The Lambretta Li150 Series 3 Rebuild - Part 1
Feb 12
Recently I bought a Lambretta in bits, why?
Back in the day I was in the Sydney Mod Scene and I was banging about on a 1984 Vespa PE200 that I bought 2nd hand of a local Mod on the Northern Beaches, I had always wanted Lambretta and was always envious of the Mods that did have them, even if they were covered in mirrors and tat, they looked so much more stylish than the Vespa, although at the time I loved my Vespa and I did upgrade myself in 1994 to a brand new Vespa PX200E, this had an electrics starter and I loved it.
But, I had always wanted to own the same scooter as Jimmy, the main character in the 1979 movie Quadrophenia, he rode a 1964 Series 3 Li150, this recently sold action in London for close to GBP35,000, seen here to the left.
A few months ago during a chance conversation with a local scooter dealer brought me to the attention of guy selling a Li150 project, I got in contact with him and went to visit what would become my very first Lambretta and to top it all off it was the same model I had always wanted, a Lambretta Series 3 Li150.
After a few weeks of research on pricing and talking to a few local folks about the authenticity of frame and engine numbers I decided to buy it, well buy the bits, without a doubt this was a restoration project. Although quite a lot had been done to it I still realised I had a lot of work ahead of me in the future.
About the Lambretta Series 3
The series 3 family includes the Li125, Li150, Li150 Special, SX150, TV175, TV200, SX200, Grand Prix 125/150/200 (also known as 125/150/200 DL) models produced after 1962.
Personally, I think the SX 200 is one of if not the most beautiful scooters ever made and I could have replaced 75% of the body work on my S3 to make it look like one of these but I have decided to stick with all the original panel work on my for a variety of reasons, who knows, maybe one day I wil find an SX 200 to buy for myself!!
The Series 3 scooters are commonly called the Slimstyle Range, Series 3 models are distinguishable by a speedometer which is of a sort of clam shell shape. It is flat on the sides, tapering out larger at the top, and the top and bottom are rounded. Another distinguishable feature of the Series III is the separate horn grille which attaches vertically to the front of the horncasting with two countersink screws at the bottom.
Li125 & Li150 models have a round headlight and rim, the popular Grand Prix models have a rectangular headlight and rim, and all remaining Series 3 models have a round headlight with a hexagonal rim.
The first Series III models produced in 1962 share several characteristics with earlier Series II models. When this is the case, the earlier variation of the part is called the pre-mod part. Mid-1960’s models will often share pre- and post-mod features. By the end of the production run of Italian Series 3 models (which included all GP and SX models), all of the post-modification features (such as 6 pole ignition systems which have 4 wires coming from the magneto) had been adopted.
My Series 3 Li150
Based on the frame and engine number I can place my scooter as coming out of the factory in Italy sometime between the end of 1964 and the early 1965, this is based on evidence of the frame number and the fact that it has a chrome ring between the leg-shield and the handlebar, mine also has the side-panel anti-vibration buffers which were fitted from mid 1964, the chrome ring was eliminated in mid 1965 thus placing my model between these two dates and makes it version three of four version updates.
It is not much to look at at the moment but here are a few shots of it the day I picked it up.
Anyway, that all for now so keep coming back for updates & you can also check out the most recent posts about this restoration project: