The Midnight Hour
Paul Schram has been a fan of the Hammer House of Horror films since he was a kid. When he decided upon this theme for his scooter, Paul discovered that he shared a common interest with the man he would eventually commission to complete the paintwork….
Custom scooter ‘Lammy House of Horror’ is the star of this feature, with artwork by Gatch and the Hammer Horror films providing a common bond between artist and owner.
The base scooter of this custom is a humble 1984 GP150, which came from a friend who was starting another project and needed to make some room, so Paul bought it off him. The scooter didn’t have an engine at the point of purchase, so it sat in the workshop for a couple of months, until Paul could muster up the enthusiasm to get started on it. He said: “It was pretty scruffy, as it’d been hard-ridden and so it had the usual knocks, chips and scratches.” The original basecoat paintwork, a lovely green metalflake, was completed by Freddy Holden. Paul explained: “I think to this day he is still swearing about it and vowed never to do another scooter!” So there it sat; Paul had no ideas for it apart from stacking things on top of it, dropping things on it, and him standing there looking at it thinking, ‘what the hell am I going to do with this?’
Project management
Paul’s 2017 scootering season started off with a run of bad luck. He told us: “My other scooter is a street-racer, which had encountered a series of breakdowns and problems, it was one thing after another, and these problems pushed me into getting the ‘mug and tool stand’ (as I was beginning to call it) on the road… so I started putting the scooter together. The frame was the worst, which needed a good going over to say the least. I did some ringing round and a mate of mine offered to powder coat it for me. It came back as good as new, but now the rest of it looked really scruffy.” By this time; and as the project was developing it had started to become a slight issue between Paul and his wife, Debs because Paul had promised Debs he would not be spending loads of money on it… “Yeah right,” Paul said.
Eye-catcher
The project was beginning to take shape and Paul was thinking about ideas for the scooter’s theme, but most importantly he wanted to think of an original theme… it had to be eye-catching, never been done before and something which he was interested in. Paul said: “I knew I wanted to get the project moving so I started looking round for a specialist painter who would be able to manage the job. I’d been looking through Facebook a few months before and I happened to come across Gatch, when I saw a ‘Brut’ scooter he’d done.
I was impressed with Gatch’s work so I got in touch with him. We got talking, but I still wasn’t really sure what theme I wanted so I asked Gatch if he wanted to have a free hand on the scooter to do anything he wished.”
Organisational skill
Having discussed the project with Gatch, the duo came up with a plan, which would solve the problem of getting the parts from Suffolk over to Gatch in Halifax, and keep Debs happy at the same time. It was strategically put to Debs that ‘they ought to have some time away’ and suggested a ‘romantic weekend break in Nottingham’. Having discussed the idea with Debs she was happily in agreement, which is when Paul then diplomatically suggested to her that while they were over in Nottingham they could quickly ‘nip over’ to see ‘Gatch’ and drop off some scooter parts ‘on the way’. I asked Paul how that worked, with the ‘romantic break’ being in Nottingham… and Gatch being in Halifax, with a smile he said: “Geography was never my strong point.” So off they went, at 6am on the Saturday morning, on their romantic ‘non-scootering’ weekend to drop the parts off with ‘Gatch’ who was a mere 65 miles out of the way… cunning.
Common interest
Paul was looking forward to meeting Gatch as he thought of him as a bit of a Banksy-type character, he said: “You see Gatch’s work, but you never see the man… and what a top bloke he is!” When the romantic couple finally arrived at Gatch’s workshop, he and Paul spent a couple of hours chatting. During the conversation they got talking about some of the work Gatch had previously done and in that process they realised that they shared a common interest; vintage horror movies. Paul said: “It was perfect; the choice for the theme of the scooter was now a no-brainer, but I couldn’t think of a name for it until Debs suggested the name, ‘Lammy House of Horror’, which was spot on.”
Films
Between themselves, they considered the films they wanted to display within the scooter and Paul allowed Gatch free rein to put the images in the order he thought best. “I found out that Gatch’s favourite film is The Abominable Dr Phibes, which is an all time classic starring Vincent Price and Terry Thomas. Gatch asked me if I’d mind if he included that film on the scooter. I agreed, it wasn’t a problem, the film’s a classic.” With the name and the theme of the scooter sorted the romantic couple set off, back to Nottingham.
The final product
Another trip was made to Halifax (not via Nottingham this time) to pick up the completed parts. “And wow! They looked good.” Paul said.
On the headset is an image of The Ghoul and down the horncast is the name of the scooter’s theme, which sits above an image of Christopher Lee from the 1970 film, Scars of Dracula. The legshields display some of the main characters who appeared in the ‘Hammer’ movies. The off-side side panel shows two main images; one of Gatch’s favourite movie, The Abominable Dr Phibes, and one of the 1966 film, The Plague of the Zombies. Paul’s favourite movie is The Mummy, which featured
The first proper outing for the scooter was meant to be at the Cleethorpes National Rally but being a bit too enthusiastic Paul managed to heatseize the cylinder on his way there
Boris Karloff and appears on the near-side panel supported by images of the films Taste the Blood of Dracula’ and Frankenstein. Gatch also incorporated images taken from movie posters, one of which appears on the front mudguard showing an image of Boris Karloff from the 1935 classic The Raven and also displays the name of Bela Lugosi who played the part of the retired surgeon Dr Richard Vollin.
Adjustments
Paul felt that the detail of Gatch’s work was such that he should ditch most of the chrome parts he was going to put on the scooter. He explained: “The chrome parts just really didn’t look right, so Paul Elwood from Aerocoat came to the rescue and powder coated them gloss black, which adds to the look of the scooter and makes Gatch’s work, which is the true feature of the scooter, stand out more.” The seat was recovered by ‘L&N’ products using a sparkle covering to match the paintwork and the hand-stitched ‘Lammy House of Horror’ name was added to the rear. SIP tubeless rims were added, along with a 175cc engine and Taffy exhaust.
Full on
The first outing for the scooter was meant to be at the Cleethorpes but being a bit too enthusiastic Paul managed to seize it on the way there. Not being one to dwell on things, he dropped the 175cc engine and replaced it with an Rapido kit, atomic reed valve, JL3 stainless exhaust, and a GP200 gearbox. Paul said: “The scooter sits comfortably at 65mph all day long, I haven’t discovered the top speed yet but knowing me, I’ll keep pushing it!” Words: Stu Smith Photographs: Gary Chapman