B
ack in 2013, Jim Trewin was looking
for a Lambretta Vega project which
he wanted to get restored for the late
Eddie Hine. Browsing the net, Jim found the
(now defunct) lambrettaforsale.co.uk website
and saw a Cometa for sale. It had been
originally sold in South Africa but the owner
had moved to the UK and brought the scooter
with him. Jim subsequently bought it from
Gary Wallis.
Jim was chuffed to bits to have located a
South African machine for two reasons, the
first being his love of Lambrettas, and secondly
because he had an interest in South African
history. Jim did some work on the original
registration number and found that it had
originated in the Transvaal.
Although Jim had originally been looking for
a scooter for Eddie, this particular Cometa
was in original condition and clearly had a
great story attached, so he decided that this
was one scooter he was going to keep. He
subsequently found another Vega project,
which Dave Waddingham at DJ Scooters did a
great job of restoring for Eddie.A CHANGE OF HEART
Jim hadn’t intended to sell the Cometa as
he had grown an attachment to it, but while
visiting Carlos Newberry (aka Swiss Tony) in
June 2017, he mentioned the scooter and
Carlos asked for photos. Jim had literally only
had her in his possession while driving up
north for a few hours and Carlos offered him
a deal that he thought hard on, but couldn’t
turn down. So the decision was made to sell
the scooter. Jim made Carlos promise one
thing – not to restore it.
The Cometa was then taken to Hinckley,
home of Lambretta polisher and all-round
good guy, Johnny Walklate. When it arrived
in Hinckley, Johnny was able to see that the
scooter was, in his words, “in a bit of a sorry
state”. Carlos made one stipulation, and that
was to leave the original red paint and simply
recommission the scooter as if it was one of
his own (Carlos was clearly keeping to the
promise he made to Jim).
Johnny told me that there was literally no
part of the scooter left untouched which didn’t
require any attention. He completed an initial
strip-down and assessment, which was pretty
successful – well, that is apart from everyfixing in the headset having seized solid and
the engine casing being full of water. Having
stripped the scooter, Johnny’s game plan was
to get the parts off to those with specific skill
sets and who he uses on his builds.WORK GETS UNDERWAY
The engine went to Matt Wade at MEW
Automotive where the engine could be stripped
down to its component parts, and the engine
casing could then go back to Johnny. Matt was
also entrusted with making sure the frame was
straight and the frame struts were welded back
into place (one of the usual jobs with any Luna
line machine).
The silver paintwork was carried out by
Riding Dirty Customs in Leicester. Parts were
looking tired and needed some care and
attention. As ever, RDC came through with
the goods. The engine was vapour blasted
by Maltside Components in Leicester. Johnny
found them via Instagram and he highly
recommends their services.
There were a few bits of the scooter that
needed welding and there were definitely
some parts that had seen better days. It
was obvious that someone had come off
the scooter on more than one occasion. The
welding that was needed was done by one
of Johnny’s mates, ‘Range’, while Johnny
himself straightened out the rear carrier and
number plate bracket. Carlos runs Swiss
Tony’s Scooter Spares and along with Rimini
Lambretta Centre, they supplied the new old
stock parts. Finally, the satin black powder
coat on the seat base, exhaust grills, rear
carrier and number plate bracket was applied
by TDW Powder Coating in Hinckley.ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY
In the meantime whilst those guys did their
bit, Johnny got cracking with restoring the
paintwork which, though covered in battle
scars spanning half-a-century of life, really
came back to life and the Martian Red paint
popped out once again.
The alloy components were given a buff
on the polishing mops to complement the
progress of the build and a few parts had
a subtle soda blasting in Johnny’s cabinet
to clean them up. As parts arrived from the
various experts in their field, Johnny set about
fitting a new wiring loom and cables andcommenced with reassembling the scooter.
It only takes a few components to see some
visual progress, but you're best to build a Luna
line machine in a certain order, as incorrect
fitting of the wiring loom and cables can result
in the frame tunnel not fitting correctly – a
nightmare job at the best of times!
Whilst Johnny was almost at a standstill,
Matt Wade pulled it out of the bag with the
engine rebuild and Johnny was able to get that
back in the hole, get the cables attached and
get it selecting all gears as it should.
Some last-minute spannering at MEW was
called for as the deadline for completion for
taking the Cometa to the Scooterist Meltdown
was looming. The engine was fired up so that
all the electrics could be tested. A broken
wire in the switch and dodgy LT coil on the
stator were the only culprits to any issues
that were found. So the machine was finished
and made its way to Germany and now, having
globetrotted some more, it resides with Carlos
down in the West Country.
Pete DaviesIf you look at how the scooter once
was, you can see how much care and
attention has been given to reviving one
of Innocenti’s scarcer models.