Wednesday 4 May 2011

Registration & approval day

Finally, the day had come!

08:00 sharp I went to "Statens Vegvesen" to get the bike approved and registered.

08:10 they found out that an important piece of paper was missing. F**k. When importing the scooter from Sweden I paid VAT at the customs office at Ørje, but they failed to give me the correct form which Statens Vegvesen needs for even starting the approval. F**k. How could I know that the form I got was not the correct one? F**k!!!

After a telephone call and a visit to the local customs office in Stavanger, I actually managed to obtain a copy of the missing document, and returned to Statens vegvesen around 09:30. But I was out of luck, they didn't have time to help me.

New appointment is scheduled for May 13th. Only problem is that I am on Cyprus then... But one problem at a time.

I need to get the bike registered before May 18th, we leave for Vespa World Days in Gjøvik then. This is going to be a close call...

Monday 2 May 2011

Painting tank


Todays work: Spraypainted the new tank and some other small details. Lacking a proper place to spray paint, the work was done outside. The spray paint nozzle provided with the paint produced a very wide spray conus compared to an ordinary spray can.  Except for that the spray was easily distributed, and the result looks OK. Some dust was to be expected when spraying outside.

Small parts also sprayed.


Also took the opportunity to paint over some bruises on the Rally itself with a pencil.  The color I chose is very close to the original color, but not 100%. Will have to check again when it has dried up, and in broad daylight. 

Now I just hope the tank will be dry and hardened enough before tomorrow night, so that I can install it before the Approval on Wednesday. 

Sunday 1 May 2011

Rally colors part 2 + some electric diagnostics


This is my struggle. No match. I'm leaning towards the Lacquer Red.

On the next picture, I've added the swatched with tape and no white just right from the spare wheel (the tubeless tire by the way, had to check if the 2,5" rim fitted, which it does), where the white line is. Still no match in broad daylight.


Over to option 2. The guy from VespaPaintCodes.com has emailed me back, and we've struck a deal for some red color codes translated from the Max Meyer codes. Off to the local paint shop.

But: The local paint shop couldn't mix the codes, even if they supply Dupont paint. They've obviously got another Dupont system. Dah. Running out of options here. When explaining my frustration to the paint shop clerk, he showed me a suitcase of red swatches, which they didn't show me the last time I was there. I was possibly saved!

Out of the suitcase I found the closest match in the red - orange flavour, and got a spraycan mixed.

This was a few days ago. Today, the tank lid was taken from the original tank and sandblasted in it's atomic parts, and both the lid and new tank got a fresh primer layer.  


The handlebar covers and some blind plugs received same treatment. As soon as the weather permits it, the parts will be painted. Hopefully tomorrow, as the parts must dry properly before installing them in the Rally again.

ELECTRIC UPDATE.

The electrics on the Rally confuses me. Since it's a battery model, the horn is 6V AC while the rest of the lights are 6V DC.

Up until now, the lights have in some way functioned, but the horn didn't. And there was no way of turning off the lights completely.

Short version: I've not been successful in finding the correct Rally wiring diagram. Several wiring diagrams exist, but not correspond to the one I have for some reason.

I've done some testing with the the wiring above, testing the functions by swapping the cables around.

The result so far: Switching the two cables providing the horn signal gave much better light, but the functions are not quite right yet. I'm not able to turn off the light. The speedo light is only working in one position; the wrong one by the way. The horn still doesn't work, when I've previously got it to work in one position etc.

I've ordered some new light control panels, as I think this unit might have been replaced with a wrong unit.
But: As far as getting the bike approved, this will hopefully only provide a punch which has to be corrected at a later stage. Only a couple of days left now...