First order placed

For my 35th birthday, my wife got me started on my restoration. She started me off with a membership to Lambretta Club USA. She also bought me the Spanner's Manual, which I have heard is a MUST own.




I have never rebuilt an engine before and I asked Stu Werner what he thought of this "how to" DVD. His thought is that all resources will help. This DVD covers the removal, full nuts and bolts engine rebuild, and how to get it running. It covers all three series Lammys, which is nice since I would like to buy my wife a Series I or II. I have two TV engines to rebuild and this will be the first step I take in restoring the scoot.

Seeing as we just bought a house this month, things are going to be tight for us for a while and therefore it will take me quite some time to restore this bike because of budgetary issues. So it goes. Good things come to those who wait. I ordered all my parts from Scooters Originali, NJ, and instead of paying shipping I decided to be smart and order the gasket set for one engine now. I only needed to spend $8.50 more to avoid the shipping fee and why not just get something I know I need anyway.

Here's to the long haul ahead of me.

Total for order: $114.00

Update

The TV175 is in storage in San Francisco --  it's new home.

The Vespa SS180 is 99.9% restored and when I have funds I will begin to purchase parts for the TV175.  First I need to title it and begin researching the particulars for this bike.

Determining if parts are correct

There are a few parts that Stu and I are uncertain about and it's very important to me that I do not restore a hotchpotch Lammy. I want it as stock as possible, minus the motor upgrade.The gas tank came from a 1964 series III.  Stu believes that it is a centimeter or two larger than the one would be for a 1962 tank -- which is the year of my scoot.
Stu got this info from Stickey's book.  I emailed Mike Analt about this, but he thinks the gas tank might actually be the correct size since the 1962 TV he just restored has a gas tank a hair small.
Stu said the headset is correct and he pulled it off and sprayed it blue for race team when he was in a pinch.
So you are looking at the stock headset.
There are spray drips on the bottom/underside of the headset, which suggest to me at some point it may have been rattle canned, but I don't know for sure.
The flywheel cover is incorrect.  This is from a series II, which is close in size for the TV I have, but it requires two stamps of some sort to make it look 100% authentic.
I need to talk with Stu/Mike about that in more detail as well as read up about it in Stickey's book as well.  I need to buy that book sooner than later.
I was really concerned that my floor boards were GP.  They are silver and do not match any color on the the TV, except for the Li steering column I have (with the TV shocks hooks welded on as Stu's machinist destroyed the TV steering column to point of non usable.  People won't be able to tell the difference though).  In speaking with Mike, he thinks that I may have series III Li or TV floor boards.
I need to confirm that before I begin working on the bike.  Again Stickey's book would provide me with the answer.
In any case I did speak with a guy who would trade me TV floorboards for mine if indeed I have GP. My floorboards are in excellent condition.

Reference: TV175

I found this TV175 S.3 posted on lambretta.org by Alex from Casa (I believe) and took the pictures so I can reference them when I begin restoring my TV. The more pictures I can get, especially stock, the better because they really help you be specific about what does and does not go on your bike or what should be painted a certain color or not. It helps keep you period specific or true.

This bike is either a 1962 or 1963. You can tell by the cowls -- no chrome finishers it just reads Lambretta. My TV is a 1962. I personally prefer how the earlier Series III look for the TV. It's cleaner in my opinion. Not too much going on.

You can sort off see the stock switch-side perch in the picture below. Not super easy to find original ones of those, but I was lucky and did find one.

The seat and frame I have are in near mint condition, but in red. My seat frame looks similar to the one below in quality.

Update for March 2008

I've done nothing new on the TV175, but am about $200 from totally completing the restoration of 1967 Vespa SS180.

Since my last post I missed buying a GP crank for $90 from SPD's Lambretta blow-out. That was a big bummer for me because the price was so good. I will use a GP crank, because I will go with either 186 or 190cc top end.

Rear shock spring

Before I can begin my R1/R6 shock conversion I needed to powder coat my spring (dust is on the spring in the photo. The paint is perfect). Powder coat is some tough paint and will handle the small pebbles and such hitting it as I clock 65 mph down the road.

I elected to go with the color black since that is how it would have come out of the factory back in 1962. Looking stock is important, even if you have mild mods, in my opinion.

I paid $12.50 to my mentor and friend Christopher Markley to powder it. He has a business for restoring scoots and small displacement motorcycles, called Moto-Rapido. He does excellent work and has worked a lot on my wife's Vespa VSC, including rebuilding the engine.

Just a reminder . . . there will be little to no work done on this Lambretta until Fall/Winter of 2008 as my priority is to complete my wife's 1967 Vespa SS180's restoration first.

Lesson learned:One side on the shock was NOT powder coated and I asked Christopher why that was the case. Here is the answer I got:

"You beat me to the e-mail. Put those ends facing down. When powder coating, you can suspend the part on wires or let it stand on its own if it has a flat surface. Regardless, wherever it touches, no powder. Seems on the springs that shortly after installation, the powder or paint if you use paint will quickly wear away as the spring seat grinds around against the shock spring support. So I opted to not suspend the parts on wires, since the suspension points would have been on a visible surface of the spring. This way, they look pretty and the part without powder would have lost its coating anyway in use. If you're worried about it, a smear of thick axle grease where the springs meet the shock could postpone corrosion, but it is inevitable at those mating points eventually."

Need a title?

My Lambretta did not come with a title as many barn yard finds don't or maybe you lost your title -- and now you need one. That's an easy fix at $80.

Look into International Title Service. They're the most frequently used service for old motorcycles and cars.

In a nutshell what you do is sell your bike to them and they resell it back to you with a clean title.

Easy as 1-2-3.

Alternative ways can be found on Scoot.net's Wiki.

Of course these approaches are for the USA.

Lesson Learned from Posting on BBS:
*sigh* ITS and Broadway don't provide actual titles. They charge to provide you with paperwork which enables you to title a vehicle in your home state.

You are still responsible for paying your states' fees for tax, tags, and title above and beyond what you pay any titling company for their "service".

Some states don't accept paperwork from out-of-state titling services, so caveat emptor before spending money with ITS or Broadway. Most state have a process for obtaining a title for a vehicle that doesn't otherwise have one, which is usually cheaper and quicker than using an out-of-state titling service, which is why that FAQ is on scoot.net.

Enjoy,
John M. Stafford