been some changes in the past three years. There are now two shipping containers, which serve as workshops to complete nearly all 15 steps which constitute a Vespa restoration: from cleaning to reshaping the body to painting, upholstery and assembly.

Some assembly and repairs are also done inside Mr Gin's house, as they were when he first started restoring Vespas.

The only step that does not occur on location remains the hydrochloric acid treatment necessary for a reshaped Vespa body.

Vespas no longer have to be carried piece by piece to the fourth floor of his family's home to be worked on, Mr Gin says.

There is also a museum displaying 10 of the more than 30 Vespas he owns, some of which have been fully restored and come from Thailand, North America and Europe.

He has also assembled a team to work alongside him. Kae Wutthichai is the painter, Pome Komon and Pong Somnoa are apprentices, Leng Wibun is an engine expert and Jamie Rayzoowaht is his business partner.

Mr Gin says although everyone has their own roles, they are all learning to do the tasks the others perform.

BACK IN THE SADDLE

Only two weeks ago he hired Mr Ting, who is now 59, as the chief mechanic. Five years ago Mr Ting had to close his shop because of paralysis. "It feels great to be able to teach these young people to do what I did when I was young," Mr Ting says.

He says he is grateful for the opportunity Mr Gin has given him, as well as for everyone at Vintage Thai Vespa who help him as he battles with poor health.

Asked why he decided to teach Mr Gin 10 years ago, he replied: "I could see Gin was a good man, and that he wanted to help me," Mr Ting says. "When I look at Gin, I love him.

"I have a daughter, but I don't have any sons. I wanted to give knowledge to people like him."

Now in its unofficial 10th year, Vintage Vespa Thai is the only garage in Bangkok that restores all Vespa models from 1946 to 2000. It has restored about 100 Vespas for customers throughout Thailand and can now finish one a month.

Mr Gin says he and the team would like to restore Vespas for potential clients abroad, but there are restrictions on importing old Vespas.

The work and the Vintage Vespa Thai team is popular on Facebook and Instragram and has more than 20,000 followers from across Thailand and countries including Canada, the United States, Germany and Italy.

Their work was recently recognised by Vespa Thailand, which wants to join forces with the garage by referring special clients for restorations as well as using the garage to help find people selling vintage Vespas around the country.

"We want to see old Vespa models on the street," Mr Gin says. "Some of the models have not run for 20-30 years. Some people throw them out as trash. Some people don't know their value and sell them as scrap metal.

"We want to make them beautiful, make them run again."