For my next dumb idea… a taste of Italy

[WideAWAKE]

Well it’s not an XS but that doesn’t seem to bother most people here…

Was contacted by a friend who had a Lambretta that I “needed”.

I’ve been searching for a series 2 (this is a 1959) for quite some time and this one kinda dropped into my lap.

It was a high dollar build, about 20k (yup, you read that right) that a previous owner laid down. Bike has a fiberglass body kit and that did some damage.

The motor is coming out as well as the front end so I will need to fix all the body work and build a motor for it.

Quite excited to build the motor BUT I can do all the body for for no cost, so I’m tackling that first. Once done I’m pretty sure I am gonna give it a two tone paint job, keeping much of the grey and adding a shade of red.

As for the motor, I’ll push it from 125cc to 205cc with a 195 cylinder and a long stroke crank.

I’ll also be converting from a 4 speed gearbox to a 5.

Should put me at a nice 75mph cruising speed.

So far, I’ve got a decent start on rebuilding my legshield.

 

[WideAWAKE]

Started by pulling the motor and figuring out a way to rebuild the front legshield which is the brunt of the damage.

I started by building it out with foam.

I pulled a template off the left side (forgot to take a pic) basically just a butcher paper transfer.

Then I roughed in all the curves

I then too a round bar and formed it to the contour of the legshield in order to make the outside bead for the rubber trim to attach to.

Blue take the back and a HEALTHY dose of mold release on the tape and the round bar.

Wet out the glass, clamp down the round bar and then fold the glass back into itself.

I used some UV cure poly resin, so a trip out into the sun for curing.

Once cured to the green state, I razor cut the folded glass to leave me with just a turned up edge.

Popped it off the bike, trimmed it and now have the base for my panel repair.

I will be sanding the right side of the legshield back to the glass on both the front and back side. This will allow me to tie in my glass panel with a patch connecting it all on the front and back.

Being a glass weave, it will be stronger than the original build with chop mat once all done.

Then gel coat, sand, epoxy primer and paint.

There is some other minor repairs needed, but this is the biggest.

Hopefully get at the rest later this week.

Ps. If this is of no interest to anyone, admins, please remove at your discretion.

 

[650Skull]

 

[halfmile]

Definitely leave this post up and keep adding pics of your progress. There is a Lambretta in a shed here in the town I live in. Belonged to a classmate of mine in school. It has a spare tire behind the seat. I`ve always been a Cushman man myself but a early 60`s Vespa would be cool too. Lambretta`s were really fast back in the day.

 

[Jim]

Nice!!
Did a fair bit of glass repairs back in my airplane daze. You made it look easy. Hint... it ain't folks.
Nicely done sir.

 

[Kevin Werner]

There will be a member here who might have and aftermarket fiberglass seat pan, fairing, whatever that needs a repair. We have had H H Ho Hon Hondas here... Scooters are cool...

 

[Mailman]

Very nice repair work! I too have done a lot of glass work , repairing crash damaged, tilt front end trucks. Your workmanship is excellent!
I know those Lambrettas have a real following, I’m still trying to get my head around the fact that someone put $20K in that one!
I’m enjoying seeing this restoration, please do keep it coming!

 

[WideAWAKE]

Very nice repair work! I too have done a lot of glass work , repairing crash damaged, tilt front end trucks. Your workmanship is excellent!
I know those Lambrettas have a real following, I’m still trying to get my head around the fact that someone put $20K in that one!
I’m enjoying seeing this restoration, please do keep it coming!

This is the motor that came out of it.

https://www.riminilambrettacentre.c...-n-play-casa-performance-ssr265-scuderia.html

I’m going to be building a very nice motor for it, but nothing like that haha.

You add in 4-5k for a paint job - it’s A LOT more to paint than a motorcycle.

The dual disc front brake it had was 2k.

Wheels, tires,cables, very nice up graded headset internals…

Ohh and the body kit was about 1500.

Body and motor were shipped from England.

 

[WideAWAKE]

Nice!!
Did a fair bit of glass repairs back in my airplane daze. You made it look easy. Hint... it ain't folks.
Nicely done sir.

It’s gettin there.

Once I tie it in, I think I’ll be lookin pretty good.

 

[Raymond]

This is the motor that came out of it.

https://www.riminilambrettacentre.c...-n-play-casa-performance-ssr265-scuderia.html

Jings! Claimed 45-47HP puts it in same class as our mighty XS.

 

[Jan_P]

I have heard of old Lambrettas being sought after As the" Holy Grail " for some
Mods and rockers story Seen jaw dropping prices But i am not really updated
So it can be something to regret to modify it to much .. Is it not dangerous at 75 mph with small wheels
Pogo stick bouncing ??

 

[WideAWAKE]

Jings! Claimed 45-47HP puts it in same class as our mighty XS.

And to put that into perspective…

I can fully pick the bike up on my own.

Probably about 200lbs.

Ohh and for Rimini that’s a small motor haha. They have a twin that will produce 78hp!

 

[WideAWAKE]

I have heard of old Lambrettas being sought after As the" Holy Grail " for some
Mods and rockers story Seen jaw dropping prices But i am not really updated
So it can be something to regret to modify it to much .. Is it not dangerous at 75 mph with small wheels
Pogo stick bouncing ??

No pogo sticking on this guy.

Both front and rear suspension will be better than any motorcycle I’ve ever owned haha.

But yes, small wheels definitely make it seem like you’re going much faster.

And, yes you are correct in that there are some highly sought after bikes but this bike is not incredibly rare.

While some people do like a stock ride (myself included in some cases) modifications have been apart of the culture since day one, so it doesn’t really detract from the value. I’m many cases, modification to the motor are a must if you plan to actually ride it in today’s environment. It’s not safe riding with a top speed of 42 haha

 

[Wingedwheel]

Pretty amazing to see the work of guys that know what they’re doing!

 

[Adamc]

This is a brilliant thread with great workmanship.
I'm impressed.

 

[WideAWAKE]

Got the front finished up and just about done with the back.

It’s been 95+ the last few days so it’s made working with resin in the 100+ shed REAL fun. That being said, I’ve only a few pics and my gel times were often in the 60 second range.

But to explain the process from where I left off.

I basically took my new panel piece, sanded the back with 80 grit to get rid of the wax left from the mold release. Then I coated it with laminating resin, coated my legshield and stuck it on and clamped it in place.

Once cured, I feathered the edge back to where it was pretty much flat then I laid up 1 layer of 4oz glass to this blue arrow, and then one more that covered the whole area.

So now I have my new panel piece attached, feathered, and covered with 2 layers of glass tying it all together.

Then I covered it all with a coat of sanding resin (laminating resin with surfacing agent)

Sanded, then covered with a tinted coat of white sanding resin.

I can now final sand and prime it for paint.

On the back side I tied the panel into the glove box for some additional (overkill) strength.

Had to cheat a bit cause gel times were so fast.

Dust your glass and you can stick it in place.

Back side is all glassed. Just needs a final sand and a white fill/sand coat.

I had to send my fork out to get straightened, and I need it to be a roller before I can paint so it may be a few days.

I also got some more random little things to fix on the body work but that’s the bulk of it.

Gonna get some parts for the motor on order but that may be a while too as everything comes from Germany.

 

[Mailman]

Again, top notch glass work! I’m really enjoying seeing how you do this.

Gonna get some parts for the motor on order but that may be a while too as everything comes from Germany.

That surprised me, I figured it would come from Italy, but digging into the history a little. It hasn’t been an Italian company for a long time and manufacturing for them has been done in many countries.

 

[halfmile]

Yesterday I mentioned to a friend that a forum member purchased a Lambretta project. That brought on a "Glory Daze" flash back. It was 1961 when I graduated 8th grade. (toughest 11 years of my life) Anyway there were about 30 kids in my class and about 35 in the 7th grade. Between the 2 grades we had 9 Cushman`s, 2 Vespa`s and 3 Lambretta`s. 3 of them were girl owned. Late 50`s-early 60`s were scooter crazy, in my neighborhood anyway. Glad to see you revamping that scooter. I`m sure there are a few forum members that have one or two stashed away somewhere. Looks like your making good progress.

 

[Adamc]

Your Lambretta is coming together really well; looking forward to the painting.

Out of interest I saw this Lambretta on my ride out to hay on Wye:

Still a daily runner!

 

[WideAWAKE]

Halfmile - that’s pretty cool. For me as a younger kid, 16, when I got my first scooter (a Vespa) it was just a part of the culture I grew up around. Worked at a few shops doing restoration/tuning work as a kid.

My old cut down Vespa - if you rode behind me, you were guaranteed a face full of oily smoke haha.

And another Lambretta I built early on, next to a buddies Vespa SS180 grimsted (the cream of the crop).



Adamc - that looks like a nice c or d model. Probably topped out around 35ish.

Below is an LD model (same as your bike but with cowling) I had a good part of building. Motor was built with every period mod possible. Topped out around 52.

That photo of the LD and my bike was taken on a trip to Vancouver Island BC. A day without rain haha.