Lambretta TV175 Mod Custom - Richard Lynn (UK)

Richard is a long time RLC customer and decided it was about time for us to build him a scooter to put all his shiny original accessories onto. Ever the perfectionist, Richard flew over to spend some time with our Marco on a brain-storming session to suss out what to have built up, the colour schemes and what accessories to add. They went over the design, came up with a potential winning design. With a good Italian TV Series 2 located as the basis for the project, Marco did a dry build to make sure the colour scheme & arrangement worked - and then stripped the scooter down again for painting and plating.

With the dry build fully completed, the bodywork was taken to RLC’s fabricator Fabri  to get all the crashbars and carriers cut n’ shut and to ensure they all ‘flowed’ with the scooter and make sure everything fitted & looked right. Richard had a good paintwork design for us to follow and the accessories were needed to compliment, not cover this. As Richard had a whole host of original accessories, these also almost all needed a lot of cuttin’ n’ shuttin’. Marco has spent endless hours with Fabri, making brackets and then concentrating on getting all the lights & accessories into a perfect formation. The aim was to get all the accessories to ‘flow’ right whilst remaining in close contact with Richard to ensure that he was cool with all the work and the final outcome. The bodywork then went off to be painted in original HOC Candies and a MASSIVE amount of parts were sent off to be chromed. Once the first chromed & painted parts were back with us, I was time to get the scooter built up. The engine has been given the same treatment as the bodywork and along with a Cyclone 5 Speed gearbox and an original, period 195cc ‘Ancillotti Racing’ piston going into the Innocenti TV175 barrel. The carb sits on an original Ancillotti inlet manifold an a Casatronic ignition provides the sparks. The wiring proved to be a major issue as there are so many accessories to connect up. RLC refuses point blank to fit electrical accessories unless they are wired up.

When the first bodywork for Rich’s scooter came back from the chromers it was immediately obvious what a fantastic job they had done to it. A lot of the parts had been chromed in England and the quality was a bit crap on a lot of parts. The front mudguard had a lot of work done prior to chroming to give it a ‘ribbed’ section on the front and as you can see in the pics, it really is a deft touch.

Just to prove that not everything goes to plan, we had a MAJOR issue with the paintwork on the legshields so the scooter actually ended up being partially stripped once again to sort out the problem. This meant stripping the shields down, removing the chroming and then re-doing the whole lot. Sounds easy but this was a right royal ‘mare. Luckily 2nd time lucky was just that and the newly finished article is now perfect.  With the legshield back on and in place, Marco set to getting the rest of the bodywork back on. Aligning the bodywork was a really laborious task and despite the various dry-builds that took place, once lashings of paint and chrome are applied, all the various mounting spaces between bodywork panelling can change. With the patience of a saint, Marco got everything back on and perfectly sorted out. The HOC Candy colour combinations chosen by Richard look mental and combined with all the chrome and one-off touches & parts, the scooter is a lush sight to behold to say the least. The chromed one-off exhaust really adds to the show. Exiting on the left, the twin Clover Leaf pipes both look and sound great. The seat came back from Massimo @ Trezzi’s and once again he worked his magic, with the recovered item really adding to the scooters overall appearance.

At first all the lights and embellishers on the front were fitted and the original idea was to leave the chrome original but once fitted it was apparent that this was letting the side down….so off they all come off again, to then all be stripped, labelled and sent off to be rechromed! All the fasteners were singularly cut to length to ensure not one thread was protruding and then each and every nut, bolt and washer was either chromed or mirror polished. It was an endless task but needed to be done to get the scooter perfect. Upon their return from the chromers, Marco worked non-stop on the scooter getting them all back into place for the final time. Then it was back to the scooters wiring for the accessory lights and it took work hours of patience to work out and actual do the wiring to light up all the additional bolt-on’s. The unique modified inside legshield toolbox is where all the switches are and the wires exit through the horn grille up front. Also with three sets of sidepanels, the accessories, and everything else, getting the paintwork done was a minor miracle.  Everything needed working out and all the pinstriping around the scooter sorted so that it flowed around these.  

With the scooter now finished, the scooter runs and rides a treat and everyone who has seen it has stood there with their mouths open, besotted by this blue and chromium  piece of two wheeled artwork. Judge for yourselves.