I normally look for a complete project scooter, tear it down, then put all of the restored original pieces back together. The first step I take in most of my restorations is to pull the engine out of the frame and rebuild it. This project deviated from my normal pattern.

A couple of years ago, I responded to an ad on the local Craigslist for a Lambretta LD. When I arrived it turned out the guy had two. The one for sale was a complete and all original LD Mk 1. Sitting in the back of the garage was another Mk1 completely dismantled and painted an awful red. It was a very amateur job. Along with these two scooters was an extra engine. He was moving and anxious to clear out his garage. I made an offer for the two Mk1's and the extra engine. He agreed so we loaded it on the truck. Mk1 LD's are pretty rare in the USA. They were never imported to dealers here. Any you see - which is almost never - were brought over by individuals. You'll see an occasional Mk2 and the the LD Mk3's are fairly common. The Mk1 was made from 1951 to 1953.

I recognized the spare engine as being one of the earliest of the LD production. I chose to rebuild that one and put it away for some future project. I realized how scarce the parts are for this engine, so I sent it to Casa Lambretta's Denver shop instead of taking on the rebuild myself. After it arrived in Colorado, Jon called me and said that sourcing parts for this old motor was going to be a long haul. Sure, enough, it took Jon about 9 months to find all the stuff he needed. Which was just about everything - crank, top end, magneto, the works. Casa Lambretta has affiliated shops all over the world and of course there's the connection to the Casa mother ship and Lambretta expert Vittorio Tessera in Italy. I don't think any other shop could have handled this engine rebuild and I would have had a tough time finding the rare parts for it had I done the rebuild on my own.

As you can see by the photo, Jon did a remarkable job with this engine. Early LD and D model engine cases were painted silver, as were the LC, C and all previous models. It looks brand new again and was test run in a frame designed for that purpose before coming back to me. It's nice that Casa's engine rebuilds come back to you already dialed in and ready to run. Note that the rear brake is the type that has a solid rod vs. cable arrangement. That's a sign of how early this LD Mk1 engine really is.

A beautifully restored antique engine deserves a proper frame to ride in. I have almost everything I need to assemble a complete LD Mk 1 except for the side panels with porthole vents and the carb door. They come up for sale now and then so I'll be watching and waiting.  In the past I matched the original LD gray with some help from John Sisson of jonbretta fame. The Mk1 was available in green, gray, and beige. I was leaning toward gray but today I waffled on that and may go with green or beige. I'll decide in the next week or so as I begin to gather up all the parts from storage and prepare the next steps.