BEHIND THE GARAGE DOOR
DAN PLANS TO RESUSCITATE AN EXHAUSTED BEE
Inot t’s not a car, and not a scooter either, and rust has eaten so much of it away that there’s
much of the original Piaggio Ape (arpey is Italian for bee) left at all, but it’s now in the hands of one of the few people who have dedication enough to bring this cutie back from beyond the brink.
Dan Wilton in Wellington has been on this trike’s trail for four years. It was one of only two Apes imported new into the country and the only one with the rarer van body. It’s a 1966 model with a 177cc single-cylinder motor, and originally ferried motorcycle parts about
the roads of Auckland for White’s Yamaha, back in the day.
“It’s an ‘Ape 400’, because it’s designed to carry 400kg of cargo,” says Dan.
He eventually tracked it to a barn in Wiri, following a tip-off from a panel beater in the Waikato who was rescued by a tow-truck driver who told him about it.
A sting in the tale
It took Dan another nine months to close the deal. He squeezed it into a rental van and drove it back to Wellington in February last year.
When he got there, he discovered a fair bit of what he had paid for had settled out as a layer of red dust.
Dan was only slightly daunted. Unrestored, these van versions fetch around $1200 in Europe but, if it has an intact windscreen, it’s worth about three times that. Dan’s Ape has a windscreen. So far he has sourced “loads of little parts”, a brake booster, wheel hubs, and other bits, but, he hasn’t been able to find a starter motor anywhere in the world. Luckily, he has the patience for a long restoration.
He has managed to find some new parts, such as the cabin floor, as enthusiasts in Germany have remanufactured some of the more vulnerable panels. But the contrast between new and old is particularly brutal, and the photos show how far Dan still has to go. All the floors are gone, and there are even rust holes in behind the headlight, so Dan is looking for other body panels that might be in better nick than his own.
Collecting recollections
He is also very keen to talk to anyone who knows anything about Apes, or about the history of this particular one, which would have been well known to many in the motorcycle trade.
Apes are still being made by Bajaj Auto in India, where the tiny body and frugal engine are just as relevant as when they were designed for post-war Italy. They came with both handlebar and wheel steering and are available with 50cc and 200cc petrol engines or a 435cc diesel.
Dan’s says that he’s pausing the project for a while, ahead of a family trip to Wales, where he plans to scout out some more parts. In the meantime, he’s trying not to buy a load of Fiat Bambina bits.