Ginger Stepchild
PART 1 Fabrication, metal flake ke and pinstriping In this two-part article, we have decided to show you not just the shiny after-product, but also the blood, sweat and tears that went into making it. Enter, Ginger Stepchild…
It’s always lovely to see a shiny finished custom scooter on display, but what about all the hard work which goes into making it? Our two-part feature on Ginger Stepchild does just that!
When embarking on a custom project there’s always a few considerations to make before actually commencing, cost being a significant factor. Financial outlay invariably will exceed even the most careful calculations. Additionally, carrying out as much of the work, obviously, within your own capabilities, makes the impact on the bank balance a bit less painful. With an eye on keeping the outlay to a minimum, coupled with self-belief and a willingness to attempt various aspects of creating a custom himself, owner, builder and rider Paul Lowden set off on a DIY odyssey that spanned eight years on and off. Paul offers an insight based on his own first-hand experiences – trying his hand at various aspects, for the first time, on elements integral to building a custom scooter. This first part looks at what factors led to his decision to create an 80s style cutdown, and we also learn of Paul’s determination to master fabrication as well as paint spraying the artwork, consisting of metal flake, pinstriping and signwriting.
Ideas and intentions
The 80s-inspired Lammy cutdown Ginger Stepchild began as an idea back in 2009. Here he tells the story in his own words... I bought a frame, forks and set of Vega legshields off a mate in Doncaster. I was thinking of using them as the base for a street racer Lammy. One on the ideas I had at the time was to have a one-piece flip up rear end and panels. At the time there were few if any scooters being built with that setup; eight years on there’s a few now where that idea has been used.
Several factors combined to change my mind on what I was planning to start with. Along with a couple of mates, (Nobby and Smurf), I was working on building a Series 1 rat rod, all three of us were doing Fatboy (Series 1 and 2 Lambretta) ‘rods. At the time we were amassing parts between us for our projects, spending long hours on the ‘net late at night and comparing notes.
The Old School Lambretta page on Facebook, (it has its uses), took us all back to when we first got on the scene. Setting off for a National with £30 in my pocket for the weekend, fun times, on a tiny budget! Ever since then I’ve had a liking for metal flake paint with pin striping and chrome cutdowns – the kind of scooter I wanted but could never afford in the 80s. Me and Nobby more or less talked ourselves, and each other, into building 80s style scooters. Even though the rat rods were at the forefront of what we were doing at that time.
We set a target deadline of Isle of Wight rally 2016 for our 80s style Lammys, Nobby got a headstart when he bought the frame and bodywork of Brazillian Love Affair, but we both missed that deadline. After my girlfriend saw Nobby’s Supertune SX she asked me why I hadn’t ever built a nice shiny scooter. Nobby beat me by around three months in finishing his 80s Lammy, BLA. I just about finished Ginger Stepchild in time for Isle of Wight 2017, though it was a hectic few days before!
Tacking up
As with both my previous two builds, Superstylin’ (a cutdown) and Ol’ Rusty (S1 Rat Rod), Ginger Stepchild was very much a learning curve for me. Self-taught through trial and error, with lots of helpful advice I learnt a lot when building them, and learnt how to do even more while building Ginger Stepchild. Previously, with Nobby being, among other things, a welder, for any fabrication, I’d go to him.
However, Nobby had gone self-employed running his own business so was too busy to do what I needed. I bought myself a welding unit did a few practice welds; my first attempt at fabricating was damper brackets. In my head I had the idea of getting them chromed, there was no
chance of that happening to my first attempts, they both fell apart. If you don’t try you’ll never know if something is within your capabilities or not, practice makes perfect, persistence gets you there. With welding, it’s about getting the right amount of penetration I found. Teaching myself was a major learning curve, fun too, as I got better at it I could get on, it meant I could get things done when I wanted them done.
Mounting the toolbox inside the legshields needed captive nuts. Fork tube and forks were shortened about 2in, already done before I bought them. Like I tend to at times, I went a bit gung-ho with the angle grinder shortening the legshields. Took a bit too much off them, which left too much of a gap under the handlebars. Adding a bit of plate to bring them back to where they should be was another bit of fabrication I did... The horncasting was shortened accordingly, that meant the top fixings had been removed, I ended up going through where the badge should be to secure it in place. I made a couple of repositioned brackets, fixed to the frame tube, to secure the leg shields at the top. I had an idea to fit modified Vespa floorboards as rear runners, gave it a try, it looked shit, binned that idea! The remote stand, which slots into the rear of the engine casing, was one of the first things I made, didn’t quite get that right.
Ginger Stepchild leant over far too low with the stand fitted, more like a racer than a road scooter. Besides my first try at making the stand, it ended up snapping, back to not enough penetration on the welding. It still leans a bit too low for my liking, I may make another stand to correct the way it leans.
Blowing over
Prior to Ginger Stepchild, the only experience I’d had of painting was when I was building Super Stylin’. Which was carried out in a cold garage using a small compressor, it was a base coat with a clear lacquer. Didn’t quite get it done as it should’ve been, inevitably the clear lacquer coat cracked! When it comes to spray painting I found it’s all about the equipment. Quite early on in the project, I was blowing some paint over the frame, the garage was filling up with fumes, there was a loud banging on the garage doors. I stopped spraying and opened the doors, clouds of paint fumes billowed out over two PCSOs. Who having heard something (a compressor), running behind closed garage doors, they were checking that no-one was trying to commit suicide using carbon monoxide from a car exhaust. With all the fumes billowing out from the garage, their number could’ve been close to being up. I bought a proper compressor, though I’ve since blown it up.
The spray guns which I already had were far too big, again, like with welding and fabricating, painting with metal flake and candy lacquer, it was, for me, a big learning curve. I bought smaller spray guns, they were much better and using them pretty much eliminated runs in the paint. I bought the paint from Del at Custom Paint Shop, (I bought more than I needed), around the same time as that the Scootering paint guide series was in the magazine, which was useful. Del was helpful with advice too. I did quite a bit of practice painting on the flat metal plate.
I had paint lifting, discovered for myself that standard masking tape was not the best thing to use when masking for pinstriping, and I found out all about wet sanding as well as flatting back. At one stage after I finished painting the headset, the paint design, I thought it had hardened off. I put a top coat of clear lacquer on, which activated the paint underneath! I built a spray booth out of plywood, whitewashed all the walls and ceiling above, with a forensic type polythene tent. This ensured everything was clean and dust free. When I clear lacquered Super Stylin’, while doing what should’ve been the final coat, I had specks of dust and a spider’s web from the ceiling find their way onto/into that coat!
For Ginger Stepchild I got four base candy colours, which when mixed gave me 10 different shades of ginger. To be honest I had a bit of a play, after which I basically winged it design wise. Patterns in the paint were done using lace (curtains), as used on low-rider cars. As a printer, making a stencil for the words Ginger Stepchild on the toolbox door was straightforward. All the designs had to be flattened off on a silver flake base, the scroll and stripe design down the frame loop wasn’t planned initially. As I got more confident in my abilities I decided to give it go. I remember thinking after I’d finished the artwork on the loop, ooh, I can do this! The frame is a ’81 Jet, the paint style is loosely what was around in ’82/’83 with flake and pinstriping kind of authentic for an 80s scooter.
To start with I encountered a few minor issues with the painting; at one point I had a whole section lift off like a skin. When that happened there was no other option but to start again, from scratch. Another learning experience was early on, using standard masking tape, which peeled what I’d done back. Using a better, less sticky masking tape, gave better results. I spent at least 100 hours on the painting, endless masking, flatting, masking, spraying, flatting, remasking. Having never done it before I didn’t know if it would work out. I’m chuffed to bits with how the paint has turned out. So much so that I quite fancy doing more painting. Next month: Part 2 – engine, shine and first time out.
Words & Photographs: Sarge Additional images: Paul Lowden