LI125 Colour - SOLVED

[Cosmic Wizard]

Morning everyone, this is my first post after recently joining the club

I have a 1962 Series 3 LI125 and I'm intrigued to find out what colour it should be. The scooter has been recently imported from Italy and has been repainted at some point in the past.

It is currently (what I suspect) Nilo Verde, but Sticky's Spanner Bible says that wasn't a colour option for a Series 3 LI125, only the LI150.

I'm wondering if it should be Celeste Iseo or could it be the Italians had different model/colour combinations to the Lambretta consessionaires in the UK?

Finally, is there a way to find out what the original colour is via the frame number or the series of numbers after that?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Cheers
Jim

[dickie]

Welcome to the club. You'll get excellent advice on here, there are some really knowledgeable folk who've been doing this since before I was born!

The li125 was available in celeste iseo (pale sort of duck egg blue), bianco nuove (white) and a beige that no one seems to know much about. The lechler paint codes are on a link on the lcgb home page.

Good luck. It's addictive.

[roli150lam]

Have a look inside the toolbox or remove the horncast,original paint colour could be there.

[Meds]

Having seen the beige, I beleive that anyone who knows the colour code or anything about it should take the secret to the grave with them.
It's hideous.
Another method is to try and polish back the fuel flap and see what's underneath.
If it beige, go for duck egg blue.

[Cosmic Wizard]

Thank you all for your replies

@ Dickie & Meds - I'm hopeful that it's Celeste Iseo as the Beige doesn't sound very nice lol.

@ Roli150lam - Unfortunately whoever painted it had done quite a thorough job as the toolbox has been painted and the horncast isn't the original.

I think I'll have to flat and feather out an area of paint and see what secrets lurk beneath. One angle I hadn't thought of was, if it was Beige, the owner probably hated it lol.

I shall keep you all posted on my findings.

CHeers
Jim

[Cosmic Wizard]

Hi all,

Since posting, I have been noticing a few things which I have previously dismissed or forgotten about. The insides of the side-panels and the underside of the fan cowling, plus a few chips in the (current) Green paint all have a BEIGE colour to them I also had a little look in the air-box last night and that too has a Beige tone.

I had previously dismissed this as an undercoat as I didn't realise they did a Beige colour.

I now have a dilemma! I'm all for originality and I was told by a couple of people on the Scoot The Thames run, to leave the bodywork as it is, as it's original (apart from the bits of touching up here and there) - it's all part of its character and history. Now, my Starstream has this originality, right down to the remains of its running-in sticker, so that will be left alone, but the series 3 was always bought to restore.

Now I know the Green was not a colour for my machine and that its original colour is looking like Beige, should I restore the bodywork? I can understand that Beige isn't everyone's favourite colour, but as my LI is an early Ser.3 and was also painted in a colour that isn't well documented, I think I have a bit of a historic duty lol and it would make for a nice project and scooter.

If I choose to do this, I would need a colour code, or find some Beige on the scooter that can be matched - either that, or paint it in an earlier Beige, say, Model F (Beige Sabbia), or Series 1 or 2. Can anyone confirm if these Beige's would be the same as the Series 3?

I shall now prepare myself for the "no not Beige" comments LOL

Cheers
Jim

[Cosmic Wizard]

I forgot to add, I will flat a part of paintwork down and feather it out to see what lies beneath. This should confirm it 100%.

[Cosmic Wizard]

This doesn't look too bad...

[dickie]

I like the idea of beige and think you should paint it that colour because it will be different and original.

However I've never seen the actual colour and can't help wondering why they are so rare. The way that some music is obscure for very good reason. If it's the same colour as the ld you've shown, the i think it's quite tasteful.

More than anything, it's your scooter so paint it any colour you like.

[Cosmic Wizard]

Evening all, it seems my quest to find out the original colour of my Series 3 is at an end.

I removed the horncasting and flatted and feathered out some paint on the headstock. It looks like the original colour of my scooter was Celeste Iseo and not Beige as I first thought.

I'm assuming the white colour is the original undercoat / primer, then there is the blue and finally the colour it is at the moment.



Now I need to think about what to do regarding a future restoration.

Cheers
Jim

[Meds]

Thank god for that.
I was really worried that it was beige