Feature scooter: Witches Brew
Tessa Abraham and her husband Lee have a wealth of knowledge, credibility and integrity on the scootering scene. The specialists they’ve involved in the development of Witches Brew includes a line-up of probably some of the finest in the country…
Witches Brew is the result of hard work, research, an eye for detail, accuracy and authenticity. Turn to p14 and see for yourself…
Beginnings
Witches Brew is the result of hard work, research, an eye for detail, accuracy and authenticity. Tessa Abraham is no stranger to the custom scooter scene; she got her first scooter, a Vespa PX125 in 1984 and her more recent ride (inspired by the 1977 track, Loving is Really My Game) is her fantastic Vespa P200E ‘Brainstorm’, which for the past few years has been picking up awards at custom shows all over the country. The theme for Witches Brew is poles apart from the glitz and sparkle of Brainstorm, which begs the question: where did the inspiration for the choice of the theme come from?
“We love the 70s scene and it was mainly Vespas that kept the scene going through the 70s. Also during that time, as a youngster growing up near Burnley Lee, I used to see the scooters from Burnley and Pendle Scooter Club riding round the town where he lived,” Tessa explained.
Pendle Hill
The original design of the Burnley and Pendle Scooter Club patch and shield drew inspiration from the trials of the Pendle Witches in 1612. “The darkness of the story describes how the 12 accused witches lived in the area surrounding Pendle Hill. They were charged with the murders of 10 people by the use of witchcraft and the ones found guilty were executed by hanging,” Lee explained.
Vespa Rally
“The choice of the model of the scooter for Witches Brew was always going to be a Vespa Rally. At the time, the Rally Electronic was probably one of the biggest steps forward and the Northern scooter scene was massive, with scooterists riding the length and breadth of the UK preQuadrophenia. Also some of the best customs have been Vespas: Worlds Apart, Little Rascal and Enchanted Dream and we wanted to explore this again,” Lee added. With the basics of the concept established the development of the project began to take shape when late in 2017 Lee and Tessa bought the Vespa Rally 180, which would become Witches Brew.
Gathering the detail
Lee and Tessa knew that the detail for Witches Brew had to be authentic and factually correct. “We wanted the scooter to be a modern day representation of the scooters of the 70s of Burnley and Pendle Scooter Club. There was a lot of research, which needed to be done if we were going to succeed with this project,” they explained. With this in mind, Lee contacted Paul McDevitt from Burnley and Pendle SC who was able to supply him with period 70s photos of scooters from the club. Not only did the photos show the paint schemes of the day they also showed the detail of the accessories the scooters were fitted with. To follow this up and to maintain the accuracy of the detail Lee and Tessa approached Iain Wilkins (aka Arfa Francis) to help out with sourcing and producing period accessories for the scooter.
As well as the photos of the original 70s scooters, Paul also provided Lee with photos of the club’s original wooden rear shield and club patches, which Lee was able to work from to start developing an authentic reproduction rear shield for the scooter.
Knocks, dents and splits
While all this was going on, Lee and Tessa had a meeting with Gary Cooper at MD Machine and briefed him on their chosen paint scheme for Witches Brew.
“The scooter came to me as grotty looking shell,” Gary explained. “The brief was for me to work from images which Lee and Tessa provided me with and ones which they had in their mind. After that, Lee and Tessa gave me free rein to add my own personal touches to the project.”
The scooter was stripped down to its bare metal and the knocks, dents and splits in the bodywork were repaired. Once this was done, Gary applied etched primer and surface products to make it ready for the first coats. A silver base coat was applied, which was then followed by chrome metal-flake, and a couple of coats of clear lacquer; this was then flattened back and made ready for the colour and artwork.