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This
story has been a long time coming and its still going.
1985 – June 2003 Scooter hibernating in shed. July 2003 I decided to restore my GP 150 at the time Sharpie bought his Vespa Douglas. I had bought the GP in the mid-80s second hand. It was that long ago I couldn’t recall how much I paid for it, but being from Yorkshire, it wouldn’t have been much. The GP was one of the same batch of SIL imports that found its way to Perth. Rich & Nev also bought from the same lot. Mine was a horrid sky blue colour, with front & rear racks, back rest and crash bars. By the time I got the GP, it had done 14,000km and the mod thing was over for me, so all the fruit came off.
The GP produced in 1980 was 6 volt battery system with indicators. Won’t be needing those blinky things, I thought and off they came. The ‘orrible blue was replaced with a red metal flake and a discrete amount of chrome, like both side panels.
Engine was bog standard apart from a 22mm Dellorto & the fresco my parents brought back from Leeds for my 20th birthday. By my calculations, the GP had been sat in my Dad’s shed for about 17 years, before I re-possessed it. The GP had good compression, but wouldn’t start. Electrical fault was my diagnosis. The old man reckoned he hadn’t thrown anything out, but as the mudguard and rear running boards were missing, I had my doubts….. I collected the GP in the same trailer in which Rich picked up the Douglas. From the state of the pair, people must have assumed we were driving to the tip rather than embarking upon the road to restoration. Finally got it home and then promptly placed it in my shed and didn’t touch it again for six months. ….. August 2003
The original tyres were, well crap. I've got better ones on the wheelbarrow, 'cept there's only one of those. Once the frame was completely stripped, it was time for a change of venue. After all this progress, my pride and joy was not going back in the shed, oh no. Much to my wife's horror, it went in the end spare bedroom, apart from the panels which were under a mound of tarps in the shed. The frame was sanded back to bare metal where it has sat stagnant, with everything else, for about another 6 months, maturing like a fine red wine. February – April 2004 Spent a productive couple of months thinking about what colour to paint it. May 2004 Gareth christens the GP the ”Garden Ornament”. August 2004 By about August, I had decided to get cracking once again. I made the decision from the start to replace as much of the original Indian parts as possible with European. It wasn’t apparent then, because I’d done sod all, but I was looking down the barrel of a full nut & bolt restoration. I wasn’t interested in restoring back to factory condition, because for a start that would have meant painting it that shitty blue again and locating the indicators which were probably landfill by now. I was going to build the Lambretta I wanted. By now I was entering what I call the “death by Visa" phase. The first of many purchases of parts, were locally bought cable set, rear running boards, engine cowl, glove box lid and new GP tail light. September 2004 Used the angle grinder to remove the battery tray. October 2004 Side panels moved from shed to spare bedroom. Neil solves my paint dilemma by choosing the same colour scheme I was thinking about. As his resto was light years ahead of mine, there was not much I could do, other than call him “twat”. I had the last laugh though, as Duane already got there first, with a white pearl and navy blue combo. Fair play to Neil though, for doing all the paintwork himself. (Still a twat for nicking my colour scheme.) November 2004 Side panels moved from spare bedroom to car boot en route to sandblasters. Side panels moved from boot to bedroom without making it to sandblasters. UK shipment No.1 - full rubber kit plus front hub seals and bearings. December 2004 Buy the new Lambretta manual for myself for Xmas. Mel raises an eyebrow, when I say I've a Sticky book and its brilliant.... |
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Come
January, I had the urge to start tinkering, once again.