#1 Thread starter
After munce of research, fretting (and not on my guitar), conniving and planning, I finally removed my front confirminators. Yes, the huge and dangerously protruding DumboEars / Madonna ConeBras / Orange Boobies have been consigned to the depths of my tool cupboard (about 10cm, coz it's pretty shallow).
My criteria for the operation were as follows:
The Toymotor blinker-thingies were too small, too expensive ($59 each!) and had "Toymotor" deeply embossed on them.
The TGB indicators were beautiful, but mounting them was problematic, and they were $55 each - a gross rip-off, given they were made in China and the scooter only costs marginally more than that.
The "perfect LED indicators" from Oxford looked like putting irons, and were totally unsuitable.
Then I found some on TardMe (or is it "TradeMe"?) that were OK, and only NZ$42 / ~US$29.48 - (turns out I could've gone direct to the shop, and bought them for NZ$35/pair). So, I bought them, and travelled direct to the shop (about 22 miles return), and picked them up, to save $5 postage.
How to mount? Hmmmm.... I was going to buy some ABS (or scrounge some from a wrecker) and paint it to match the fairings, but (however) the paint is a two-parter: silver/blue then blue/purplish/clear, and despite 40 minutes of mixing and feeedling, the paint supplies guys decided I would be better off not painting them, and sent me on my way, paintless.
The wreckers had no plastic, but the dumpster next door had several cut-up car bumpers, so I grabbed part of one (about 10 times the size I needed). This seemed to be made of some rubbery, flexible plastic about 3 or 4mm thick, painted silver (SILVER!) on one side.
I made a template by doing a pencil rubbing of the confirminatorectomied fairing, and cut the bumper plastic very roughly to size with my teeth, before grinding it on the bench grinder and removing a few mm of thickness on the edges using the buffer wheel. By buffing an inch or two till it melted/abraded off, then scraping the effluvium with my thumbnail, I eventually got these to fit quite tightly. When I was finished, I cleaned and sharpened my teeth on the buffer.
The shiny silver blanking plates looked like shiny silver poo, and so I decided to take the Paint Guys' advice and make them black.
Ish.
I had no suitable black paint, so I cut some.... ahem.... faux carbon fibre film (sorry, Trace unsure.gif ) to size, scraped all the silver paint off, stuck the film on, and used the heat gun to smoothey it down. I drilled a hole at the pointy end coinciding with the hole where the locating tab thingie (tech term) of the boobinators goes, and put a stainless-steel screw through it, with a washer and nut behind the fairing.
The new confirminators have a large (30mm?) stalk behind, with a plastic nut on it. I used this and a scrap of car bumper behind each plate to hold it in place.
Viola! (A small musical implement).
Wotchoothinkonit? The WifeAccountantPorcupinePillionist hates them, and thinks they're dangerously small (probably right), but at least the bike looks better/slimmer from front on, and they are less likely to trash the fairing if the bike decides to lie down for a wee snooze.
Before:
[image: frontsmall.jpg]
After:
[image: nc_front.jpg]
[image: nc_34ths.jpg]
My criteria for the operation were as follows:
- They had to be less protrusive
- They had to be cheap
- The mod had to be reversible
- The had to not cost too much
- I needed at least partial (grudging) approval from the WifeAccountantPorcupinePillionist.
- Preferably, they needed to be clear.
- Vespa ET4 / ET8 confirminators
- Toyota Echo/Yaris side blinker-thingies
- TGB 303 scooter front confirminators
- Some "LED indicators made by Oxford that are just right, and only NZ$35 each".
The Toymotor blinker-thingies were too small, too expensive ($59 each!) and had "Toymotor" deeply embossed on them.
The TGB indicators were beautiful, but mounting them was problematic, and they were $55 each - a gross rip-off, given they were made in China and the scooter only costs marginally more than that.
The "perfect LED indicators" from Oxford looked like putting irons, and were totally unsuitable.
Then I found some on TardMe (or is it "TradeMe"?) that were OK, and only NZ$42 / ~US$29.48 - (turns out I could've gone direct to the shop, and bought them for NZ$35/pair). So, I bought them, and travelled direct to the shop (about 22 miles return), and picked them up, to save $5 postage.
How to mount? Hmmmm.... I was going to buy some ABS (or scrounge some from a wrecker) and paint it to match the fairings, but (however) the paint is a two-parter: silver/blue then blue/purplish/clear, and despite 40 minutes of mixing and feeedling, the paint supplies guys decided I would be better off not painting them, and sent me on my way, paintless.
The wreckers had no plastic, but the dumpster next door had several cut-up car bumpers, so I grabbed part of one (about 10 times the size I needed). This seemed to be made of some rubbery, flexible plastic about 3 or 4mm thick, painted silver (SILVER!) on one side.
I made a template by doing a pencil rubbing of the confirminatorectomied fairing, and cut the bumper plastic very roughly to size with my teeth, before grinding it on the bench grinder and removing a few mm of thickness on the edges using the buffer wheel. By buffing an inch or two till it melted/abraded off, then scraping the effluvium with my thumbnail, I eventually got these to fit quite tightly. When I was finished, I cleaned and sharpened my teeth on the buffer.
The shiny silver blanking plates looked like shiny silver poo, and so I decided to take the Paint Guys' advice and make them black.
Ish.
I had no suitable black paint, so I cut some.... ahem.... faux carbon fibre film (sorry, Trace unsure.gif ) to size, scraped all the silver paint off, stuck the film on, and used the heat gun to smoothey it down. I drilled a hole at the pointy end coinciding with the hole where the locating tab thingie (tech term) of the boobinators goes, and put a stainless-steel screw through it, with a washer and nut behind the fairing.
The new confirminators have a large (30mm?) stalk behind, with a plastic nut on it. I used this and a scrap of car bumper behind each plate to hold it in place.
Viola! (A small musical implement).
Wotchoothinkonit? The WifeAccountantPorcupinePillionist hates them, and thinks they're dangerously small (probably right), but at least the bike looks better/slimmer from front on, and they are less likely to trash the fairing if the bike decides to lie down for a wee snooze.
Before:
[image: frontsmall.jpg]
After:
[image: nc_front.jpg]
[image: nc_34ths.jpg]
![[image: frontsmall.jpg]](http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~cam4/frontsmall.jpg){kind=link}
![[image: nc_front.jpg]](http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~cam4/nc_front.jpg){kind=link}
![[image: nc_34ths.jpg]](http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~cam4/nc_34ths.jpg){kind=link}
![[image: nc_closeup.jpg]](http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~cam4/nc_closeup.jpg){kind=link}