Lambretta

Now that the series 3 was on the road and running well, I was bitten by the Lambretta bug (careful, it's infectious!) .. so I decided that I would replicate the scooters I had owned in the 60's ... The first one being an Li 150 series 2......

During my search for one, I stumbled across a guy selling Lambrettas in Belgium, Sam, (http://www.lambrettafinder.com/) what he was selling were unrestored Lammies that he had personally picked up from Italy, and at reasonable prices!

Although I was really after a 150, the one that caught my eye was advertised as a 125, and a non runner. But that was no problem, as I would rebuild and upgrade the engine, anyway, and being registered as a 125 would make it easier to sell on in the UK (not that I ever would, anyway!)

The scooter looked nice and straight, so i decided to contact Sam and arrange to buy it! .. Sam is a really nice guy, and if you live in most parts of the UK delivery is quite often free as he does most of the parts fairs, and will drop it off on his way to or from...

The scooter duly arrived, and Euros changed hands.....

As soon as Sam left I parked the scooter in the garden and whipped the panels off .. a quick look at the frame and engine numbers revealed that this was not a 125, but a 150 .. bonus! better gearbox ratios etc....

The scooter turned over with good compression, so I got some fresh petrol , tested for a spark.. yes..... then did the obvious... after about 4 kicks she was running! Yeehah! A trundle up and down the garden showed that everything else was fine, too... even the bulbs worked! Mind you, lack of a shiny relector meant that they weren't much use....

A plan was soon hatching ... should I strip and rebuild this one, or check and fix the important bits (brakes, lights, suspension etc..) and run her as "original"...

While I was toying with this idea, I decided to whip the side casing off to check out the chain and clutch etc..... and both certainly neede replacing, but so did the top chainguide.. where the chain was thrashing about on it, it had cut through it, and the top part has completley come away, but luckily for me it had come to rest at the very bottom of the engine where the chain goes round the rear sprocket.... now that's more than lucky!

In the end I decided to strip the whole thing down and start from scratch.....

I took eveything apart in the usual way, putting all the smaller bits into resealable freezer bags... top tip ... use all the original bits you can, as some of the remade stuff is not made to the same standard...

The scooter came apart easily as the previous owner had obviously stripped it down and then loosely bolted it back together

........ saved me a lot of work!!

 Soon, the scooter was stripped bare

, and all the bits tucked away in one of my sheds....

I started to strip the frame of paint as intended to just use good old nitromors to get rid of all the paint.. I'd taken the Series 3 frame to a local paint shop and got that stripped there... in hindsight I wish I'd done that with this one .. the frame loop on the outside is easy, but underneath is a different story with lots of nooks and crannys to get at.

       If you have lots of patience, do it yourself .. I will get all future frames blasted for me!!

During stripping (oooeer, missus) I noticed that one of the legshield supports had developed a split, so, for the cost of a fiver, I got my local welder chappie to run a bead of weld along the strut to support and strengthen it.. worked a treat!!

Once the frame was back, I concentrated my efforts on getting the panels, legshields and all the odds and sods stripped .. and once you have them all lined up in front of you, that's a lot of stripping, but with good old nitromors at the ready, off I went...

I found the best way of stripping paint is to apply a thick layer of Nitromors, wait a few mintues, then apply another coat on top of that one, give the mixture a few minutes, put on some rubber gloves, and scrub away with a copper scourer (cheap at wilkos) must be a copper one, though, as the others dont work as well. During the stripping you can wash out the scourer to free it of paint. I have found this method to work well, and now use it all the time!

All the parts were stripped over a couple of days, but when it came to the toolbox, rear mudguard, air filter housing and petrol tank, I decided to leave them in their original Innocenti paint, as it was in surprisingly good condition. So, I cleaned all the muck off, applied a bit of t-cut, then gave them all a good waxing, and job done. It would have been easy to strip these as well, but it would have been a shame to lose something as origianl as that, and it's my way of keeping a bit of the original scooter intact. I did have some paint mixed to the origianl colour at B&Q, and used this to coat the inside of the toolbox and the underside of the mudguard.

My series 2 in the 60's was a two tone affair, with the main body and legshields in white, and the panels and horncasting blue .. but with this one I decided to go one colour all over and opted for a classic cream.... the paint, thinners and primer were duly ordered and I was ready to go. As with the series 3, the weather had to be sunny, hot and wind free, so with our great british summers that was no easy job! Anway, I was quite lucky that year and the painting came on nicely... I was getting quite used to handling the spray equipment now, and had bought a gravity feed gun which I found gave me better all round results than the suction fed jobby

 So, with the bodywork coming along nicely, I could turn my attention to the engine........ So, let's be honest here.. the scooter was running before I took it out with good compression and sounded fine. So, leave well alone, thought I... But I gave it a new clutch and chain and whipped the barrel off to check the piston and bore.. all fine there! The only other things i did were to fit electronic ignition and top up with oil.. Fingers crossed!!

With all the parts painted and the engine back in one piece, it was time to start the rebuild.. once again, I followed the process in "Stickys" book, which, although written basically for the series 3 range, is quite applicable for a lot of work on series 2's too....

It's surprising when you come to put a scooter back together just how many bits n bobs you need that you haven't got... and you get to a point where you can't go any further without them! That's where Paul and the crew at Scooter Restorations come in handy, with everything you could possibly need and super quick delivery, they will delay your rebuild for the minimum amount of time.. top fellas!!

So, forks were rebuilt with new rubbers and springs, front hub given new bearings and speedo drive and wiring and cables strapped to the bare frame... it was beginning to look like a lambretta again!!

 Every day off and some evenings were now used to get the bike fully back together as soon as possible.

Must say at this stage that everything seemed so much better built on this one than the series 3, and fitted better, too!!

Well, to cut a long story short (maybe I'll edit it one day into a long story) the scooter went back together rather rapidly, the refurbished speedo came back from Jem Booth (master Lambretta man), headset fitted, tank, toolbox and air box bolted on, cables connected, wiring loom plugged in, legshields bolted on as were rear running boards..... That all makes it sound rather quick, and it was, but not forgetting, for example, that the headset it quite a complex affair in itself, with lots going on in there.. speedo, wiring junction, contol cables, headlight and the control rods for the twist grips, and the grips themselves..

Another painstaking job are the floor runners, and there are two more on a series 2 than a series 3!! Secret here when putting the rubber inserts in is to put them in a bowl of hot water for a while.. makes the fitting a whole lot easier!!

One job that is a bit fiddly and will probably need doing again once the scooter has been on the road a while are the steering bearings... if they are new they will bed in quite quickly, and the forks will become quite loose, so check em after a few miles and be prepared to adjust them 2 or three times before they fully settle down!

Last job I did were the legshield badges, I put them onto the legshields after bending them carefully to follow the leggies contours, then taped them firmly into place with masking tape... then I applied a small drop of araldite to the pins and waited overnight for them to bond, after that, and when the araldite is fully dry, I just painted the araldite with some paint left over from the spray job!

Time now to stand back and take a look......

 JOB DONE! ... and was I pleased?   ........ oooo yes! (in the style of the Churchill dog!)

Just to be a bit different i fitted black legshield beading and floor runners... helped to highlight the classic cream on the scooter, well, in my opinion, anyway...

Passed the MOT first time, and then registered at good old Maidstone DVLA... 101 UXC was now officially on the road!!

She will attain the top speed that Mr Innocenti sais she would, so no land speed records will be broken on this one, but there she is .... a reliable laid back plodder... 50 years old now... not bad, eh?

In my mind the series 2 was the best ever lambretta....

Now for the next one.. or two... or three!!!

Go on, do one yourself.. if I did, you can too!!

Ride safe

David

19/2/2009